In the Chinese province of Xinjiang, this festive table adheres to all the traditions of Kazakh hospitality. Indeed, the host belongs to the region’s Kazakh minority. Despite Chinese repression aimed at erasing the identities of the province’s ethnic minorities, the photographer Turar Kazangapov, himself a Kazakh, is “convinced that Kazakh customs and traditions are still preserved in this place”.

Credit : Turar Kazangapov (@Kazangapov.t, Kazakhstan)

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Relations between Kazakhstan and China are deepening fast. As a linchpin in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, Astana hopes to pluck the fruits of this global infrastructure development strategy, which aims to boost overland trade connections between East and West. However, China’s treatment of ethnic Kazakhs in the Xinjiang province, the region’s second-largest Turkic community after the Uyghurs, remains a sensitive subject that is complicating further rapprochement between the two countries.

This text was originally published on 20 October 2025 by our partner media outlet Lossi 36.

On a cold winter’s day in February 1997, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the city of Yining, known to locals as Ghulja, in China’s Xinjiang province to protest against growing ethnic discrimination and religious repression. As the demonstration grew in strength, people started chanting “God is great!” and “Independence for Xinjiang!”. Chinese security forces soon mobilised and cracked down on the crowd, killing dozens and arresting hundreds. The exact casualty figures of the massacre remain unknown. The 1997 Ghulja incident is now looked upon as a precursor to the brutality against the predominantly Muslim population in China’s westernmost region.

Nearly three decades later, tensions are still palpable in Yining. Travelling through the city, there is a distinct presence of CCTV cameras and police patrols on the streets. Important intersections in the downtown area are overseen by well-equipped Chinese soldiers next to armoured vehicles with mounted machine guns. They appear suspicious of people taking pictures of the local street life and seem uncomfortable with foreigners freely roaming about a region where, according to most observers, China is perpetrating grave crimes against humanity. Several countries have also accused Beijing of committing genocide, though some human rights groups contend that there is insufficient evidence to support this qualification.

One of the targeted communities are the Xinjiang Kazakhs, the region’s second-largest ethnic minority after the Uyghurs. Because of their mostly Turkic-Muslim background, the Chinese authorities see them as a threat to the state ideal of creating a homogeneous nation, united under the red banner of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In accordance with a policy of “preventative repression”, Beijing has sought to dilute the province’s demographic makeup through the state-sponsored in-migration of Han Chinese and has invested heavily in surveillance technology and infrastructure while building an enormous network of so-called re-education camps. 

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A short history of repression

After the takeover of Xinjiang by the CCP in the waning days of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the position of the Kazakhs in the region steadily grew worse. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mao Zedong implemented his Great Leap Forward, which caused tens of thousands of local Uyghurs and Kazakhs to defect to Soviet Central Asia. 

The exodus coincided with a gradual deterioration of relations between Moscow and Beijing. The Soviets launched a propaganda offensive against China, promoting the migration of minority groups while trying to destabilise Chinese authority over Xinjiang by appealing to separatist movements. The local Soviet consulate enabled the emigration of ethnic minorities by issuing passports. 

When Beijing found out, they stopped distributing exit visas, which sparked fears among local Kazakhs and other minorities of being cut off from their kin in the USSR. A resulting demonstration was brutally put down, encouraging thousands of others to flee as well. Eventually, in 1962, the Sino-Soviet border was closed after between 60 and 100 thousand had left, and remained so for most of the Cold War.

Read more on Novastan: 70 years of Xinjiang: Beijing celebrates and enacts new political doctrine

Isolated from the outside world, the economic situation in Xinjiang worsened, while elsewhere the “Chinese economic miracle” was just gaining steam. Uneven regional development, combined with interethnic tensions due to the continued inflow of Han Chinese settlers, eventually resulted in a wave of separatist terrorism in the 1990s and 2000s, followed by a ruthless clampdown on the region by Chinese authorities. This eventually culminated in the ongoing Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Terrorism, which started in 2014.

