The Uighurs are a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group in Xinjiang. Many Uighurs resent rule by the Communist Party, and some say they face discrimination by the Han, the dominant ethnic group in China. Violence in Xinjiang has been on the rise, and Chinese officials have deployed more security forces in cities with large Uighur populations and tried to suppress some Islamic practices, such as the wearing of burqas.

Turkish leaders have made statements in the past supporting the Uighurs, as they did during a bloody 2009 ethnic riot in Urumqi, the provincial capital of Xinjiang. Many Uighurs have sought refuge in Turkey, which is also a popular destination for Uighur students. The arrest of the 10 Turkish citizens could result in greater diplomatic tensions between China and Turkey. On Wednesday, a woman answering the telephone at the Turkish ambassador’s office in Beijing said there was nobody available to comment on the issue.

Survey results released last July by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project showed that in 43 countries polled, Turks have among the most unfavorable opinions of China, with 68 percent of those polled saying they held a negative view of the country.

Many Uighurs have been trying to flee China to Turkey, usually by first traveling overland through Southeast Asian countries to Malaysia. Last year, hundreds of Uighurs in separate groups, most of them women and children, were detained by Thai security forces in the jungles of southern Thailand. They told Thai officials that they were Turkish citizens, and they were later visited by diplomats from the Turkish Embassy in Bangkok. Chinese officials insisted to the Thai government that the migrants be sent back to China. The fate of those migrant Uighurs is unclear.

Nine of the Turkish citizens arrested in Shanghai had come to China to hand over their passports to traffickers who were trying to smuggle out the Uighurs, Global Times reported, adding that the Turks were paid $2,000 a passport. Each of the Uighurs had paid the traffickers 60,000 renminbi, or about $9,700, for a passport, according to the report. It said the Uighurs were trying to leave China on flights from Shanghai Pudong International Airport.