Uighurs are a Turkic ethnic Muslim group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, they live mainly in China where they are the largest non-Chinese ethnic group. Their Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region covers more than one sixth of China's total landmass. Historically, the area is claimed by warlords and ethnic groups. In 1949, it came under Chinese Communist control after the Chinese civil war.

In recent years, the Chinese government has been encouraging thousands of ethnic Han Chinese into the Uighur's traditional homeland to 'modernise' the area. The proportion of Han Chinese inhabitants rose from 6% in 1949 to about 40% by 2000. The Uighur say the influx has diluted their culture and led to high unemployment.

China entices ethnic Chinese migrants into to the province by giving them financial support. Because of that, the Han dominate all big businesses in the region.

In October 2008, more than 20 Uighurs were released from American Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. They were captured in Afghanistan by US forces, who labelled them "enemy combatants".

According to Amnesty International, the Chinese government has imprisoned thousands of Uighurs, charging them with ‘terirrosm, separatism or religious extermism’.

Uighur separatists have used violent forms of terrorism, including bus bombings in 1992 and 1998, to protest what they see as the Chinese occupation of their land. This had led China to respond with harsh crackdowns. Two separatist groups, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, have been involved in violent clashes with the Chinese army.

The Chinese government refers generally to the East Turkestan nationalists as 'terrorists'. China says hundreds of Uighurs have been trained by Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Uyghur groups deny this and accuse China of fabricating a connection between the global war on terror and their fight for independence.