Today, the Center for Uyghur Studies released a powerful new report exposing one of the most alarming aspects of China’s repression of the Uyghur people: the state-run boarding school system in East Turkistan (Xinjiang). Titled “Breaking the Roots,” the report reveals how these schools function not as centers of learning, but as instruments of forced assimilation aimed at erasing Uyghur identity, language, and culture.
For generations, the Uyghurs have maintained a rich and distinct cultural heritage. But under Chinese Communist Party rule, their identity is under systematic attack. Building on mass internment and population displacement, the boarding school system targets the community's most vulnerable—children.
The report traces the origins of these policies, showing how China’s post-9/11 “counter-terrorism” narrative has been used to justify increasingly repressive measures. It details how Uyghur children, some in early primary school, are forcibly removed from their families and placed into state-controlled boarding facilities. Inside, they face a curriculum that bans the Uyghur language, vilifies their culture and religion, and promotes loyalty to the Chinese state.
Eyewitness accounts from former students reveal deep psychological scars, including trauma from isolation and loss of identity. Often, children are placed in these schools because their parents are imprisoned in internment camps, cutting off all familial contact.
Experts describe these policies as a form of cultural genocide—systematic efforts to erase an ethnic group by targeting its future generations.
Executive Director Abdulhakim Idris stated, “This is not education—it is cultural erasure and psychological trauma. The international community must act.
The report ends with a call for global solidarity with the Uyghur people and urgent action to hold the Chinese government accountable for these grave crimes against humanity.