The long-awaited UN report on the Uyghurs in Xinjiang accuses the Chinese government of committing crimes against humanity against this community. The Xinjiang region has an economic and strategic dimension for China, as a large border region with the West through Central Asia.

With information from Dominique Baillard and Nerea Hernández, our correspondent in Beijing.

Xinjiang is a vital area for China. Three times the size of France, it is a vast desert region in northwest China and one of the poorest regions in the People’s Republic.

Its GDP continues to be nourished by 30% of transfers from the central government. Beijing is doing everything possible to develop this region, which is considered strategic due to its geography.

An important transit route

This ancient stage of the Silk Road has regained its function with the New Silk Road initiated by Xi Jinping. According to official media terminology, it is the “bridgehead of China’s opening to the West.” With its immediate neighbors in Central Asia on the one hand, which number eight, including Russia. And with more distant neighbors on the other hand, like the Europeans: thousands of freight trains leave each year for Europe from a port in Xinjiang.

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