
The People’s Republic of China has erased a number of village names that are culturally significant to the Uyghur people, replacing them with communist language, according to a report from the Human Rights Watch. The names of about 630 villages in the province of Xinjiang have been stripped of any references to Islam or uniquely Uyghur culture. Instead they have been secularized into Mandarin and replaced with terminology that is ideologically consistent with the PRC. For example, the Aq Meschit Village, meaning “white mosque,” has been diluted into the new...