The cultural and religious customs practiced by the Uyghurs have been alleged to be inimical to the unity of the Chinese state. This has led to measures including the alleged detainment of more than a million Uyghurs in “re-education camps” by the government, as well as state-led campaigns such as the 2014 “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism” which, as the Human Rights Watch found, had resulted in the imprisonment of several Uyghurs without a proper trial. These occurrences highlight the incongruity between the rights guaranteed to religious and ethnic minorities in the constitution of China and the treatment of these groups in reality.

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