Chinese Muslims from the autonomous Xinjiang region hoping to embark on the annual Hajj pilgrimage must first pledge their allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party.
A government website, operated by the Urumqi City Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee, requires local Muslims to submit a travel request to attend the Hajj by setting up an online profile.
The site asks users to register their age, job, health, and economic status and provides strict guidelines for applicants, who must be aged between 50 and 70 and have lived in Urumqi, the region's capital, for at least five years.
Users must also pledge allegiance to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and national unity.
Registration appears to now be closed but was open between September 1 2017 to November 1 2017. This indicates applicants for the 2018 Hajj, taking place in mid-August, may have been required to make the pledge.
China closely controls and vets applicants for the Hajj each year. Authorities seem to believe that religious travel for minority groups could act as "potential cover for subversive political activity," Human Rights Watch has reported.
But while other regional government websites list similar conditions for Hajj applicants, these applications don't appear to require CCP allegiance. This indicates China is more concerned about subversive activity by Uyghurs in particular.
The Chinese government is increasingly monitoring and restricting travel by Uyghur Muslims in an attempt to crackdown on religious extremism.
In 2016, millions of Xinjiang residents were ordered to surrender their passports to local police for an "annual check" and had to seek permission from local authorities to travel abroad.
Rights groups said the act deliberately targeted the region's predominant Uyghur group, who make up about 49% of Xinjiang's population, in order to restrict their movements.
Timothy Grose, a China expert at the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, first noticed the Urumqi site last week and told Business Insider that Uyghurs who have traveled abroad are "commonly targeted by authorities" and are forced into "extrajudicial detention centers," commonly referred to as re-education centers.
"From personal communication with some of my Uyghur friends and contacts, having a member of one's immediate family working or studying in one of the 'blacklisted countries' can also be grounds for arrest," Grose said.
Earlier this year, Radio Free Asia reported that around 120,000 Uyghurs had been sent to these camps in just one region of Xinjiang since April 2017. Many of them have been accused of harboring "extremist" and "politically incorrect" ideologies.
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