China Primer: Uyghurs (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Sept. 22, 2023 |
| Report Number |
IF10281 |
| Report Type |
In Focus |
| Authors |
Thomas Lum; Gabriel M. Nelson |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
Uyghurs (pronounced WEE-gurs—also spelled “Uighurs”)
are an ethnic group living primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China’s northwest, with
smaller diaspora communities primarily in Central Asia and
Turkey, as well as in North America, Western Europe,
Australia, and Japan. The XUAR, often referred to simply
as Xinjiang (pronounced “SHIN-jyahng”), is a provinciallevel
administrative unit of the People’s Republic of China
(PRC). Despite the XUAR’s small population relative to
most of China’s provinces, Beijing considers the region to
be vital to China’s strategic and economic interests.
Xinjiang constitutes about one-sixth of the PRC’s land area
and borders 8 countries in Central and South Asia. The
XUAR is rich in minerals, and has China’s largest coal and
natural gas reserves and a fifth of the country’s oil reserves.
The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC),
a massive, state-run organization with a dual military and
economic mandate, controls a large percentage of the land
and resources of the XUAR. The XPCC administers 176
paramilitary regiments and a population of 2.7 million, and
has an annual economic output of about $24 billion or
nearly one-sixth of Xinjiang’s GDP. Its business enterprises
include farms, manufacturing facilities, and mining
operations. Xinjiang also serves as a key hub for China’s
“Silk Road Economic Belt” initiative, which aims to link
China economically to Central Asia, Russia, and Europe
through trade, cooperation on resource extraction and
industrial production, and investments in infrastructure and
overland transportation.
