Official warns of ‘infiltration of religious extremism’ amid crackdown on region’s large Muslim population

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The “sinicisation” of religion in China’s troubled north-western region of Xinjiang must be upheld to promote ethnic solidarity and religious harmony, a senior Communist party official has said.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted You Quan, the head of the “united front work department”, which oversees ethnic and religious affairs, while on a visit this week to Xinjiang, home to a large Muslim population.

“The party’s leadership over religious work must be upheld,” You said, adding that “the infiltration of religious extremism must be guarded against”.

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Sinicisation refers to non-Chinese societies being forced to conform to Chinese culture, particularly that of the ethnic Han majority. This includes dress code, religion, culture, politics and language.

The Guardian has reported on how an estimated one million Muslims are being held in brutal re-education camps in Xinjiang. This week Xinjiang retroactively legitimised the use of the camps.

The camps are part of China’s “strike hard” campaign that is alleged to use extrajudicial detentions, surveillance, political indoctrination or “re-education”, torture and abuse in the name of rooting out extremism.

Mass detentions and strict surveillance of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang have provoked international criticism, with the United States considering sanctions against officials and companies linked to allegations of human rights abuses. The UN has called on China to shut down the camps.

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China says Xinjiang faces a threat from Islamist militants and separatists, and has rejected all accusations of mistreatment in an area where there has been deadly unrest in recent years between Uighurs and Han Chinese.

You is a member of the influential secretariat of the party’s central committee.

Reuters contributed to this report