The Xinjiang region, a real crossroads of Eurasia, recently attached to China for its strategic location and for its natural resources is essential to the development of the country. It is since the origin populated by the Uighurs, a Turkish-speaking ethnic minority and Muslim.
The vast plains of Xinjiang have long been kept away from the standardization of Chinese thought. Nevertheless, considering this cultural difference as a threat to its territorial integrity, Beijing has gradually strengthened its control by adopting radical measures alienating the rights of these local minorities and imposing on them a unique way of life, that of the Hans. Among these measures ranging from the closure of mosques to the widespread intrusion into smartphones. Today the most extreme is undoubtedly the internment of Uighurs in ‘re-education’ camps, which hold more than one million people according to the UN.
