A recent report by Yale University has highlighted the precarious living conditions of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) under Chinese repression.
Uyghurs have been facing deteriorating conditions in the Xinjiang region. Beijing has also intensified its crackdown on those who speak out against human rights abuses.
The report has underscored that China’s extensive imprisonment of Uyghurs constitutes both a “crime against humanity” and a “genocide,” representing a dangerous scale of lawfare.
It has detailed severe inconsistencies and deficiencies in China’s legal system, including excessive punishments, widespread prosecutions, and unusually high incarceration rates. The analysis reveals how China’s authoritarian framework undermines both domestic and international legal standards.
The Yale report also highlighted how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adapted its tactics to evade international scrutiny while continuing its persecution of Uyghurs.
It stated that the scale of imprisonment, unprecedented since World War II, represents the extreme reach of what scholars term “authoritarian legality” and poses a grave concern for global humanity.
The report estimates that if mass imprisonment persists, the Uyghur population could endure a cumulative total of 4.4 million years of imprisonment.
Furthermore, the report also highlighted that among 13,114 records with prison sentences (excluding 25,155 without), the average prison term is approximately 8.80 years.
Earlier, a February 2022 report from the Xinjiang High People’s Procuratorate revealed that 5,40,826 individuals were prosecuted in the region from 2017 to 2021.
However, with the Xinjiang court ceasing to release new data, the actual number of prosecutions is likely much higher with the missing data of 2022, 2023 and 2024.
The report also raises alarms about China’s conviction rate for Uyghur Muslims, which exceeds 99.9 per cent. Nearly all Uyghurs arrested for reeducation or labelled as suspicious are likely convicted, positioning the XUAR with the highest imprisonment rate in the world at 2,095 per 1,00,000 citizens.
