China's problems with the Uyghurs (Documentary from 2014 in HD) 

Some videos promise much but deliver little, yours promised little but delivered a lot! Great video and very much insight into complex issues. Great work, keep it up!

Some of those tourists were so damn intrusive! How could you just walk into someone's home and start snapping pictures two inches from their face. Just because you can doesn't mean you should!

I started crying when they went inside the house without permission. My heart breaks for them.

You don't need permission to enter an Uyghur's house if you're with the tour? Even thought it's allowed, I can't in good conscience to do that to anyone. I truly feel for the Uyghurs. Man, this really sucks. Thank you for opening my eyes, is there any petitions that I can sign to help the Uyghurs in any ways, please let me know.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.” ~Karl Popper

The Uyghurs are not of 'Turkish' origin, they are of TURKIC origin. 'Turkish' would imply that they originated in the modern-day Anatolian nation of Turkey, which they obviously did not.

When journalist aren't welcomed you know there is something not right happening there.

They have turned an entire civilization into human zoo. This is so heartbreaking. I"m from Turkmenistan. The cultral and linguistic difference between us, if we were Cicily, they'd be Italy. I understand some of the songs and local speech that cames through :( Here is a crazy fact: Geagraphically East Turkistan (That's it's proper name btw) is closer to Turkey, then Beijing. Their language, culture, history, is all Turkic. They have nothing to do with China. It blew my mind when I ran into a Uygur man in the Netherlands. I overherad him speaking to his son in this language.. that sounded like a mix of Uzbek, Turkmen and Kyrgyz.. and I understood about 50% what he was saying. Totally baffled I approached him and just spoke in my native Turken and asked "Excuse me sir, where are you from". Just as baffled he replied in Uygur "I'm from East Turkistan". My jaw dropped to my feet.

This is heartbreaking. It left me with tears after watching it. 😔

This video is deeply, deeply disturbing. Watching the Chinese tourists shove cameras in the man's face made me sick. The entire region is a giant minstrel show.

The amount of control is scary. And since then the Chinese have been tightening down even more. Amazed by the candor of the Uyghur bus guide.

I'm a Muslim from India researching on Chinese elimination of Ughiyurs. So far, I couldn't find a single Muslim nation raising voice against such atrocities but Bangladesh is an only exception.

Pure disrespectful to those people 😭😭 and still today nothing being done to help them by the rest of the world because its not financially worth it to intervene, 😒

Well, the Uyghurs may have no choice in whether they act like circus animals for tourists, but tourists have a choice in whether they will make them smile for the camera, or take pictures in their houses, or make them wear a 'traditional hat'. I love seeing the world, but I hate the way tourists behave.

How demeaning to see these people shamelessly treated like performing circus animals - and the "joyful" dancing is just the beginning. The unannounced intrusion at 15:20 into a "living household museum", and the utter disrespect shown at 16:40 to the worker having his lunch, mirror the same lack of manners that earns mainland Chinese tourists a poor reputation when they travel abroad.

This is actually heartbreaking how they use people and invade their privacy for tourism

I literally cried when I saw them demolish such an important piece of World Heritage... It's a biiig crime amongst all the others against humans... Amazing journalism!

What we humans do to each other is so sad.

sarcasm is strong from the female tour guide. I really appreciate Uyghurs' courage and perseverance.

Great work no one knows not this more but your efforts people know what's happening in Chinese do with people of Uyghur...I wish humanity will be stand one day...Hope and light of grace

Bless indigenous people of this country.. Love you from native Itaukei indigenous peoples of Fiji island.

So you can just walk into a person home and just taking pictures of them the most annoying part was when the tourist made the man on his lunch break put on a traditional hat and took like 100 pictures he could not even enjoy his lunch so intrusive

China's dream: Grab every neighbor's land...including waters (south china sea)

The USA did the same thing to Indigenous Natives Americans in the mid 1800's.

There is a mistake in the beginning - they are of TURKIC, not Turkish origin, much like nearby Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

A heartbreaking after seeing this and no one is paying attention real media is hard to find these days thank you for the video and honesty

Am sorry but I am a British white male from Liverpool England and I absolutely love what the Chinese have done!!!!! Am sorry but if they want people who want to live on their land play by the rules set by the government fair bloody play, unlike Britain who allow schools for Muslim children not even on the nations coriculem to invoke hatred towards the country they where born in! And push jihad onto Britain’s Muslim Children , yes this is the extreme end of the spectrum and many if not most Muslim people in Britain are good people, every race colour creed has there problems, but I also think if the country wants to set rules well the country can do what they like. Well done China

Omg I feel so sad for these people who everyday are invaded of their privacy by tourists! So cruel, sad and evil!