Atajurt Eriktileri (Homeland Volunteers), a Kazakhstan-based human rights organisation in the forefront of advocating for the release of ethnic kin in Xinjiang, has documented thousands of cases of ethnic Kazakhs who have been incarcerated in China without a trial. Although the number of imprisoned Kazakhs is much smaller than the several hundred thousand Uyghurs currently detained in prison camps, Atajurt has done most to highlight the plight of all ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

Yet, as China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) brings a surge of investment into Kazakhstan, deepening ties between the two countries place Astana in a delicate position amid domestic concerns over the repression of the Xinjiang Kazakhs.

Crossroads Khorgos

About a hundred kilometres by road to the northwest of Yining, on the Chinese side of the Sino-Kazakh border, lies Khorgos. This newly planned town with a skyline that, from a distance, rivals that of any major European city, is part of a recently created special economic zone. It includes a massive area full of highways, warehouses, manufacturing sites, residential areas for workers and their families, and a duty-free shopping zone.

Khorgos is key to Beijing’s BRI. This multi-billion infrastructure development strategy, colloquially known as the New Silk Road, aims to expand China’s economic and political influence around the globe by boosting trade connections between East and West. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as heightened instability in the wider Middle East, the route passing through Khorgos – the shortest overland transport route to Europe – has rapidly grown in importance. 

That strategic relevance is also visible on the Kazakh side of the border. Here, Khorgos transforms from a geopolitical pivot into a logistical hub. The importance of Khorgos lies in the fact that the Chinese operate with a different track gauge, so any rail transport making its way to Europe has to change trains here. This happens just inside Kazakhstan, on a vast asphalted harbour-like complex, surrounded by barbed wire fence and dense with brightly-coloured shipping containers, towering cranes, and a warren of railway tracks. 

This infrastructure, together with additional roads and railways for onward transport, has been financed with Chinese loans. Critics of the BRI have voiced concerns about what they call “debt-trap diplomacy”. This alleged strategy, however, has been repeatedly disproven by experts. In the case of Kazakhstan, Nargiza Muratalieva, associate professor at the American University of Central Asia, states that “[s]trong institutions, public understanding, a diversified loan portfolio, and sustainable projects” allow Kazakhstan to effectively manage its debt.

That is not to say there are no risks to deepening economic ties with China. China is facing considerable economic challenges, as it struggles with deflation and an ageing population. These internal problems could easily spillover into BRI countries. Should Kazakhstan continue to take on BRI-related investments in the long term, infrastructure projects like Khorgos might become a liability. 

Views on China

China has come to recognise growing unease over its expanding economic footprint in Kazakhstan. Beijing has responded by promoting soft power initiatives, especially through boosting educational and cultural exchanges and increasing the production of Kazakh language content through Chinese media outlets. These efforts are aimed at moving beyond the elite-level political and economic ties China previously depended upon.

So far, this strategy has not been very successful. Apart from economic concerns, the (mis)treatment of ethnic kin in Xinjiang continues to influence public opinion on China in Kazakhstan. Over the past few years, several demonstrations have been organised to protest against China’s Xinjiang policy.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s government under President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has been mostly silent on this issue. Although the resettlement of several thousand ethnic kin from China has given the impression that Astana is trying to address the situation with Beijing, the country’s political leadership carefully avoids direct criticism. Tragic but true, the pursuit of economic interests undercuts any meaningful response to human rights abuses on the other side of the border. 

Read more on Novastan: China in Central Asia: Fact-checking and myth-busting

The awarded reportage Kazakhstan-Xinjiang, the Border of Tears describes how many Kazakh survivors, upon their return to Kazakhstan, face indifference with regard to their experiences in China: “All the violence they have endured is not recognised, and seems to exist only in their private lives: denied by the Kazakh authorities, generally ignored by civil society, invisible to the medical community.”

