Genocide Watch warns of cultural erasure and forced detention of Uyghurs

Washington DC [US], December 21 : Washington-based non-governmental organisation Genocide Watch recently published an article on its website titled "Genocide Emergency: Xinjiang, China 2025". The report highlighted the ongoing persecution of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where approximately twelve million Uyghurs live. According to Genocide Watch, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pursuing a systematic campaign to assimilate Uyghurs, replacing their culture, language, and religious traditions with Han Chinese culture and communist ideology. Uyghur social and political institutions are being dismantled and replaced with CCP-controlled structures, eroding the community's identity and autonomy.

The article said that since the 1990s, millions of Han Chinese have been resettled in Xinjiang under the "Big Development of the Northwest Plan," intensifying demographic and cultural pressures on the Uyghur population. The CCP has detained hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of Uyghurs in so-called "reeducation" centres, while Han Chinese monitors are forcibly placed in Uyghur homes to suppress dissent. According to Genocide Watch, Officials justify these measures as "counterterrorism" efforts, but evidence shows they target Uyghurs as an ethnic and religious group.

As reported by Genocide Watch, the repression has deep historical roots. In 1997, the banning of Uyghur traditional celebrations led to protests that were violently suppressed, resulting in over 200 deaths and mass arrests. In 2009, ethnic clashes in Urumqi further escalated tensions, leaving at least 200 dead. Today, Xinjiang is one of the most heavily surveilled regions in the world. Uyghurs are monitored through AI-driven systems, biometric data collection, and pervasive "convenience police stations" that control movement and enforce CCP policies.

The article further said that since 2017, an estimated 800,000 to 2 million Uyghurs have been detained in mass detention facilities, where they face forced political indoctrination, physical abuse, sexual violence, and systematic cultural erasure. The Uyghur language is banned in these centres, and detainees are coerced to abandon Islam. Many mosques have been destroyed, further restricting religious practice and freedom.

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