China appoints Guangdong veteran, two Uygur cadres with security and development experience to Xinjiang Communist Party committee

He Zhongyou, 55, worked for over three decades in the prosperous Guangdong province, and was a top official in Hainan, reports South China Morning Post.

He has become one of five deputy party secretaries to Chen Quanguo, the Xinjiang party chief since 2016, the newspaper reported.

Yusufujiang Maimaiti, 53, is a Uygur cadre who was born and has spent most of his career in Aksu prefecture in southern Xinjiang, where most of the Turkic-speaking minority live, the newspaper reported.

Yilizhati Aihemaitijiang was a vice-president of the state-owned Cofco, China’s largest food processor and trader. It is rare for a Uygur to rise to the senior ranks of a large state-owned enterprise, which are usually dominated by Han officials, reported South China Morning Post.

Who are Uyghur Muslims?

Uyghur Muslims are a Turkic minority ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia.

It is now widely publicized that their human rights are being crushed by China and they were sent to "re-education camps" by the communist regime in Beijing.

The Uyghurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.