In recent years, Astana has tried to actively thwart activists and grassroots organisations concerned with the suffering of Xinjiang Kazakhs. Most notably, in 2019, Atajurt Eriktileri’s founder and frontman Serikzhan Bilash was charged for inciting inter-ethnic hatred and arrested. When he was released after seven months of detention, he was forced to leave Kazakhstan. Attempts by his organisation to enter national politics were obstructed by the authorities, and little has been heard about these efforts. 

The BRI paradox

To pre-empt domestic unrest linked to China’s Xinjiang policy, Kazakhstan’s government is committed to making the BRI work. The latest Central Asia Barometer shows a correlation between the current boom in trade between China and Kazakhstan and more favourable views on China, especially among the youth. This finding reveals a striking paradox. Kazakhstan’s growing economic dependence on China could be softening Sinophobic sentiment – even as the BRI facilitates the repression of Muslims in Xinjiang, a cause that has provoked outrage among Kazakhs. 

In China, BRI projects have gone hand-in-hand with a sharpening of security measures. The new highway connecting Khorgos with Yining, for example, is strewn with police checkpoints, and at airports and train stations throughout Xinjiang security controls are strict and time-consuming. The Chinese government has long perceived the expression of minority identity as an obstacle to regional development and worked to pacify separatist resistance.

Scholars have argued that the economic benefits of BRI-related infrastructure development befall disproportionately upon the non-local Han Chinese population, while the ethnic minorities of Xinjiang have played a significant role in the workforce behind BRI projects — possibly under conditions that amount to forced labour. If true, these findings would suggest that the promise of the BRI would sooner increase than diminish regional inequalities. 

Ultimately, managing the fine line between fostering economic development and addressing human rights issues leaves Kazakhstan in a tricky situation. The ongoing struggles of ethnic Kazakhs in China highlight the significant tensions that form a major obstacle for further rapprochement between Kazakhstan and China.

Julian Postulart for Lossi 36

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The 70th anniversary of Xinjiang, China’s Uyghur region, was celebrated with great fanfare in Ürümqi. The ceremony was marked by the presence of Xi Jinping, the first Chinese president to attend this event.

From September 23 to 25, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region celebrated its 70th anniversary with a gala. Among those present were Chinese President Xi Jinping and members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, Wang Huning and Cai Qi. Officially established in 1955, this region, which is central to the development of China’s “New Silk Road,” has been the focus of tensions between Beijing and the Uyghur minority for decades.

The gala, titled “Beautiful Xinjiang,” served as a tool for internal and external communication, conveying political themes and thus going beyond the purely artistic. Xi Jinping gave a short speech in which he repeatedly addressed the issues of security and stability in Xinjiang.

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“Ensuring social stability and lasting peace”

Xi’s speech to local authorities focused on social control as well as security. The president emphasized the comprehensive efforts to maintain social stability in Xinjiang and to raise public awareness of the fight against terrorism. According to the official Xinhua news agency, Xi said it was imperative to promote a strong awareness of the Chinese nation as a community in Xinjiang and to advance the development of this community.

The emphasis on security serves to justify the continued existence of an extensive security apparatus. It accompanies the publication of the “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Guidelines for Governing Xinjiang in the New Era: Practices and Achievements” by the State Council Information Office, the CCP’s new doctrine for the future of the region.

In the 42-page document, Beijing proclaims a “historic success” in the fight against terrorism and points out that there have been no violent attacks for several years; the last one dates back to May 22, 2014. To justify maintaining the reinforced security apparatus, Beijing denounces “Panturkism” and “Pan-Islamism” as existential threats and implicitly cites the Al Qaeda-affiliated “Islamic Party of Turkestan” (IPT), which now cooperates with the Syrian Ministry of Defense.

Read also on Novastan: Total surveillance, segregation, and internment in Xinjiang: a discreet report on the daily life of the Uyghurs

The text also justifies surveillance, re-education, and religious control policies as legal and preventive measures, while rejecting Western accusations of “genocide” and “forced labor.”

