Washington, DC [US], May 16 (ANI): The Centre for Uyghur Studies (CUS) has released a new report titled “Breaking the Roots: China’s Use of Boarding Schools as a Tool of Genocide Against Uyghur Muslims,” exposing how state-sponsored boarding schools in Xinjiang are systematically used to assimilate Uyghur children and erase their cultural identity.
The report reveals that these institutions, rather than fostering education and personal development, are being utilized as instruments of cultural genocide. Children, some as young as primary school age, are forcibly separated from their families and placed in these schools, where the Uyghur language is banned, family ties are undermined, and loyalty to the Chinese state is heavily promoted.
According to CUS, the boarding school system is part of a broader strategy by the Chinese Communist Party to eliminate Uyghur culture, following a historical pattern of forced assimilation that intensified post-9/11 under the guise of counter-terrorism. The report highlights how Uyghur parents are often left without any contact with their children, as many are detained in internment camps.
The CUS report includes firsthand accounts from survivors who describe the psychological and cultural damage inflicted on Uyghur youth. Scholars in international law have classified these practices as cultural genocide, pointing to a deliberate attempt to erase an ethnic group’s identity by targeting its youngest members.
CUS Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris stated, “What is occurring to Uyghur children in these so-called ‘boarding schools’ is not education; it is forced assimilation, cultural obliteration, and psychological harm. By severing children from their families, languages, and identities, the Chinese government is perpetrating a serious injustice that fits the criteria for genocide.”
The report calls for urgent international action, urging global leaders to recognize the severity of these actions and hold China accountable. (ANI)
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