Photo: BBC
The history of the Uyghur people is a complex and dynamic narrative that warrants a multidisciplinary academic approach to fully grasp the events unfolding today. However, a critical historical juncture for understanding the genocide against the Uyghurs begins in the mid-20th century, with the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War.
On October 1, 1949, when Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, a new chapter of Chinese history began—one that remains active today through ongoing socio-economic changes. Just six years after modern China was placed on the map, Mao annexed East Turkestan and renamed it Xinjiang, a name which remains in official use for the region.
Photo: campaignforuyghurs.org
As history has shown time and again, unless a region holds strategic importance, the motivation for annexation typically lies in the conquest of its natural resources. This was indeed the case with Xinjiang. This vast region—spanning 1.665 million square kilometers—is rich in energy resources, minerals, rare earth metals, and cotton, all of which were crucial for the People’s Republic of China and the strategic plans of its then-supreme leader. This can be considered the primary reason behind China’s desire to control both Xinjiang and its population. Additionally, the region serves as a key route for China’s strategic westward expansion into Europe and beyond.
Emerging Social Tensions
The Uyghur people, who have inhabited the region for centuries, did not share Beijing’s vision for their future for several fundamental reasons. First, the new name “Xinjiang” was deeply unpalatable to them. Their identification with the name “East Turkestan” was far more entrenched than with “Xinjiang,” which translates to “New Territory.” Second, although Xinjiang was granted the status of an autonomous region within China, its government remained fully answerable to Beijing, rendering the concept of autonomy meaningless. Third, the region’s vast natural resources were entirely controlled by the Communist Party, which favored Han Chinese settlers who occupied the key positions in Xinjiang’s political, economic, and social life. Fourth, the Uyghurs’ religious identity had no place in the new Chinese order.
To alter the region’s ethnic composition, the Chinese Communist Party encouraged mass migration of Han Chinese to Xinjiang after 1949. The aim was to establish Han dominance, making it easier to assert control over the territory. Unsurprisingly, Beijing justified this demographic shift as a move to “stabilize” the region.
In the decades that followed, Uyghur discontent and tension grew, leading to the formation of the East Turkestan People’s Revolutionary Party in the 1960s, which reportedly found allies in the Soviet Union. While the 1980s saw a brief period of relative improvement in the social climate for Uyghurs, by the mid-1990s Beijing had intensified its grip, ushering in an era of heightened control and discrimination that laid the groundwork for a police state in Xinjiang, which would peak in the late 2010s.
It is true that the East Turkestan People’s Revolutionary Party employed terrorist tactics to pursue its goals. However, it is crucial to recognize that the Chinese Communist Party’s oppressive policies were the primary catalyst for such actions. Nevertheless, this in no way justifies the scale or severity of the atrocities committed—and still being committed—against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government launched an aggressive campaign in the 1990s against what it termed the “three evils”—terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism. A core part of this campaign involved equating Islam and traditional Uyghur practices with backwardness, primitiveness, and terrorism. In this framework, even the very existence of the Uyghur identity was branded as a threat, making the campaign appear a “legitimate and necessary” means of resolving the crisis in Xinjiang.
One could argue that Beijing’s treatment of the Uyghurs bears all the hallmarks of genocide. After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Chinese government took a more aggressive stance in shaping this narrative. Following unrest in 2008, nearly 1,300 Uyghurs were arrested on charges of terrorism, religious extremism, and other threats to national security.
Photo: heritage.org
Establishing a Police State in Xinjiang
The persecution and discrimination of Uyghurs by Chinese authorities has roots that stretch back before the 20th century. However, the year 2014 marked a turning point in the evolution of a more systematic and intensified campaign of repression—one that persists to this day.
