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

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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....