Authorities in China’s Xinjiang region are threatening detention over downloading, sharing or listening to a wide range of Uyghur-language songs, the AP has found. The policy was revealed in a leaked recording of a public meeting last October in the city of Kashgar in Xinjiang, home to 11 million Uyghurs and other mostly Turkic ethnic minorities.
The leaked recording, shared exclusively with AP by Norway-based nonprofit Uyghur Hjelp, suggests that forms of repression continue in the region. A United Nations report in 2022 said China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang through its campaign of internment and political indoctrination that unfolded primarily between 2017 and 2019.
