The campaign of repression against the Uyghurs has entered a new phase.
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In August 2024, the parents of Ekpar Asat made a long journey to a prison in the Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Asat, who belongs to the Uyghur ethnic group, was detained by authorities in April 2016 on charges of “inciting ethnic hatred”. The founder of a popular Uyghur-language website, he had recently returned from attending a prestigious leadership programme in the US.
The May visit was the first time Asat’s parents had seen him in person since his disappearance, and he had lost so much weight he was “unrecognisable”, his sister Rayhan later said.
The meeting lasted barely 10 minutes and was done through a glass window, according to human rights groups. The family was forced to speak in Chinese — a language Ekpar is fluent in, but his parents barely speak — and not permitted to show any emotion. “Prisoners have to be always happy,” Rayhan tells the FT.
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Analysis suggests that the Chinese state’s campaign of oppression against Uyghurs and their culture and identity has in fact entered a new phase. While many camps have shut, a vast network of prisons and detention centres remains, alongside pervasive surveillance and systems of coercive social control.
It shows Xinjiang has the world’s highest prison detention capacity relative to its population size — evidence that authorities continue to rely on mass incarceration. Researchers and rights groups say repression in the region now extends towards the long-term remaking of Uyghur society.
Beijing has expanded labour transfer programmes that move Uyghurs into factory work elsewhere in the country — schemes UN experts say can amount to forced labour. This places multinational corporations that work in China in a challenging situation, as Beijing is also making it increasingly difficult and dangerous for companies to perform due diligence in their supply chains so they do not target Uyghur rights.
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Researchers say the campaign reflects Beijing’s drive to assimilate Uyghurs into mainstream Han Chinese identity amid rising nationalism under Xi Jinping.
Uyghurs’ distinct language, culture and Islamic faith create a “degree of insecurity that has only intensified as China has begun taking this profoundly nationalistic turn”, says historian Hannah Theaker. “They just want to force them to be Chinese,” adds Peter Irwin, co-executive director of the Network for Uyghur Rights.
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Xinjiang is also strategically important to Beijing, as it straddles trade routes linking China to Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, while holding large reserves of coal, oil and gas. “They see it as an economic engine for the country,” Irwin says.
China continues to frame its policies in Xinjiang as essential to security and stability. In a speech last year, Xi stressed the need for readiness in “combating terrorism”. State media said Xi also called for religions to “conform to China’s realities” and for officials and ethnic groups to “develop a correct view” of the country, its history, nation, culture and religion.
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China tightly controls information from the region, censoring online material, restricting travel and intimidating Uyghurs abroad through threats against relatives back home. But the FT was able to gather a picture of the current situation from human rights observers, members of the diaspora, and people who recently left China and witnessed the mechanisms used to control Uyghurs.
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Human rights researchers believe many facilities remain occupied. More than 578,000 people were prosecuted in Xinjiang between 2017 and 2022, according to figures compiled by the Uyghur Human Rights Project from official data. Given China’s conviction rate of more than 99.9 per cent and the long prison terms handed down during the crackdown, researchers believe many of those sentenced are likely still imprisoned.
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The figures suggest that if Xinjiang were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in the world, at 1,944 per 100,000 people. China’s nationwide rate is 119 per 100,000 people, according to the World Prison Brief.
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Uyghurs interviewed by the FT say large parts of their families have been detained. Nureli Abliz, a former telecoms worker in Xinjiang, estimates that roughly 70 per cent of his extended family remain in custody.
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The campaign to assimilate Uyghurs into mainstream Han Chinese culture is reshaping a generation, particularly children separated from their families through Xinjiang’s vast boarding school system.
Boarding schools have long existed across the region, often justified by authorities as a way to provide education in rural areas. But official documents also describe them as a way to teach children Mandarin and “[block] the influence of the family’s religious atmosphere”.
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Uyghur activists say the removal of children from their families and communities is creating a “generation gap” in which many no longer understand their language and culture. Lessons are taught in Mandarin, and families say children are not allowed to speak Uyghur.
“Young children lose their language skills very quickly,” says Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist and activist. In one family, he says, siblings learnt different Mandarin dialects from their respective teachers. “Now the children can’t communicate with one another.”
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A new law downgrades languages other than Mandarin, encourages inter-ethnic marriage and requires parents to raise children to “love the Chinese Communist Party”.
“Everything that once reflected Uyghur civilisation — our culture, our language — has been wiped out,” says a Uyghur man who recently visited the region from the US.
