China is exterminating its Uyghur population: What you need to know

Picture courtesy: New Straits Times

The Chinese government has breached every single article of the UN genocide convention in its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, and bears responsibility for committing genocide, according to a landmark legal report. The lengthy report, published by a non-partisan US-based thinktank, is one of the first independent, non-government legal examination of China’s treatment of Uighurs under the 1948 genocide convention. The Chinese Communist party has denied committing atrocities and abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority, despite a growing body of evidence.

Reports on the Uighurs have led to increasing international outrage and diplomatic and economic isolation. The US administration has already described the persecution of the Uighurs as a genocide.

“The intent to destroy the Uighurs as a group is derived from objective proof, consisting of comprehensive state policy and practice, which President Xi Jinping, the highest authority in China, set in motion,” the report said.