The CCP also welcomes the region’s economic development: regional GDP is expected to grow from 750 billion yuan (€90.8 billion) in 2012 to more than 2 trillion yuan (€242.1 billion) in 2024. Beijing highlights poverty reduction, rapid urbanization, and the creation of the Xinjiang pilot free trade zone in 2023, which is part of the Eurasian “New Silk Roads” corridor, an international logistics and transport infrastructure network announced in 2013.

Erasure and appropriation of Uyghur culture

No explicit mention was made of the repression and internment camps imposed on the Uyghur population since 2014, which have been regularly denounced by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). A UHRP report dated April 25, 2024, states that one in 26 individuals in Xinjiang, mainly Uyghurs or non-Han Chinese, were imprisoned in 2024, representing nearly one-third of China’s total prison population. Yet these same populations represent only 1% of the national population.

Although there are no comprehensive official data on the exact number of internment camps in the Xinjiang region, NGOs such as the UHRP estimate that at least 578,500 people were incarcerated between 2017 and 2022, not counting those still detained in the camps. The Uyghur region has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 2,234 prisoners per 100,000 individuals. A study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank has identified approximately 380 detention centers in operation since 2017 using satellite imagery.

Read also on Novastan: Escape from Xinjiang – Stories of those who escaped the camps

But current Chinese doctrine now emphasizes the concept of the “Chinese nation community.” This involves actively promoting standard Mandarin in education, encouraging cultural and urban fusion, and strengthening control over religious institutions so that Islam and other religions are “compatible with socialism.”

In addition, the CCP promotes selective preservation of local heritage (sites in Kucha, Turfan, Kashi, and Kashgar), integrated into a Chinese historical narrative, as well as the predominance of Han culture in education and public life.

Rewriting history

The document presents Xinjiang’s policy as a model of national governance, combining security, cultural assimilation, economic development, and ideological control. It seeks to legitimize the CCP’s actions in the face of international criticism by framing the region’s governance within the logic of “Chinese-style modernization,” similar to the situation in Tibet, where Beijing has exercised military domination and implemented policies of assimilation of the population for 75 years.

Between the CCP’s centralizing tendencies and persistent jihadist threats, Xinjiang remains a flashpoint for tensions, caught between security and repression.

Lenny Cabrol Noto for Novastan

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The men of the family enjoy a quiet moment under the roof of the yurt. The interior walls of the single room are lined with a fabric printed with typical Kazakh motifs. On the floor, the carpet combines a traditional Kazakh ram’s horn motif with a Chinese-inspired floral bouquet. The must-have mobile phone adds a surprisingly modern touch.

Turar Kazangapov, Kazakh photojournalist with Tengrinews, recently travelled to Xinjiang in China, where many Kazakhs, Uighurs, Dungans and Chinese live. He observed and documented Kazakh daily life and came away convinced that Kazakh customs and traditions are still preserved in many places.

Credits : Turar Kazangapov (@Kazangapov.t, Kazakhstan)

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At the table, mutton fat is considered to be the best and noblest part of the meat, which is offered to guests to honour them. On the markets, the fat tail is sold on its own. It is said to have a thousand virtues, including medicinal ones, particularly for relieving pain caused by the cold.

Turar Kazangapov, Kazakh photojournalist with Tengrinews, recently travelled to Xinjiang in China, where many Kazakhs, Uighurs, Dungans and Chinese live. He observed and documented Kazakh daily life and came away convinced that Kazakh customs and traditions are still preserved in many places.

Credits : Turar Kazangapov (@Kazangapov.t, Kazakhstan)

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On the table, melons, watermelons, sweets, biscuits, fried bread (boorsock), pyramids of sangza (a Uighur speciality of fried noodles) and, of course, bowls of tea. Behind the table, facing the entrance to the yurt, the host and guest of honour, and on either side, the men and women of the family.

Turar Kazangapov, Kazakh photojournalist with Tengrinews, recently travelled to Xinjiang in China, where many Kazakhs, Uighurs, Dungans and Chinese live. He observed and documented Kazakh daily life and came away convinced that Kazakh customs and traditions are still preserved in many places.

