The Chinese are running what amounts to concentration camps for the Uyghurs. They have millions of them interned, being "re-educated" and as you note, it's all about money. The region the Ughurs live in is minerally rich, and the Chinese are desperate to cultivate domestic commodity production so they don't have to import literally everything.

The Uyghurs are in the way and the CCP can not countenance any kind of independent thought, let alone an entirely independent culture.