China’s Uyghur Jail Population Higher Than Thought

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BEIJING (Worthy News) – Nearly one in 25 people in a county in the Uyghur heartland of China has been jailed on terrorism-related charges, the highest known prison rate in the world leaked data shows.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency, which obtained the data, said the list cites names of more than 10,000 Uyghurs sent to prison in just Konasheher county alone.

It is one of the dozens in southern Xinjiang, suggesting the number of prisoners could be at least hundreds of thousands and perhaps even a million people.

China has waged a crackdown on the Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority with some Christians among them, which Beijing has called “a war on terror.”

The AP list is the biggest to emerge to date with the names of imprisoned Uyghurs, reflecting the sheer size of a Chinese government campaign.

Under mounting international criticism, Beijing announced the closure in 2019 of short-term, extrajudicial internment camps where Uyghurs were thrown in without charges.

However, thousands of Uyghurs still languish for years or even decades in prison on what experts say are trumped-up charges of terrorism.

Under President Xi Jinping, the crackdown against religious communities and faith groups deemed dangerous to China’s Communist system intensified in recent years.

Besides Uyghurs, devoted Christians often worshiping outside the official state-approved denominations have also been targeted with detentions and fines.

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