BOOK LAUNCH: The Course of a Chinese Colonial Project
Thu Nov 19 16:30:00 CET 2026 - Thu Nov 19 18:30:00 CET 2026
At this event, organised in collaboration with the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the publishing house La Découverte, sociologist Dilnur REYHAN (Institute of Oriental Studies, AV ČR) will present her latest book, Génocide ouïghour. Trajectoire d’un projet colonial chinois (Uyghur Genocide. The Trajectory of a Chinese Colonial Project) (La Découverte 2026).
Abstract
For several years now, the situation of the Uyghurs in China has been a source of growing concern around the world. In this book, Dilnur Reyhan offers a historical and political analysis of this repression. She shows how colonial rule has, since the 2010s, evolved into a system of control and destruction that many observers now describe as genocide.
Internment camps, mass surveillance, forced labor, and the systematic destruction of Uyghur culture did not suddenly occur in 2016 and 2017. They are part of a longer history of conquest, colonization, and transformation of a territory that its inhabitants call East Turkestan and that Beijing refers to as Xinjiang.
By situating contemporary violence within this historical context, Dilnur Reyhan traces more than two centuries of colonial domination—including political, demographic, economic, and cultural domination—over this strategic region of Central Asia. From the 18th-century Manchu conquest to current policies of internment, surveillance, forced labor, family separation, forced sterilizations, birth control, linguistic erasure, and transnational repression, she uncovers the mechanisms that have led many states and international institutions to speak of genocide today.
Based on academic research, official Chinese documents, archival materials, and eyewitness accounts, this book sheds light on the historical and political drivers behind the policies targeting the Uyghurs and provides insights into one of the major geopolitical and moral issues of the 21st century.
Dilnur Reyhan is a research director at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Born in East Turkestan and a naturalized French citizen, she holds a Ph.D. in sociology and is president of the Uyghur Institute of Europe.
Date: November 19, 2026 at 16:30
Location: CEFRES, Lower Hall, Na Florenci 3, Prague 1
Language: English
Author and speaker: Dilnur REYHAN (Institute of Oriental Studies, AV ČR)
Moderators: Maika NGUYEN (CEFRES) and Véronique SAULNIER (Riverside International School – Prague)
