The History

China, whose majority ethnic group is the Han Chinese, has 55 ethnic minorities, one of them being the Uyghurs. The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic group that live in the northwestern region of China, known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. For the Uyghurs, however, the region is called East Turkestan. One important thing to note about the Uyghurs is that they are Sunni Muslim.

In the late 19th century the Chinese, under Manchu rule, annexed East Turkestan. In 1949, the Uyghurs declared their independence; however, this was short lived due to Mao Zedong’s rise to power. Since then, Xinjiang has become a part of Communist China and has remained subject to harsh treatment by the Chinese government. 

For the most part, the government has left Xinjiang relatively alone, having their own internal conflicts to deal with. However, as the years went on and China became more Communist the laws and regulations enforced on the region did not please the Uyghurs. Around the 1990’s when many Central Asian Muslim countries began declaring their own independence, the Uyghurs protested in the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Following these protests, the government made reforms to their policies, making them even stricter than before. Beijing started to — and still does — keep tight surveillance in the area, increasing the amount of police and military presence. Along with tight surveillance, Beijing encouraged Han Chinese to move into the area as a way to maintain strength in the region.

With the rise of Han population, Xinjiang’s economy began to grow immensely; however, the wealth remained among the Han. Uyghurs in the area live in an impoverished state, despite the flourishing economy around them and this isn’t even the worst of their problems.

In 2009, again the Uyghurs held public protests in Urumqi, this time as a reaction to the Han immigration in the area and the constant economic and social discriminations that they were facing. 200 people were killed during these protests, the majority of them Han. This incident was the turning point for how Beijing would come to treat the Uyghurs.