For Uyghur children in Xinjiang, childhood has increasingly unfolded under a system where education, language, family life and cultural identity are closely regulated by the Chinese state. Human Rights Watch has documented cases in which children whose parents were detained or living abroad were placed in state-run institutions and boarding schools, sometimes without parental consent or meaningful access to relatives.
From Family Homes to State Institutions
The most serious concerns emerged alongside Beijing’s wider crackdown in Xinjiang after 2017. As large numbers of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims were detained, children were sometimes left without one or both parents. Authorities responded by expanding boarding schools, child-welfare institutions and other state facilities.
A 2026 Human Rights Watch assessment cited an estimate that more than 140,000 children in southern Xinjiang were separated from their parents between 2017 and 2018, largely because of arbitrary detention. The organization said the subsequent situation of some of these children remains unclear.
This separation has created a generation whose family relationships have been disrupted by policies they had no role in shaping.
Education as an Instrument of Assimilation
Schools occupy a central place in this system. Rather than simply providing academic instruction, critics say education policies have increasingly emphasized linguistic and cultural conformity.
Human Rights Watch has reported that boarding-school children have been taught predominantly in Mandarin, while the use of Uyghur language and religious expression has faced increasing restrictions. Earlier reporting also documented schools surrounded by extensive fencing and surveillance, raising concerns about the highly controlled environment in which children were being educated.
For Uyghur families, the issue therefore extends beyond the classroom. Language is closely connected to family history, literature, religion and cultural identity. When children spend much of their formative years in institutions where Mandarin and state-approved narratives dominate, the ability of families to pass those traditions from one generation to the next can be weakened.
Religion and Cultural Identity
Restrictions on religious expression have also affected Uyghur children. Human Rights Watch has documented longstanding restrictions on minors participating in religious activities in Xinjiang, alongside limits on religious teaching within and outside schools.
The broader crackdown has also targeted elements of Uyghur cultural and religious life. Human Rights Watch’s assessment of the situation has described policies affecting religious practices, cultural traditions and family structures as part of a broader campaign of forced assimilation.
For children, the consequences can be particularly profound. Childhood is when language, traditions, religious understanding and family identity are normally absorbed naturally. Restricting those channels can reshape identity long before a child is old enough to understand the political forces behind those restrictions.
A Generation Growing Up Apart
The effects are not limited to children inside Xinjiang. Uyghur families living overseas have frequently reported losing contact with relatives in the region. Restrictions on travel and communication have made it difficult for parents abroad to maintain relationships with their children.
Human Rights Watch has described cases in which parents detained by Chinese authorities were separated from their children, while other children remained in Xinjiang after parents left the country. Some families went years without knowing precisely where their children were or what conditions they were living under.
The result is an unusual form of intergenerational separation: parents lose access to their children, while children grow up without normal contact with parents, grandparents and extended family members who would ordinarily transmit their cultural heritage.
Control Beyond the Classroom
The education system operates within a much wider surveillance and security structure. Human Rights Watch has previously documented extensive use of cameras, facial recognition, checkpoints and data-driven policing across Xinjiang.
That environment means childhood itself can become subject to monitoring—not simply academic performance, but language, religious practice, family connections and behavior.
The concern is therefore not about boarding schools in isolation. It is about how schooling fits into a broader system in which the state has extraordinary influence over what children learn, which language they use, whom they live with and how closely they can remain connected to their families.
Beijing’s Narrative vs. Families’ Concerns
Chinese authorities have consistently presented their Xinjiang policies as measures designed to promote development, stability, education and counter-extremism. Beijing has rejected allegations that its policies constitute systematic cultural repression.
But human-rights organizations argue that economic development cannot justify separating children from their families or restricting their cultural and religious identity. Human Rights Watch has characterized the wider abuses in Xinjiang as potentially constituting crimes against humanity.
The central question is therefore simple: Can a child’s education truly be considered beneficial when the process comes at the cost of family separation and cultural autonomy?
The Cost of Losing Childhood
The deepest impact of these policies may not be visible immediately. A child who grows up separated from parents may lose years of ordinary family life. A child educated primarily in a language different from that spoken by grandparents may gradually lose linguistic connections. A child prevented from learning about the family’s religious and cultural traditions may inherit a fragmented understanding of their own heritage.
These consequences accumulate over time.
The concern raised by rights groups is that Beijing’s expanding control over childhood is not merely about controlling schools—it is about shaping the next generation before it has the freedom to decide what identity it wants to inherit.
For Uyghur families, the struggle is consequently about more than education. It is about whether children will be able to grow up with their families, speak their ancestral language, understand their cultural traditions and maintain an identity that exists independently of state policy.
