Spiritual and cultural mentions faraway from names of China’s Xinjiang villages, rights teams say

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Authorities in China’s western Xinjiang area have been systematically changing the names of villages inhabited by Uyghurs and different ethnic minorities to replicate the ruling Communist Celebration’s ideology, as a part of an assault on their cultural identification, a report launched by Human Rights Watch mentioned Wednesday.

About 630 villages in Xinjiang have had their names modified to take away references to Islam or the Uyghurs’ tradition and historical past, in keeping with the group’s report, accomplished in collaboration with the Norway-based group Uyghur Hjelp.

The report in contrast the names of 25,000 Xinjiang villages as listed by the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics of China between 2009 and 2023.

Phrases like “dutar,” a standard Uyghur string instrument, or “mazar,” a shrine, have been faraway from the names of villages, and changed with phrases reminiscent of “happiness,” “unity” and “concord” — generic phrases typically discovered within the Communist Celebration’s coverage paperwork.

The Chinese language Overseas Ministry didn’t instantly reply to faxed questions concerning the report and its insurance policies in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is an unlimited area bordering Kazakhstan that’s house to about 11 million Uyghurs and different ethnic minorities. In 2017, the Chinese language authorities launched a marketing campaign of assimilation that has included mass detentions, alleged political indoctrination, alleged household separations and alleged compelled labor amongst different strategies.

As a part of the crackdown, greater than 1 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and different ethnic minorities had been estimated to be held in extralegal internment camps. The Chinese language authorities on the time described the camps as ” vocational coaching facilities ” and mentioned they had been essential to curb separatism and spiritual extremism.

The U.N. Human Rights Workplace in 2022 discovered accusations of rights violations in Xinjiang “credible” and mentioned China might have dedicated crimes in opposition to humanity within the area.

The adjustments to the names of Xinjiang villages included eradicating mentions of faith, together with phrases reminiscent of “Hoja,” a title for a Sufi non secular instructor, and “haniqa,” a kind of Sufi non secular constructing, or phrases reminiscent of “baxshi,” a shaman.

References to Uyghur historical past or to regional leaders previous to the institution of the Individuals’s Republic of China in 1949 have additionally been eliminated, in keeping with the report.

“The Chinese language authorities have been altering a whole bunch of village names in Xinjiang from these wealthy in which means for Uyghurs to those who replicate authorities propaganda,” mentioned Maya Wang, performing China director at Human Rights Watch. “These identify adjustments seem a part of Chinese language authorities efforts to erase the cultural and spiritual expressions of Uyghurs.”

The Chinese language authorities desires to “erase folks’s historic reminiscence, as a result of these names remind folks of who they’re,” mentioned Abduweli Ayup, a Uyghur linguist based mostly in Norway and founding father of Uyghur Hjelp.

Many of the village identify adjustments occurred between 2017 and 2019, on the peak of the federal government crackdown in Xinjiang, in keeping with the report.