Religious and cultural mentions removed from names of China’s Xinjiang villages, rights groups say

By SIMINA MISTREANU
Associated Press

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — A report released by Human Rights Watch says authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region have been systematically replacing the names of villages inhabited by Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities to reflect the ruling Communist Party’s ideology. The report released Wednesday says the policy is part of an attack on Uyghurs’ cultural identity. The report says about 630 villages in Xinjiang have had their names changed to remove references to Islam or the Uyghurs’ culture and history. The study compared the names of 25,000 Xinjiang villages as listed by the National Bureau of Statistics of China between 2009 and 2023.