UYGHURS

About:

• The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group who live in East and Central Asia.
  
  
• They live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, where they are one of 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities.
  
  
• Uyghurs primarily practice Islam.
  
  

Recent Controversy: Report by The Economist

• According to a recent report by The Economist, Uyghurs in Xinjiang suffer under a “fully-fledged police state” with extensive controls and restrictions upon their religious, cultural and social life.
  
  
• At least 120,000 Uyghurs are detained in mass detention camps, which aims at changing the political thinking, identities and religious beliefs of detainees.
  
  
• China’s response:
  • China has called the reports “completely untrue”, saying that they are “education and training centres”.
    
    
  • It also pointed to a series of attacks in Xinjiang by suspected Islamist radicals in recent years as justification for a clampdown in a region.