World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

The Uighurs are a Muslim minority ethnic group living in northwest China.  They are culturally more closely related to Central Asians they they are to the Han Chinese who are the dominant ethnic group in China.  In recent years there has been a great deal of unrest among the Uighurs who believe that central control from Beijing threatens their cultural identity.  The rise of terrorism has also raised concern within the Beijing government because some Uighurs have been involved with the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq.  As the protests have continued, the Chinese government has placed the Xinjiang Province of China under heavy surveillance, the likes of which have rarely been seen before.  Digital technology has made the intense surveillance possible.

We know precious little about the decision-making process in North Korea.  The Council on Foreign Relations has published a very good summary of what little we do know and it offers a good insight into what we can expect as the US continues to try to persuade North Korea to denuclearize.  The North Koreans have just returned some of the remains of US military personnel who died in the Korean War, fulfilling a promise he made to US President Trump at the SIngapore Summit.  But many analysts believe that North Korean has no intention of ever denuclearizing.