China appoints ethnic affairs head as Xinjiang Communist Party chief

China's ruling Communist Party has appointed the head of an ethnic affairs panel as its new party secretary in the vast northwestern region of Xinjiang, the official news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday.

Chen Xiaojiang has also held a vice ministerial role since 2020 in the party's United Front Work Department, his profile on China's Wikipedia equivalent, Baidu's Baike, shows.

The department runs influence operations related to ethnic minorities, religious groups and on the Taiwan issue at home and abroad.

In 2020, he also became the first individual with an ethnic Han majority background to be appointed director of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission since it was re-established in 1978, the Caixin business outlet said.

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Xinhua did not say when Chen will officially take up the role.

In 2022, the United Nations reported finding "serious human rights violations" against mainly Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang under China's national security and counter-terrorism policies, as well as forced labour accusations.

China has repeatedly countered that the rights of all ethnic groups in the region were protected, while denying forced labour. It has dismissed the report as "groundless" and a part of the West's attempts to contain China.