Rights groups’ analysis of authorities information from 2009-2023 reveals some 630 towns in Xinjiang had their names altered in this method.
Published On 18 Jun 2024
China has “systematically” altered the names of hundreds of towns with spiritual, historic, or cultural significance for Uighurs to names that resonate with the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a brand-new report from Human Rights Watch.
The rights group, working in collaboration with Norwegian advocacy organisation Uyghur Hjelp, stated it determined 630 towns in the far western area of Xinjiang whose names hadactually been altered in this method by scraping information from 2009 to 2023 on the site of the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The most typical replacements were Happiness, Unity, and Harmony.
“The Chinese authorities haveactually been altering hundreds of town names in Xinjiang from those abundant in significance for Uyghurs to those that show federalgovernment propaganda,” Maya Wang, acting China director at Human Rights Watch, stated in a declaration accompanying the report on Wednesday. “These name modifications appear part of Chinese federalgovernment efforts to remove the cultural and spiritual expressions of Uyghurs.”
China’s policies in Xinjiang drew global attention in 2018 when the United Nations stated that at least one million primarily Muslim Uighurs and other Turkic minorities were being held in a network of re-education centres. Beijing stated the camps were trade training centres mentor Mandarin and other abilities essential to takeon “extremism” and avoid “terrorism“.
Leaks of authorities federalgovernment files, examinations by human rights groups and academics, as well as statement from Uighurs themselves exposed Uighurs had likewise been targeted in other supposed abuses from required sterilisation to household separation and targeting of spiritual beliefs and customs.
The newest Human Rights Watch report stated most of the villag