Ethnic Minority Rights

The U.S.-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) reported on November 7, 2012, that the organization had lost contact with Xinna and Uiles for two weeks. Xinna and Uiles lost contact with the outside world again in early December, according to Radio Free Asia, which reported on December 5, 2012, that it was unable to contact Xinna or Uiles by phone. On December 10, SMHRIC published letters that each had written in November to Chinese officials. In his letter, Uiles appeals to incoming President Xi Jinping to "please send your Public Security personnel to execute me and my mother or arrest and take us away lest we die at home of hunger and suffering."

The Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) People's Congress recently completed a first stage of deliberations over draft implementation measures for China's Employment Promotion Law, according to October 9 and October 13, 2011, reports from Legal Daily.

The State Council has issued an opinion on the development of pastoral areas that bolsters longstanding grazing bans and the resettlement of herders, policies that have drawn concern over the efficacy of their stated environmental aims and for their impact on herding communities, including several ethnic minority groups.

Introduction

Hiring practices that discriminate against non-Han groups have continued in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). As documented by the CECC in recent years (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), job recruitment announcements from the region have reserved positions exclusively for Han Chinese in civil servant posts, state-owned enterprises, and private-sector jobs, including those advertised on government Web sites. The practices contravene provisions in Chinese law that forbid discrimination.

New System Bolsters Grazing Bans