“In recent years, particularly since 2017, millions of people have disappeared into detention centers—what we call concentration camps. These are double-fenced with barbed wire, guarded by armed police. Inside, people are subjected to torture, both psychological and physical, forced political indoctrination, and compelled to abandon their national identity and religious beliefs. All of this is part of China’s genocidal policy,” says Rushan Abbas, a Uyghur-American activist. “They even carry out forced sterilizations of elderly women, forced abortions, and the mass removal of over a million children from their families to be placed in state-run villages.”
When we examine the five elements of genocide as defined by the United Nations, even one is sufficient to classify a situation as genocide. The campaign against the Uyghurs meets several.
This discrimination is most evident in the systemic destruction of Uyghur traditions and culture in Xinjiang. A 2023 report by Human Rights Watch and the Norwegian Uyghur organization “Uyghur Hjelp” detailed the renaming of over 630 villages whose names bore Islamic or Uyghur historical and cultural significance. In this context, the destruction of mosques, cemeteries, and other sacred sites, as well as bans on religious practices, become unsurprising. In education, the total suppression of the Uyghur language is a key component of Beijing’s efforts to combat so-called radical Islamism. Bilingual education does not exist; only Mandarin Chinese is used, both in schools and in public life.
In an interview conducted last year, one respondent shared:
“The situation has remained the same since 2017. The only thing that has changed is how they’ve polished the surface to make it seem as though Uyghurs live happy, peaceful lives. What the Chinese government shows is dancing, singing, and scenes of normal life in Urumqi, Ghulja, Kashgar, and other cities. But we know millions are still behind bars—some in concentration camps, most in prisons. These innocent people—artists, singers, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens—are serving long sentences. Many are subjected to forced labor. Those not detained are often placed under so-called poverty alleviation programs, forcibly relocated to inland China to work in industries ranging from seafood and electronics to textiles, garments, and even automobiles,” said Rahima Mahmut, executive director of the organization “Stop Uyghur Genocide.”
Photo: Tačno.net / Rahima Mahmut
What do such practices mean for the people affected by them? History offers countless examples of the devastating consequences for populations subjected to cultural repression. The Chinese government’s assault on Uyghur language and traditions is just one layer; their true ambitions run much deeper.
Photo: Reuters / Policajci s pojasevima drže plakate tijekom ceremonije nagrađivanja onih za koje vlasti kažu da su sudjelovali u “suzbijanju nasilja i terorističkih aktivnosti” u kineskoj autonomnoj regiji Xinjiang Uyghur.
To further suppress Uyghur culture and customs, the Chinese authorities also intervened in reproductive policies. Their goal to ensure Han dominance in Xinjiang appears to include forcibly reducing the Uyghur birth rate. According to a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), between 2017 and 2019 the number of Uyghur births in western China dropped by 49%. The United Nations reports that such a decline is unprecedented in the 75 years it has kept such records. Forced abortions and sterilizations of Uyghur women are among the horrific tools Beijing is using to enforce a form of racism eerily reminiscent of Nazi Germany. The only difference lies in the era and methods—eugenics, it seems, never went out of style.
China is now arguably the global leader in implementing transhumanist policies. The lack of democracy and the ideological uniformity that defines Chinese governance make it easier to impose a technological dystopia—one whose primary victims are the Uyghurs, though ordinary Chinese citizens are not spared either.
A brief video linked below explains China’s surveillance system, known as “Dahua,” which is only one aspect of the techno-social darkness the Chinese Communist Party sees nothing wrong with.
Video: IPVM
Xinjiang is among the most heavily surveilled regions in the world, with smart cameras using biometric data (facial features, gait, facial expressions, etc.) to identify Uyghurs as potential suspects. AI-powered “predictive policing” creates blacklists to determine who might be detained or interrogated. It is not uncommon for these cameras to be installed in front of private homes, and through smartphones, Chinese authorities track movements, calls, messages, and even activity on the IJOP surveillance app.
Online restrictions imposed on the Uyghurs mirror the harsh limitations they face offline. Reading or sharing religious content, criticizing the government, posting about the repression, or communicating with relatives abroad are all punishable offenses.
