TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — It’s a soulful folk song, full of feeling and history: A young man in love tells God about his hopes and dreams of happiness. Generations of Uighurs, the ethnic Turkic minority in China’s Xinjiang region, have played it at parties and weddings.
But today, if they download, play or share it online, they risk going to jail.
“Besh pede,” a popular Uyghur ballad, is among dozens of Uyghur-language songs deemed “problematic” by Xinjiang authorities, according to a recording of a meeting held by police and other local officials in the historic city of Kashgar last October. The recording was shared exclusively with The Associated Press by the Norwegian nonprofit Uyghur Hjelp.
During the meeting, authorities warned residents that those who listened to banned songs, stored them on their devices or shared them on social media risked imprisonment. Participants were also instructed to avoid expressions such as “As-salamu alaykum,” the common greeting among Muslims, and to replace the popular farewell phrase “Allahqa amanet,” meaning “May God keep you safe,” with “May the Communist Party protect you.”
The policy was corroborated by interviews with former Xinjiang residents whose family members, friends and acquaintances were detained for playing and distributing Uyghur music. The AP also obtained rare access to the court verdict of a Uyghur music producer sentenced last year to three years in prison for uploading to his cloud account deemed sensitive songs.
How a single song fits into a large repression
The renewed crackdown on cultural expression in Xinjiang, classified as an “autonomous region” but tightly controlled by the central government, suggests a continuation of the repressive policies of the past decade. They culminated in the extrajudicial detention between 2017 and 2019 of at least 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China, such as Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Hui, human rights activists and foreign governments claim.
In 2022, the United Nations accused China of rights abuses it said could amount to crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, where Beijing also faces allegations of forced labor, forced sterilizations and family separations as part of a wider assimilation campaign.
The Chinese government maintains its policies in Xinjiang are free of terrorism and religious extremism, after sporadic bouts of violence rocked the region in previous decades. Beijing doubled down on this narrative especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks brought counterterrorism policies into the accepted global mainstream.
“The Chinese government has cracked down on violent terrorist crimes and eradicated the breeding ground for religious extremism in accordance with the law, resolutely saving the development and stability of Xinjiang,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It added that “anti-China forces” had “maliciously exaggerated Xinjiang-related issues”, including by “linking audio and video recordings of Xinjiang departments suppressing the propaganda of violent terrorism and religious extremism, in accordance with the law, to certain regions, ethnicities and religions”.
Reached by phone, a government official in Xinjiang would not confirm whether a faxed request for comment had arrived and did not return subsequent calls from the AP.
A sign of the continuing repression in Xinjiang
After facing international backlash and sanctions over the alleged arbitrary internment of ethnic minorities, Beijing claimed in late 2019 that the detention camps had been closed and life had returned to normal in the region. China now aims to turn Xinjiang into a tourism destination.
While many of the most blatant signs of repression, such as internment camps and frequent traffic checkpoints, appear to have been decommissioned, the list of banned songs indicates that repression in Xinjiang continues, albeit more subtly, said Rian Thum, senior lecturer in East Asian history at the University of Manchester.
Other less visible forms of control include the expansion of boarding schools, where middle school students are educated while separated from their families and taught almost exclusively in Mandarin Chinese, and random checks of phones for sensitive material are common.
Chinese authorities, Thum said, appear to be normalizing a policy of long-term control in Xinjiang.
“I’m not at all surprised to hear these accounts of people either being threatened with detention or being detained or imprisoned for listening to the wrong music,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing that hasn’t stopped.”
Seven categories of “problem” songs.
During the meeting in Kashgar, authorities broadcast a pre-recorded message warning residents against listening to, downloading and sharing seven categories of so-called problematic songs.
These range from traditional folk ballads such as “Besh pede” to newer songs that have emerged from the Uyghur diaspora. “Besh pede” has been flagged for its religious content, although the song hardly incites religious extremism, said Rachel Harris, professor of ethnomusicology at SOAS University of London.
Religion is mentioned in the context of romantic tropes, with exhortations such as “Oh God, I love you!” said Harris, who focuses on Uighur culture.
“That’s very clearly the problem,” she said.
Targeting religious expression has been a cornerstone of China’s repression. The Communist Party is suspicious of any community organization, especially regarding religions. In the past decade, residents have been detained for praying, fasting and storing religious books; mosques have been reused or stripped of their authentic role.
Music “became part of my upbringing, and removing it is like removing the soul,” said Rahima Mahmut, a London-based Uyghur singer and activist who performs religious songs abroad.
Even songs once featured on state television were banned. “As-salamu alaykum,” a pop song that begins with the Islamic greeting recited in the style of a call to prayer, was performed on Xinjiang state television’s “The Voice of the Silk Road” talent show, a spin-off of “The Voice.”
The show aired in 2016, the year China began to step up its crackdown on Uyghurs. Now the song is banned for “forcing people to believe in religion”.
Another category of problematic songs: those “that incite terrorism, extremism and slander the Chinese Communist Party government in Xinjiang.” Among the songs listed is “Yanarim Yoq,” a song based on the poem “No Road Back Home” by imprisoned Uighur poet Abduqadir Jalalidin. The painful song, evoking entrapment and despair, has spread throughout the diaspora in recent years; one of its most popular interpretations is by Turkish artists Kilich and Yenilmes.
“Atilar” or “Forefathers”, by the famous Uighur musician Abdurehim Heyit, is also accused of inciting terrorism and extremism. The nationalist song was likely flagged for depicting Uighur ancestors as battle-ready martyrs, Harris said.
The Heyit, like many other Uyghur cultural elites, were detained at the height of China’s campaign in Xinjiang. Many remain in detention.
In fact, a common denominator of the banned songs is that many were written or performed by imprisoned Uyghur musicians, said Elise Anderson, a non-resident senior fellow at the New Lines Institute who specializes in Uyghur issues.
Anderson isn’t sure every artist associated with a banned song has been apprehended, but “at least a number of them have been,” she said. “I think just by being associated with those individuals, those songs will be seen as — you know — dangerous, sensitive.”
Three years in prison for uploading songs
Authorities at the Kashgar meeting said those found with the songs would be “severely prosecuted” but did not specify the punishment – something that gives authorities flexibility in enforcement. The pre-recorded message cited the example of several people who served 10 days in jail for being found with the banned songs.
For Uyghur music producer Yashar Xiaohelaiti, the punishment was much more severe.
The 27-year-old was detained in 2023 in Bole, a city in Xinjiang, on charges of promoting extremism. According to his verdict, Xiaohelaiti wrote and produced 42 “problematic” songs, which he uploaded to his account on NetEase Cloud Music, a Chinese streaming service. He was also convicted of downloading eight “problematic” e-books, according to the document. He received three years in prison and a fine of 3,000 yuan ($420).
Two Uyghurs interviewed by the AP said they themselves rejected the ban on the songs. A man who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions said he was called to the police station and his phone searched after he commented on the social media post of another Uighur living abroad. While at the police station, he said he spoke to others who were specifically summoned for storing or sharing certain Uyghur songs.
Separately, a former Xinjiang official said a family friend was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for playing traditional Uyghur instruments and singing Uyghur songs. Several family members and friends who watched the show were also convicted, she said. The AP could not independently verify the interviewees’ claims.
In a separate incident, the official said two teenagers were detained after sharing Uighur songs online.
“Because they sent each other a Uyghur song on WeChat, they were arrested,” the former cadre said, referring to the teenagers. “I remember it very clearly. At the time I was like, ‘What song were they listening to?’ How could they be arrested for listening to a song?'”
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AP reporter Dake Kang in Beijing contributed to this story.