This is a hypothetical question unrelated to China's activities in Xinjiang: If I take an ethnic group off their land, put them in camps, force them to perform hard labour and prevent them from raising children, but do not murder any of them, could that be considered extermination?
That could be considered "genocide," under many definitions of that term. For instance:
> By "genocide" we mean the destruction of an ethnic group…. Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups….
Culture extermination. They’re basically trying to erase the ethnic Muslim culture but not necessarily the people. In that respect it’s not much different than what the US OR Australians did to indigenous peoples.