Integrationist policies, implemented alongside minorities' political and economic exclusion, have the practical effect of assimilating minorities into the dominant Han Chinese culture. Accompanied by systematic violations of minorities' civil and political rights, these policies make protection of cultural identity increasingly difficult.

"We have an autonomous region, and we have an official language, the Uyghur language. From 1950 until the Cultural Revolution...every official meeting had to be conducted in Uyghur and then translated into Chinese. Then it changed. Is Chinese translated into Uyghur? No, now it's changed, no Uyghur. [This is a] direct change: everyone must learn Chinese." -Uyghur activist