All Reading

This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.

Starting Points:

Eyewitness Accounts

Overview Reports

Lists / Databases of Victims

Satellite Imagery of Camps, Prisons & Cultural Destruction

The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History
Harvard University Press Lina K Harvard University Press Lina K

The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History

For 250 years, the Turkic Muslims of Altishahr—the vast desert region to the northwest of Tibet—have led an uneasy existence under Chinese rule. Today they call themselves Uyghurs, and they have cultivated a sense of history and identity that challenges Beijing’s official national narrative. Rian Thum argues that the roots of this history run deeper than recent conflicts, to a time when manuscripts and pilgrimage dominated understandings of the past. Beyond broadening our knowledge of tensions between the Uyghurs and the Chinese government, this meditation on the very concept of history probes the limits of human interaction with the past.

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Xinjiang Unsettled
China File Lina K China File Lina K

Xinjiang Unsettled

When you travel in Xinjiang, you see two communities living side-by-side but rarely interacting. Relations between Uighurs and Han Chinese have soured to the point where little dialogue seems possible. The 2009 Urumqi riots, in which a Uighur mob went on a killing spree that ultimately resulted in at least 194, mainly Han, deaths, was a turning point. Beijng’s “strike hard” policy in the aftermath of the riots, which continues to this day, has only created more resentment, hatred, and misunderstanding. On top of economic alienation, Uighurs feel culturally threatened. The shutdown of Uighur language schools and websites and the new rules curtailing the practice of Islam have only reinforced the sense of a Uighur identity, which wasn’t as strong a few decades ago.

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In Pictures: The Uyghurs of Xinjiang
Al Jazeera Lina K Al Jazeera Lina K

In Pictures: The Uyghurs of Xinjiang

A de facto state of emergency has been put in place in Xinjiang and a heavy military presence could be seen in both the provincial capital of Urumqi and the Uyghur’s cultural capital of Kashgar located in the south of the province.

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In One Xinjiang City, Beards and Muslim Headscarves Banned From Buses
Foreign Policy Lina K Foreign Policy Lina K

In One Xinjiang City, Beards and Muslim Headscarves Banned From Buses

A city in China’s remote western Xinjiang region has temporarily banned men with beards and women with Muslim headscarves from taking public buses. The extreme security measure — to be implemented for the duration of a sports competition slated to kick off in northern Xinjiang’s Karamay city on August 8 — is the latest example of the kind of religious intolerance that some say has fuelled growing anti-government feelings and radicalized the region’s Muslims, particularly the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority concentrated primarily in Xinjiang. The QQ news portal and other Chinese news sites that picked up the report also ran a graphic showing the "five abnormal styles" that weren’t allowed on Karamay public transport. It showed pictures of women in full and partial veils, headscarves, and men with full beards and even a modest goatee.

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Welcome to Uighur Web—Now Watch What You Say
China File Lina K China File Lina K

Welcome to Uighur Web—Now Watch What You Say

China’s Internet is vast, with millions of sites and more than 618 million users. But nested within that universe is a tiny virtual community comprising just a few thousand websites where China’s Uighur gather online to communicate in their own language and script. This is the Uighur web. The space can be defined as the Internet as it exists within the borders of Xinjiang. It can also be seen as the Uighur-focused Internet perused by Uighurs across China. In both cases, content and access are tightly controlled.

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Punching a Hole in the Great Firewall
China File Lina K China File Lina K

Punching a Hole in the Great Firewall

China has “one of the most pervasive and sophisticated regimes of Internet filtering and information control in the world,” according to the OpenNet Initiative. The Ministry of Public Security’s censorship and surveillance system, formally called the Golden Shield and colloquially known as the Great Firewall, blocks access to thousands of websites focusing on what authorities deem politically “sensitive” issues or individuals (such as the Dalai Lama), or offer unfiltered discussions.

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Are Ethnic Tensions on the Rise in China?
China File Lina K China File Lina K

Are Ethnic Tensions on the Rise in China?

On December 31, President Xi Jinping appeared on CCTV and extended his “New Year’s wishes to Chinese of all ethnic groups.” On January 15, Beijing officials detained Ilham Tohti, a leading Uighur economist and subsequently accused him of “separtist offenses”; a fresh report shows arrests of Uighurs for “endangering state security” in Xinjiang rose sharply last year; and the number of Tibetans who have taken their own lives in public protest against Chinese rule has recently surpassed 120 since February 2009.

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