China placing Muslim children in orphanages

Associated Press

ISTANBUL

As tens of thousands of Uighur families have been swept up in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s campaign to subdue the sometimes restive Xinjiang, there is evidence that the children of detainees and exiles are being placed into dozens of childcare facilities across the far west region.

The measures, which experts say echo colonialist treatment of indigenous children in North America and Australia, come as around one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are held in internment camps that have alarmed a United Nations panel and the U.S. government.

The orphanages are the latest example of how China is systematically distancing young Muslims in Xinjiang from their families and culture, The Associated Press has found through interviews with 15 Muslims and a review of procurement documents. The government has been building thousands of so-called “bilingual” schools, where minority children are taught in Mandarin and penalized for speaking in their native tongues. Some of these are boarding schools, which Uighurs say can be mandatory for children and, in a Kazakh family’s case, start from age 5.