Shohrat Zakir

Shohrat Zakir (; ; born August 1953) is a Chinese politician of Uyghur ethnicity who served as the chairman of Xinjiang and the deputy secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xinjiang Committee from 2014 to 2021.

Born in Yining (Ghulja), he studied computer science in Hubei Province, and later attended Tianjin University. Between 2000 and 2005, he served as the mayor of Ürümqi. He served as the chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region between 2015 and 2021. Between 2017 and 2022, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. In March 2023, he was appointed a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Early life Born in Yining, Zakir was born into a family with revolutionary history. His grandfather Kaur Zakir was a progressive thinker during the warlord era and was executed by state agents of the warlord Sheng Shicai along with Mao Zemin and Chen Tanqiu. His father Abdulla Zakirov was one of the earliest ethnic Uyghurs to join the Xinjiang party organization shortly after the foundation of the People's Republic in 1949. Prior to the Cultural Revolution, Zakir's father was a member of the regional standing committee and Vice Chairman of Xinjiang.

Between 1970 and 1972, Zakir was involved in the "Down to the Countryside Movement" in rural Xinjiang. He then worked as a teacher in an elementary school in Ürümqi. He was transferred to Diwobao school in 1974. In March 1978, he left his homeland for Hubei to attend the Jianghan Petroleum College (now Yangtze University) located in Jingzhou to study computer science. and in December 2014, he was named Chairman of Xinjiang, replacing Nur Bekri.

In March 2019, addressing the issue of the widespread internment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, Zakir said that the camps were "training centers" rather than "concentration camps" as otherwise claimed and that the freedom of "trainees" was not restricted and that the camps were boarding schools where trainees could go home or ask for leave.

On October 23, 2021, he was appointed vice chairperson of the National People's Congress Ethnic Affairs Committee.

On March 10, 2023, during the 14th National People's Congress, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Sanctions On December 10, 2021, the U.S. Department of the Treasury added Zakir to its Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. Individuals on the list have their assets blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.

On December 10, 2024, on International Human Rights Day, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Mélanie Joly announced Canada's sanctions against Zakir and seven other government officials of Xinjiang and Tibet involved in serious human rights violations.