The Uyghur Reader: Stories We’re Following (Issue 19)

Graphic featuring the news outlet logos and headlines for the first four articles in this issue.

Issue 19: March 5, 2026 – March 18, 2026

Welcome to the nineteenth issue of the Uyghur Reader, a biweekly content roundup curated by the staff of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Each issue features carefully selected articles, reports, and publications from media outlets, academic institutions, NGOs, and government sources. While we highlight urgent human rights issues, we also aim to reflect the breadth of the Uyghur experience, including politics, economics, history, and culture.

🧠 This week’s selections come from Director of Research Henryk Szadziewski and Program Assistant Adaire Criner. 

📌 The UK government funded carbon capture projects in the Uyghur Region between 2016 and 2018, even as mass detention of Uyghurs was being reported, raising serious ethical concerns about supporting projects linked to the region. Critics warn that some of this technology may have supported oil extraction, while Uyghurs were subjected to forced labor, surveillance, and abuses that the UN says may amount to crimes against humanity. Bertie Harrison-Broninski and Ben Cooke, The Times (UK), March 16, “UK funded carbon capture in Xinjiang during Uighur ‘genocide’“

📌 In The Wire China, Noah Berman writes that enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act appears to have slowed under the Trump administration, with no new companies added to the law’s blacklist and the value of detained imports suspected of links to the forced labor of Uyghurs dropping sharply. Lawmakers and researchers warn that reduced inspections and shifting enforcement priorities could weaken a key tool meant to block goods tied to forced labor in the Uyghur Region. “Has Trump Shelved The Uyghur Forced Labor Law?” March 15.

📌 Chinese officials say the Uyghur Region’s textile industry expanded in 2025, reporting rising yarn and fabric production and nearly 47,000 new jobs despite international sanctions targeting products linked to forced labor. Critics say the growth may reflect intensified labor transfer programs involving Uyghurs, which researchers argue are used to supply labor to cotton and garment industries under coercive conditions. The debate highlights a continuing contradiction; that is, while global brands try to remove Xinjiang cotton from supply chains under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, China is deepening the region’s role in its domestic textile economy. Jasmin Malik Chua, Sourcing Journal, March 12, “Despite ‘Economic Bullying,’ Xinjiang’s Textile Industry is Growing.”

📌 For the BBC, Stephen McDonell reports on how a new law promoting “ethnic unity” is expected to strengthen Beijing’s efforts to assimilate minoritized peoples by prioritizing Mandarin, encouraging interethnic integration, and punishing actions seen as undermining national unity. Critics warn the legislation could further erode the cultural and linguistic rights of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Mongolians, whose languages and traditions have already been restricted. “Why is China set to approve a new law promoting ‘ethnic unity’?” March 9. 中文. More coverage on the “ethnic unity” law:

📖 Keep reading/watching

📢 Event announcements

March 21, 2026, 12:00–6:00 p.m. EDT, Nowruz at the Crossroads: Uyghur Culture, Renewal, and Belonging, Uyghur American Association and George Washington University

  • A festival celebrating Nowruz and Eid al-Fitr through Uyghur culture, featuring talks, performances, and dialogue on identity, diaspora, and resilience, alongside a Central Asian bazaar.

March 25, 2026, 4:00–5:00 p.m. EDT, Against Erasure: Uyghur Poems, Imprisoned Souls, and the Act of Resistance, Council on East Asian Studies, MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale

  • An event highlighting the poetry anthologies Uyghur Poems and Imprisoned Souls with Aziz Isa Elkun, showcasing Uyghur literature as a powerful form of cultural preservation and resistance against repression.

🀄 中文