Credits : Turar Kazangapov (@Kazangapov.t, Kazakhstan)

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In front of his yurt set up for the summer in the province of Khorgos, on the border between China and Kazakhstan, the owner welcomes a guest by pouring water over his hands.

Turar Kazangapov, Kazakh photojournalist with Tengrinews, recently travelled to Xinjiang in China, where many Kazakhs, Uighurs, Dungans and Chinese live. He observed and documented Kazakh daily life and came away convinced that Kazakh customs and traditions are still preserved in many places.

Credits : Turar Kazangapov (@Kazangapov.t, Kazakhstan)

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Residents of Karadala, in the Khorgos province of Xinjiang, visit the graves of their ancestors on the outskirts of the village. And the atmosphere is rather cheerful.

Turar Kazangapov, Kazakh photojournalist with Tengrinews, recently travelled to Xinjiang in China, where many Kazakhs, Uighurs, Dungans and Chinese live. He observed and documented Kazakh daily life and came away convinced that Kazakh customs and traditions are still preserved in many places.

Credits : Turar Kazangapov (@Kazangapov.t, Kazakhstan)

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Turar Kazangapov, Kazakh photojournalist with Tengrinews, recently travelled to Xinjiang in China, where many Kazakhs, Uighurs, Dungans and Chinese live. He observed and documented Kazakh daily life and came away convinced that Kazakh customs and traditions are still preserved in many places. Such is the case of this elderly woman, still wearing her traditional costume.

Credits : Turar Kazangapov (@Kazangapov.t, Kazakhstan)

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The impressive 3-floor ruins of an ancient Buddhist Stupa belonging the ancient city of Karakhoja or Qocho near the modern town of Turpan in present-day Xinjiang, China. This Stupa dates back to the 6th to 7th centuries and features Buddhist shrines on all four sides. Photo: The Editorial

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View on the Kunlun mountain range, where they intersect with the Pamir mountain from the city of Kashgar in the Uyghur region of western China, administratively called Xinjiang. The Kunlun Mountains border the Taklamakan desert on more than 3000 kilometers, forming the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau.Credit: The Editorial

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The Emin minaret in Turpan, Xinjiang, China, is the tallest minaret in China with a 44 meters height. It was built in the late 18th century and has an unique rocket-like shape. Credit: Our Editorial

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The minarets of the central street of Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang province of China. The left minaret is a pale replica of the famous Bukhara main minaret and is an observation tower, while the Mosque on the right is now a shopping mall. Credit: The Editorial

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A street partly covered by a mosque in the old town of Kashgar in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, which has been left untouched by the heavy restauration of the past decade. Credit: The Editorial Find all of our photos of the day here.

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Some Chinese tourist visiting the Apaq Khodja Mausoleum, in the Xinjiang region. Built in 1640 to be the tomb of Muhammad Yusuf, a Sufi master from the Bukhara-based Naqshbandi Sufi order. It however holds the name of its son, Apaq Khoja, who is one of the most famous Sufi figures of this part of Central Asia, making this mausoleum, one of the holiest places for Muslims of the region. Credit: The Editorial

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Some merchant carrying dry fruits and nuts on his bike to get to the bazar of Kashgar in Xinjiang.Credit: The Editorial

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Kashgar central square at night offers some street food and a fresh breeze after the burning sun of the day. Credit: The Editorial Find all of our photos of the day here.

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A Chinese tourist taking a picture with a Uyghur hat next to an old uyghur musician in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. Credit: The Editorial Find all of our photos of the day here.

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A traditional tapchan, or karvat in Uyghur, a table on a large bed for eating and drinking outdoors. This is the way to relax when the heat of summer strikes somewhere in the north of the Uyghur region in western China called Xinjiang. Credit: The Editorial

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A mosque, a flag and a surveillance camera in the old town of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China.Credit: Editorial Find all of our photos of the day here.

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