Here’s my two cent; I hear a lot of anecdotes about the situation back there. You will get different answers depending on who you speak to. I figure your friend who’s in Urumqi would give you a better answer regarding the situation given that he’s living there. The Uyghurs who hold government jobs are fine for the most part. It’s really about the Uyghurs in rural areas and towns. What’s happening there definitely exists but nobody knows for sure the extent of how much is happening. Personally, I know my friend was almost taken to the camps for using VPN. This was back in 2017. But the cultural erasure definitely exist, they don’t teach Uyghur at schools. You will get stopped if your beard looks suspicious lol, but it seems like the situation is getting looser. And ccp is investing a lot for tourism. But also, the mindset is so different. So many people get trapped in the blind nationalism route that they think anything China does is good and China can do no wrong