Why do I feel like so many people featured in this video are now in camps

People are entering someone's house without permission this is shocking

I'm really sad, no words can explain or even explain how I feel watching this,...

Uygur soydaşlarımız için çok üzgünüz, dua ediyoruz sizler için, keşke Türk devleti sizi koruyabilse..😢😢

The first time China claim the sovereignty of XingJiang is 200 BC,1200 years before Uighur arrive, China are not colonizing XingJiang, they offered Uighur a place to stay and Uighur start thinking they own the XingJiang after several generations

A relative visited China in the 1990s and was disgusted that a tour bus stopped at Chinese electric workers homes, but in the same way, the tour guide encouraged Western tourists (made up predominantly of teachers!) to go into people's homes and have a good look around. They had free electricity, but their supply was cut off at curfew hours. Back on the tour bus, one teacher delighted in sharing with the group of how she had gone into a workers home and looked through their clothes drawers and basically had a good route around. My relative reprimanded her, saying, where do you live? How would you like a tour bus of strangers pulling up outside your house and having a good dig around your home and personal items? I believe it was the workers day off, when they were able to eat together. The turfing out of people from their homes to make way for an Olympic village was also disgraceful. The Chinese Olympic Games should have been boycotted, but our collective Western governments turn a blind eye to this outrageous treatment of ordinary poor human beings. Communism supported by Capitalist greed! I can't blame athletes for wanting to compete after years of training, but I can blame governments and the Olympics commission for allowing China to host them.

I don't know why but this feels very sad like this people have lost all hope and are just surviving. Like they know their enemy is formidable and there no point to fighting it. I just hope I am wrong.

Those policemen were saluting the agents from Ministry of State Security posing as tourists inside each of your buses.

I couldn't treat someone like a circus animal even if they don't have a say in the matter, this is unacceptable.

Okay just walking into someone's home like that with bunch of tourist is just unbelievable, a home is private. They didn't ask or anything and though they didn't verbally protest you could see the dislike of it in their body movements and eyes. Markets and public places are different but invading their homes just boggles my mind. Watching it made me uncomfortable.

That "fancy" street in Kashgar seems to be a human zoo created for tourists and foreign journalists.

What can we do, what can I do, this is really really heart breaking 💔

1984 is being played out while the rest of the world is asleep.

The title of the video should be more like "The suffering of the Uyghurs under China"

I still remember, there is this old uyghur man denied from entering the old kashgar town while I, a foreigner, is allowed entry. China is pimping out xinjiang to tourists for money, I felt sorry for uyghurs.

The last piece about the teacher being forced to teach in Chinese bears close resemblance to an episode in Irish History when the native Irish were forced to learn English, the langauge of their colonial masters, and abandon their native Irish tongue. Today the irish language is practically dead, despite 90 years of efforts by the independent Irish Republic to revive it as an everday spoken language. Similar acts of cultural vandalism have been carried out by larger European countries against their smaller less powerful neighbours, such as between Brittany and France, Catalonia and Galicia and Spain etc. Small language populations have a tough time preserving their differences and unique cultures everywhere. I bet that in time the old Uighers will die out and their descendants will look back on their own culture with shame and try to embrace Han culture as the "modern" way. This is how cultural Imperialism works.

Some Uyghurs went to European. Yes, some went to Syria, and became ISIS soldiers. Yes, at end of this video the teacher should teach her students history, that three or four hundred years ago Uyghurs were Buddhist and heir ancestor were forced to convert to Islam.

This documentary is based on the opinions of Westerners. It would be fair to have the opinions of locals.

I hope these people who dared talk durung the video would be safe . Thank you

I didn't expect China is very bad like this. I keep praying for the Uyghur now with all my friends around the world!!! If the Uyghur people have no weapon, our prayers are their weapons. We are a big team!

This tour is very controlled. Let's hear from the locals how things really are.

Shocking film, imagine living 24/7 in an exhibit with rude tourists, I would go insane

The Chinese treat the Uighurs exactly like Europeans treated colonial subjects: As curiosity at best, as less than human at worst. They ought to know better. Sad.

