The Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims from the Central Asian region. The Uyghurs are one of many oppressed Muslim minorities in Xinjiang, including the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, and Hui.

This region's name insinuates the Uyghurs have sovereignty and self-governance. But just like Tibet, Xinjiang is a thoroughly controlled region of China.

The Uighur recognize themselves as the aboriginal inhabitants of Xinjiang, which is also described as "East Turkistan." Experts say that many of the Turkic-speaking Uighurs feel friendlier to the Central Asian states than China and so they demanded a separate homeland or at least a greater autonomy for their region alone on seeing the rise in the autonomous mindset of the people and the Uighur separatist movements, Beijing had taken several measures to toughen its hold on Xinjiang. 

Why does China want to take control over Uyghur?

The Uyghurs are identified by the Chinese government merely as a regional minority within a multicultural nation. The Chinese government is completely against the notion of Uyghurs being an autonomous group. Xinjiang has traditionally been an agricultural region but is also rich in minerals and oil, and therefore serves a great portion in boosting the Chinese economy.

Nominal GDP was about 932.4 billion RMB (US$140 billion) as of 2015 with an average annual increase of 10.4% for the past four years all of this was due to the discovery of the rich reserves of coal, oil, gas as well. 

With China gaining so much from this region they didn't want to lose his region and the rise of an autonomous ideolog of the people made China annex his region. China had started viewing as a "mental illness" and developing re-education camps to forcefully brainwash Muslims.

Chinese authorities announced their plan to "Sinicize Islam" through a five-year plan. According to a report published in the state-run Global Times newspaper, on January 4, Chinese provinces participated in a Beijing seminar and discussed the outline for how to align Islam with Chinese norms. A government official said it was important for China's Muslim society to "improve their political stance and follow the [Communist] Party's lead."

What is the state Muslims in Uyghur?

The official figures released by Chinese authorities show the population of Uyghurs within the Xinjiang region to be over 12 million, comprising around half of the total provincial population.

China is treating Islam like a "Mental Illness". Muslims were arrested for bland reasons such as growing beards, wearing veils, calling family members abroad, applying for a passport, and having "too many" children. Re-education centers were set up to brainwash Muslims. After some "graduated" from these Re-education camps were sent to labor camps to work in factories and were forced to make cartons and clothes even though some had Ph.D. and Masters and decent jabs bu now he was being paid very little. They demolished more than 10,000 mosques, according to research. And demolished 150 mosques and religious sites using that satellite imagery. Muslims are no longer have the freedom to pray, fast, or perform any religious activity. Around 10 percent of the Uighur population of Xinjiang is locked up in re-education camps, according to the U.S. government and human rights organizations. The Chinese Communist Party maintains these centers and they are a crucial part of its effort to counter terror, extremism, and separatism.