China’s social credit system evaluates citizens’ loyalty by analyzing behavior—not limited to Uyghurs but applied to all Chinese citizens. Those with low scores face restricted travel, employment difficulties, and obstacles in daily life. Individuals deemed suspicious by AI algorithms can be sent to concentration camps under the guise of “re-education.”
Photo: Gilles Sabrié—The New York Times/Redux
Concentration Camps for Uyghurs
The Chinese government has denied the existence of these camps and any forced labor in Xinjiang. Officially, Beijing claims they are “vocational education and deradicalization centers.”
However, countless Uyghur testimonies and satellite imagery reveal the truth. Over one million, possibly more, Uyghurs are held in these camps, whose primary purpose is political indoctrination and forced labor—violations of international law.
People are detained for actions as minor as growing a beard, contacting relatives abroad, or praying. None of them receive a trial, a defense, or even formal charges. Uyghurs are forced to work in various industries—textile, fashion, electronics, agriculture, and food production—ultimately supplying global markets.
In one of our previous interviews, we heard the story of Yerbakyt Otarbay, a Kazakh national who survived a Chinese forced labor camp. He was detained for having the messaging app WhatsApp, which is banned. In an interview with Tačno.net, he described his ordeal:
“I was imprisoned for 89 days with shackles on my hands and feet. They never removed them. Then 27 of us were transferred from the prison to a concentration camp. They said our ‘performance’ in prison had been acceptable, so we were being moved to an educational camp.”
Photo: Tačno.net / Yerbakyt Otarbay
During weekly interrogations, the questions were always the same:
“Once a week in the camp, we were interrogated by police. Our hands were tied behind our backs, and we had shackles on our feet. Why did you go to Kazakhstan? Do you pray? Did you attend a mosque? Did you study Islam? Do you know anyone we should know about? The same questions, over and over again,” Otarbay recounted.
The Chinese Communist Party’s repression of Uyghurs is not confined to its national borders. Uyghurs in the diaspora are also targeted through intimidation, surveillance, abductions, and diplomatic pressure. The main goal of these efforts is to suppress awareness of the repression, forcibly repatriate Uyghurs, and discredit Uyghur organizations and activists globally.
Regarding China’s long-term plans for the Uyghurs, Rushan Abbas states:
“The long-term objective is essentially to depopulate our homeland, which is vast—one-sixth of all of China. We call it East Turkestan; China calls it Xinjiang, meaning ‘New Territory.’ That one-sixth is now the strategic core of Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative. This initiative is China’s blueprint for global dominance and expansion, and our homeland is the gateway to Central Asia, the Balkans, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.”
Photo: Tačno.net / Rushan Abbas
Many countries around the world have publicly condemned the Uyghur genocide. In 2021, the U.S. State Department officially labeled the repression as genocide.
One year earlier, then-Senator Marco Rubio of Florida delivered a speech in the Senate offering hope to Uyghurs both in China and across the globe. He urged Congress to pass the “Uyghur Act” to counter China’s crackdown on Xinjiang. In his address, he also called out American companies that enable the presence of Xinjiang-made products on U.S. shelves.
Considering all that has been stated, it is fair to say that Marco Rubio is one of the few officials who has consistently condemned the treatment of the Uyghurs.
Video: Forbes Breaking News
On the other hand, if you ask DeepSeek—China’s latest AI model—about the Uyghur genocide, the Chinese government, or Xinjiang, you’ll receive an answer like this:
DeepSeek screenshot
China is a country that will go down in history for its denial of the Uyghur genocide—and as we now see, it has even built an algorithm to help with that.
The Uyghur community in Xinjiang is the first ethnic group to be subjected to such an extensive degree of technological repression, in addition to physical abuse and restrictions. Despite international condemnation and sanctions, little has changed. The question remains: how will the world respond to China—a major player on every front of the global geopolitical stage?