"Disneyland"... When truly ancient and so out-of-the-way sites like this are destroyed and replaced with fakerie, it's profoundly sad...

Things are more complicated than the documentary showed up. It always make me feel wronged or grieved that some normal behaviors can be twisted into vicious actions. That's why the western media always makes me feel sick and angry. If you date back to the history, Xinjiang became an important Chinese province for more than 2000 years, far earlier than when the Islam religion was created. Even in the recent history, Uighurs are not just victims. There are more than 20 ethnic groups living in Xinjiang, a lot of other smaller ethnic groups be bullied by the Uighurs. I dislike the central government's dumb behaviors of destroy the ancient town and the solemn social control, but I absolutely do not think the human right situation in Xinjiang could be any better if the western style democracy or independence of Uighurs was practiced in this beautiful land. If the documentary really want to be as objective as it claimed to be, please do a comparison between Xinjiang and Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan before you trying to sell you shabby western style core value.

When they escort a tour like this it means that they are worried about getting ambushed.

This is basically What the Soviets did to the people in Baltic countries.

China is on right path..If thay don't control Uigur, they can creat Kashmir like situation.

Thank you, Wocomo, for an eye opening trekking into the back alleys of the Chinese society.

Old lady said she's ready to die what kind of life is this?

Fascinating and powerful film. Thank you.

Dam I cant imagine a cop stopping me asking a check my phone

Their eyes are the most painful to watch.... No spirit, hope or .....fire..... They are a conquered people..... being broken piece by piece

I travelled whole of those place when we were making silk road. I just believe these people must be happy that they are not end up like Afghanistan.

uygurs are uygurs, they are not chinese.

Free the Uyghurs! China stop oppression of Uyghurs!

If it wasn't for their religion the Uyghurs wouldn't have a problem.

One of the best docos on Uighurs! well done! We need you to go there again in 2018.

That is rude to invade someone's privacy.

When they took that working man's hat off his head and told him "Wear a traditional hat" that made me so angry. So rude and completely disrespectful of another human being.

No alcohol is a rule followed by many Muslims, but not in Xinjiang. To drink alcohol drink there is not offending the locals as the producer assumed. Why didn't he just ask?

I'm surpriesed by your ignorance. Xinjiang was totally under China's control since Qing Dynasty (at least 300 hundred years ago), even 1000 years ago in China's Tang dynasty, part of Xinjiang was also controlled by the king, but not since Mao's time (70 years ago). If you know little about thing, it is not wise to talk about it. Otherwise you will make yourself funny.

It's like watching a nightmare, or some kind of dystopian horror film. The lack of respect for these people is staggering...

This presenter practiced double standard also. Xinjiang has been part of China ever since Han Dynasty, even before Islam and Buddhism were born. Xinjiang at one time was under Buddhism and other beliefs including Christian etc.. French, British, Dutch and many other Europeans came into China proper to colonize all parts of China in 1800s and 1900s before the Japanese invaded China during the second world war. China was almost gone during that shameful period. Thanks be to God for His vindication; now China has been back to her own two feet again but CCP is not the best ruler for the Chinese but Islam is even worse!!! No European powers are qualified to speak against China taking back her land from Islamic and other regional powers because they themselves are hypocrites. They should read their own colonial history in China, in Asia, in Africa etc.... Shame on this broadcaster!!!

Xing Jiang became part of Han dynasty in 60 BC, and had been completely ruled by the last dynasty in China, Qin dynasty for over 300 years. In general, Xin Jiang has always been a part of China

Barely see any hijab, no Burka, female Uygur tour guide in short sleeves and well educated to be able to speak good English. Notice any thing else?

I try to avoid buying anything made in China & you should too.

The woman in the tour bus is literally a robot.

Sure just bring the tour group through my house. Insanity.

Please,make the document after knowing the fact that xinjiang is not just a soil for uhgur people. In this land, live more than 10 minority peoples

This documentary made me so mad and speechless. My heart breaks for them. I hope we can change their world into a better one .

Such a sad situation, yet so important to get that message out to the world. I feel things are starting to change for the better, but it is still a long road.

Felt bad for these innocent people. They are deprived of their basic rights.

Drinking alcohol is very common in Uyghur (and central Asian) communities. The commentator tried to make it like a Chinese influence but actually it is not

This was so uncomfortable to watch, if the government would stop oppressing the people there wouldn't be so much anger

Holy the other tourists are so disrespectful to the residents….

