Is China erasing Uighur culture?

Published: Feb. 12, 2021, 10 a.m.

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This week, lawyers in London concluded that the genocide of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province by the Chinese government is a \\u2018very credible\\u2019 allegation. The London based court also said that it is \\u2018plausible\\u2019 that the country\\u2019s president, Xi Jinping, is driving that policy. The allegation of genocide - levelled by Uighur activists, international human rights groups, as well as the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken - stems from an industrial scale crackdown in China\\u2019s Xinjiang province which has seen more than a million Uighurs and other ethnic minority Muslims imprisoned in a vast network of camps, where people say they have been subjected to rape and torture. The Chinese government has vehemently rejected the claims. It says measures are necessary to put an end to violent attacks in the region and it describes the facilities as re-education centres. So, what do we know about what is really going on in Xinjiang? Is there any merit to China\\u2019s argument about the need to defeat violent extremism in the region? Why is the Communist party intent on assimilating Uighurs into Han Chinese cultural traditions? How much is Xi Jinping\\u2019s vision for China behind it, and to what extent is Uighur culture - with its unique history and traditions - at risk of being destroyed in Beijing\\u2019s plan? Ritula Shah and a panel of expert guests discuss whether China is erasing Uighur culture.

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