Persecution of Uyghurs in China

Critics of China 's treatment of Uyghurs have accused the Chinese government of propagating a policy of sinicization in Xinjiang in the 21st century, calling this policy an ethnocide or a cultural genocide of Uyghurs. In particular, they have highlighted the concentration of Uyghurs in state-sponsored re-education camps , suppression of Uyghur religious practices and testimonials of alleged human rights abuses. ""'Cultural genocide': China separating thousands of Muslim children from parents for 'thought education'" - The Independent, 5 July 2019" . ""'Cultural genocide' for repressed minority of Uighurs" - The Times 17 December 2019" . " "China's Oppression of the Uighurs 'The Equivalent of Cultural Genocide'" - 28 November 2019" . " "Fear and oppression in Xinjiang: China's war on Uighur culture" - Financial Times 12 September 2019" . The Uyghur Minority in China: A Case Study of Cultural Genocide, Minority Rights and the Insufficiency of the International Legal Framework in Preventing State-Imposed Extinction" November 2019" . " "China's crime against Uyghurs is a form of genocide" - Summer 2019" . To put it another way, in round numbers, essentially all breeding age men have been physically separated from wives and potential breeding partners. This policy, if sustained over a period of years, would produce a "birth dearth" that would eliminate the Uyghurs as a people, in the absence of young people to carry on their cultural traditions. This is genocide, with Chinese Characteristics. "Canadian went to China to debunk reports of anti-Muslim repression, but was 'shocked' by treatment of Uyghurs" .

Series of human rights abuses against an ethnic group in Western China "Xinjiang genocide" redirects here. Beginning in 2014, the Chinese government, under the administration of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping , incarcerated more than an estimated one million Turkic Muslims without any legal process in internment camps . Operations from 2016 to 2021 were led by Xinjiang CCP Secretary Chen Quanguo , who dramatically increased the scale and scope of the camps. It is the largest-scale detention of ethnic and religious minorities since World War II . Experts estimate that, since 2017, some sixteen thousand mosques have been razed or damaged, and hundreds of thousands of children have been forcibly separated from their parents and sent to boarding schools . Government policies have included the arbitrary detention of Uyghurs in state-sponsored internment camps, forced labor , suppression of Uyghur religious practices , political indoctrination , severe ill-treatment, forced sterilization , forced contraception , and forced abortion . Chinese government statistics reported that from 2015 to 2018, birth rates in the mostly Uyghur regions of Hotan and Kashgar fell by more than 60%. In the same period, the birth rate of the whole country decreased by 9.69%. Chinese authorities acknowledged that birth rates dropped by almost a third in 2018 in Xinjiang, but denied reports of forced sterilization and genocide. Birth rates in Xinjiang fell a further 24% in 2019, compared to a nationwide decrease of 4.2%. These actions have been described as the forced assimilation of Xinjiang, or as an ethnocide or cultural genocide , or as genocide. Those accusing China of genocide point to intentional acts committed by the Chinese government that they say run afoul of Article II of the Genocide Convention , which prohibits "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part," a "racial or religious group" including "causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group" and "measures intended to prevent births within the group". The Chinese government denies having committed human rights abuses in Xinjiang. In an assessment by the UN Human Rights Office , the United Nations (UN) stated that China's policies and actions in the Xinjiang region may be crimes against humanity , although it did not use the term genocide. In 2020, 39 UN member states issued statements to the United Nations Human Rights Council criticizing China's policies, while 45 countries supported China's "deradicalization measures in Xinjiang" and opposed "the politicization of human rights issues and double standards". In December 2020, a case brought to the International Criminal Court was dismissed because the crimes alleged appeared to have been "committed solely by nationals of China within the territory of China, a State which is not a party to the Statute ", meaning the ICC could not investigate them. The United States has declared the human rights abuses a genocide, announcing its finding on January 19, 2021, though the United States Department of State found that there is insufficient evidence to support that characterization. Legislatures in several countries have since passed non-binding motions describing China's actions as genocide, including the House of Commons of Canada , the Dutch parliament , the House of Commons of the United Kingdom , the Seimas of Lithuania , and the French National Assembly . Other parliaments, such as those in New Zealand , Belgium , and the Czech Republic condemned the Chinese government's treatment of Uyghurs as "severe human rights abuses" or crimes against humanity . The Brown Journal of World Affairs . 28 (1). It is the largest mass internment of an ethnic-religious minority group since World War II. The Journal of Political Risk . 7 (7). China's Abuses Against the Uyghurs" . " 'Cultural genocide': China separating thousands of Muslim children from parents for 'thought education' " . The Uyghur Minority in China: A Case Study of Cultural Genocide, Minority Rights and the Insufficiency of the International Legal Framework in Preventing State-Imposed Extinction" . International Consortium of Investigative Journalists . "Legal expert: forced birth control of Uighur women is genocide – can China be put on trial?" . Text of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide , website of the UNHCHR . Report on China's Abuses Is Long-Awaited Vindication" . The New York Times . Human Rights Watch . 31 August 2022 . International Criminal Court . 14 December 2020 . The Wall Street Journal . A substantial majority of MPs — including most Liberals who participated — voted in favour of a Conservative motion that says China's actions in its western Xinjiang region meet the definition of genocide set out in the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. ... The final tally was 266 in favour and zero opposed. "Parliament unanimously declares 'severe human rights abuses' occurring against Uyghur in China" .