I am 68 years old Persian, born in in north east of Iran, Turkic speaking region. Afghanistan is between where I was born and the city of Kashkar ( Qashqa'r). Now retired Engineer in California after 45 years. I said these about myself , so the reader get the feeling who is speaking. Before coming to California at age 25, I did not know anything about west China and its people. Surprisingly I leaned that there are some 20 to 50 thousands Tajiks( east Persians) live in western part of Xin-Jia'ng. I learned all these from public TV and later from this same YOU TUBE. Now I even know name of some of Uyghur female singers like: Ms. Se-nowbar, (Persian name, three petal flower) and Perha't ( Turkic version of my Persian name, Farha'd). Learned that people celebrate the Persian new year and Culture has lots of Persian overlaps, ( same as greater Iran having lots of Turkic cultural elements). Some ancient cities like Turfan have old Persian name. Ancient water tunnel system has the original Persian name , while Iranians use the Arabic name for that Persian invented water transport tunnels and wells. People and general population are very good looking because they are mixture of many ethnicity, being major hub of the Silk Road. I regret that Chinese government is melting out the culture and identity of Uyghurs, while at the beginning of Revolution treated that small minority with lots of respect and re- established their writing alpha-bet, while China itself does not have alpha-bet therefore learning Chinese writing for us is almost impossible.( hopefully Xin-jia'ng be the machine for Pin-Yin, the alpha-bet for Chinese writing ). In conclusion, I need to say this:, Chinese in last 300 hundred years at least did not commit genocide of Uyghurs , like Anglo-Saxon did to Native Americans. Chinese did not put nearly two million of Uyghurs in prisons like today's American government doing to African -Americans. Also not like French doings to Algerians, English doings to Indians and Africans. Producer forgot to mention that the English colonizers started aggitation in Xin-jia'ng as early as 19 century by bringing Ottoman Turkish officers to start guerrilla wars in there against government. Still to this day that agitation is being continued by CIA and American government, the inheritors to British empire.

i am a foregin student living in beijing china. i sincerely thank you for making this documentary. i had no idea about these people and what they face. hopefully i can visit this place to see for myself .

Whether it is uygur women or Chinese women, or Indian women or American women, all women must be treated with dignity and respect without which there is no life in living. It is like living in a dead corpse.

Interesting, but doesn't change my opinions in the slightest.

This is what happens when a bronze age religious culture faces off against a modern powerful state. I don't think this documentary is having the effect the makers hoped for. People realize, that the Chinese have ruled this area for thousands of years and it is prospering under their guidance more than it ever did under backwards, dogmatic Muslims. If this hastens the end of Islam, it is for the greater good. With over 1.3 billions of people they have many problems, but China was here before any western democracy now in existence and has been adapting to the modern world remarkably well. They have a tradition of order and centralized government. It's not the western way, but it is the Chinese way.

31:30 "the Chinese authorities have changed the Qur'anic Surahs [its translation into Turkic Uyghur] to make them compatible with communist principles" is the key phrase in the documentary.

Thank you for opening our eyes to true Chinese character

Thank you for sharing this!

My friend went their over the summer for some volunteer work. He told me that they had extreme security. At every restaurant/public gathering place there are armed guards and metal detectors, police stations/post every 100 meters. Not to mention state of the art facial recognition software. So safe to say (no pun intended), it’s quite secure.

Great Video, I loved it :)

The curse of oli: millions of Muslims have died in the MIddle East and some have died in Xinjiang and some impirionse din Xinjiang. I am an American economist who spent 12 years in China.

That's why china is getting stronger, country's interest must come first.

The beauty of their culture is AMAZING!

I just hope that when the Uyghurs take matters in their own hands, they'll save the life of the bus presenter lady.

Nice video on beautiful Xinjiang and I won't comments on the politics. But I cannot help noticing how clean and nice the roads are, people with modern bikes and even the people who complained, were in a nice modern air conditioner car with leather seats. (OK, I could be wrong here because it could be the journalist rented car). Overall, the entire place looks much better than the poor folks in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria etc., places that other countries had tried the same "help to liberate and improve" the lives of those people. Still, thank you for showing the beautiful and ancient Xinjiang and its people....Cheers.

That was a very powerful documentary. I didn't realize this was happening on the scale it was. Not only here but in many places around the world. Keep colonizers out of your country, regions, and areas. They didn't mean you well.