China Uyghur Genocide — Ongoing Persecution
Since 2017, China has detained over one million Uyghur Muslims in a network of internment camps across Xinjiang in what the US, multiple parliaments, and Genocide Watch have declared a genocide. Documented abuses include mass arbitrary detention, forced sterilization, torture, forced labor, cultural erasure, and the systematic destruction of mosques and religious sites. The UN OHCHR found the abuses 'may constitute crimes against humanity.' Despite international condemnation, China continues to deny all allegations. In 2025, Thailand forcibly deported 40 Uyghurs back to China, and Genocide Watch declared a Genocide Emergency for Xinjiang.
Timeline
February 27, 2026
UN Warns of Disappeared Uyghur Returnees
On the one-year anniversary of Thailand's deportation, UN experts express grave concern that the 40 Uyghur men forcibly returned to China have effectively disappeared, with families receiving no confirmation of detention locations or proof their relatives are alive.
SourceJanuary 26, 2026
OIC Secretary-General Meets Chinese Officials, Ignores Uyghurs
OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha meets with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing, with no public mention of Uyghur rights. Rights groups condemn the OIC for ignoring ongoing genocide.
SourceDecember 20, 2025
Genocide Watch Issues Genocide Emergency for Xinjiang
Genocide Watch declares a Genocide Emergency for Xinjiang, finding China at the extermination and denial stages of genocide, and calls on governments to ban imports of goods produced through Uyghur forced labor and expand protection for Uyghur communities worldwide.
SourceOctober 1, 2025
UN Experts Urge China to End Repression of Uyghurs
UN human rights experts call on China to end the increasing criminalization of Uyghur cultural expression, citing the imprisonment of Uyghur songwriter Uigga and the enforced disappearance and life sentencing of renowned ethnographer Rahile Dawut.
SourceFebruary 27, 2025
Thailand Deports 40 Uyghurs to China
Thailand forcibly deports 40 Uyghur men to China on an unscheduled China Southern Airlines flight to Kashgar, Xinjiang, after holding them in immigration detention for over a decade. The UN, US, and international rights groups condemn the deportation as a violation of the non-refoulement principle.
SourceAugust 31, 2023
HRW Reports Unrelenting Crimes Against Humanity
Human Rights Watch marks the first anniversary of the OHCHR report by documenting that China continues unrelenting crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs, with no mass releases from prisons where half a million Turkic Muslims remain held and ongoing cultural erasure including renaming of 630 Uyghur village names.
SourceOctober 6, 2022
UN Human Rights Council Rejects Xinjiang Debate
The UN Human Rights Council votes 19-17 (with 11 abstentions) to reject a motion to debate China's treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, despite the OHCHR report released weeks earlier documenting possible crimes against humanity.
SourceAugust 31, 2022
UN OHCHR Report Documents Serious Human Rights Violations
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights releases its assessment finding credible evidence of torture, forced sterilization, and arbitrary detention in Xinjiang, concluding the abuses 'may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.'
SourceMay 24, 2022
Xinjiang Police Files Leaked
A consortium of 14 international media organizations publishes the Xinjiang Police Files — over 10 gigabytes of hacked internal police data including thousands of detainee mugshots, speeches by senior officials, and operational protocols from detention facilities.
SourceDecember 23, 2021
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Signed
President Biden signs the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into law, establishing a rebuttable presumption that goods manufactured in Xinjiang are made with forced labor and banning their import into the United States.
SourceJanuary 19, 2021
US Declares Uyghur Genocide
On his final full day in office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo officially determines that China has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The incoming Biden administration subsequently affirms this determination.
SourceJune 29, 2020
Forced Sterilization Report Published
Researcher Adrian Zenz publishes a report documenting China's campaign to suppress Uyghur birthrates through forced sterilizations, mandatory IUDs, and birth control, finding Xinjiang performed over seven times more sterilizations per capita than the national average in 2018.
SourceNovember 24, 2019
China Cables Leaked Documents Published
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists publishes the China Cables — secret 2017 Chinese government documents revealing the first known operations manual for running Xinjiang internment camps and details of mass surveillance systems targeting Uyghurs.
SourceAugust 10, 2018
UN Committee Reveals 1 Million Uyghurs Detained
Gay McDougall of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination states that credible reports indicate China has turned Xinjiang into 'something resembling a massive internment camp,' with an estimated 1 million ethnic Uyghurs detained.
SourceApril 1, 2017
Mass Internment Camps Begin in Xinjiang
China begins rapid development of a network of internment camps across Xinjiang, with the earliest detentions traced to early 2017. Satellite imagery later reveals 39 camps that nearly tripled in size between April 2017 and August 2018.
SourceQuick Stats