China has renamed hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns, say human rights groups

Hundreds of Uyghur villages and towns have been renamed by Chinese authorities to remove religious or cultural references, with many replaced by names reflecting Communist party ideology, a report has found. Research published on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch and the Norway-based organisation Uyghur Hjelp documents about 630 communities that have been renamed in this way by the government, mostly during the height of a crackdown on Uyghurs that several governments and human rights bodies have called a genocide. The new names removing religious, historical or cultural references are among thousands of otherwise benign name changes between 2009 and 2023….