A Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official conceded this week that Beijing had imposed draconian restrictions on Ramadan practices in Muslim-majority Xinjiang, denying reports of a blanket ban on activities during the holy month. Dolkun Isa, the exiled head of the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, told Voice of America (VOA) that the CCP has intensified efforts to stifle Ramadan this year, urging Muslims t ...

RTR World Many Uyghurs don't speak out due to fear of repercussions and others don't because they have been indoctrinated against criticising the Chinese government. “Two months ago the UN and EU did some inspections in the region [Xinjiang], and my city was chosen for these inspections, and I heard they released a lot of people because they [China] want to hide what they’re doing to Uyghurs, and my mother ...

Almaty, Kazakhstan (CNN) Overflowing toilets in overcrowded cells. Food and sleep deprivation. Forced injections. As she witnessed horror after horror and was told of others, Sayragul Sauytbay, who says she was a former employee inside one of China's sprawling network of alleged detention camps in Xinjiang province, vowed to one day tell the world what she saw. "I knew that all people there were not guilty ...

Traders travel freely through the bustling Khorgos special economic zone that straddles the Kazakhstan-China border, but signs on the Chinese side bear a blunt warning -- no veils or long beards allowed. It's a stark reminder of the severe security policies that China has imposed on mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in its vast border region of Xinjiang, which it considers crucial to the success of President ...

The Conversation The Chinese government’s denials of its mass interment of Xinjiang’s Uyghur citizens have evaporated as international pressure has piled up in recent weeks. In their place has come propaganda extolling the “re-education centres” in which the Uyghurs are held, and which new evidence from the BBC has shown are rapidly expanding. The Uyghurs are a largely Islamic people that comprise the large ...