China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, say human rights groups
China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, say human rights groups
The Facts
According to a new report from Human Rights Watch and Norway-based Uyghur Hjelp, China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, removing religious, historical, and cultural references as part of a crackdown.
The researchers uncovered this finding through the process of extracting data from China's National Bureau of Statistics website. They found that Beijing began stamping out Uyghur names in 2009 and onward for those that reflect government propaganda.
The Spin
The renaming of Uyghur cities and villages in Xinjiang is Beijing's latest attempt to eradicate Uyghur religious, historical, and cultural references. This has been going on since 2014, when the Chinese government launched its campaign against the Uyghur minority in Xinjian. Reports of unlawful systematic detention, torture, forced labor, mass surveillance, sexual assault, and even genocide against the Uyghur minority followed. All major crimes against humanity. The international community should step up ef
Nations with an anti-China agenda have consistently concocted misinformation about what is really going on in Xinjiang. The PRC's policies are not about human rights or religion; they are about counterterrorism and combating Islamic threats. As Washington intensifies its aggressive stance, its government-funded human rights organizations are fabricating stories of Uyghur oppression to bolster global anti-China sentiment.
