U.S. BILL SANCTION CHINA OVER UIGHUR RIGHTS

U.S. BILL TO SANCTION CHINA OVER UIGHUR RIGHTS 

The Bill was intended to send China a strong message on human rights by mandating sanctions against those responsible for oppression of Muslim minority

UN estimates that more than a million Muslims have been detained in camps in the Xinjiang region

Uighurs : Traditionally inhabited a series of oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within the Tarim Basin

 

Uighurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in Northwest China

An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uighurs still live in the Tarim Basin

The name Xinjiang was changed to Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, where Uighurs are the largest ethnicity, mostly concentrated in the south-western Xinjiang

History of the Uighur people is a matter of contention between Uighur nationalists and the Chinese authority

 

Uighur historians viewed the Uighurs as the original inhabitants of Xinjiang

Chinese view asserts that the Uighurs in Xinjiang originated from the Tiele tribes and only became the main social and political force in Xinjiang during the ninth century when they migrated to Xinjiang from Mongolia after the collapse of the Uighur Khaganate, replacing the Han Chinese they claimed were there since the Han Dynasty

Uighurs gradually started to become Islamized in the 10th century and most Uighurs identified as Muslims by the 16th century 

DNA analyses indicate the peoples of central Asia such as the Uighurs are all mixed "Caucasian" and East Asian

Since 2015, Uighurs are detained in mass detention camps, termed "re-education camps", aimed at changing the political thinking of detainees, their identities, and their religious beliefs

Chinese government discourages religious worship among the Uighurs and there is evidence of Uighur mosques including historic ones being destroyed

Twice, in 1933 and 1944, the Uighurs successfully gained their independence: the First East Turkestan Republic was a short-lived attempt at independence around Kashghar and the Second East Turkestan Republic was a Soviet puppet Communist state that existed from 1944 to 1949 in the three districts of what is now Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture during the Ili Rebellion while the majority of Xinjiang was under the control of the Republic of China.