Ethnic Minority Rights
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) presided over the area's first large-scale training class for ethnic minority lawyers from December 4 to December 6, 2010, stressing the lawyers' roles in meeting the region's political objectives, according to several reports. The event, convened by the Xinjiang Lawyers Association (XLA), marks the largest training class for ethnic minority lawyers in China, according to a December 10 report on the XLA Web site. Speaking in advance of the training class, XLA secretary-general Mao Li said the training would aim to strengthen "ideological and political construction," professional ethics, and professional work quality, according to a December 1, 2010, XLA report.
Public security officers in Saihan district, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR), detained Mongol bookstore owner Xinna at her bookstore on December 4, 2010, in connection to the upcoming scheduled release from prison of her husband, Mongol activist Hada, according to December 4 and December 8, 2010, Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) reports. Authorities confiscated items from the store including books and CDs and also searched a warehouse connected to the bookstore, confiscating Xinna's diary, her son's computer, business records, and other items.
Hiring practices that discriminate against groups the Chinese government designates as ethnic minorities have continued in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in the past year. As documented in past Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)analyses (1, 2), job recruitment announcements from the region have reserved positions exclusively for Han Chinese in civil servant posts and state-owned enterprises, as well as in private job announcements posted on both government and non-government Web sites. Such discriminatory practices have continued in the past year, even as at least one announcement reports an increase in positions available to ethnic minorities. The restrictions accompany other discriminatory requirements, also present in some job recruitment programs elsewhere in China, based on factors such as sex and age.
Sodmongol, an ethnic Mongol rights advocate from Chaoyang city, Liaoning province, remains in custody since authorities first detained him at the Beijing Airport in April 2010, according to a July 15 press release from Amnesty International (AI). As reported in an April 23 article from the Southern Mongolia Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC), officials at the Beijing Capital International Airport detained Sodmongol on April 18 as he was waiting to board a flight to the United States. Sodmongol had planned to attend the Ninth Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York as part of a delegation arranged by the U.S.-based SMHRIC.
One government commission and two Party offices jointly have issued a new document to further strengthen "ethnic unity" in China. The Central Propaganda Bureau, United Front Work Department, and State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) adopted the Opinion on Further Launching Activities To Establish Ethnic Unity and Progress (Opinion) on February 1, 2010, but did not appear to release the full text of the document until July 2010.
The number of ethnic minority students receiving "bilingual" education in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in 2009 increased by more than 150,000 over the previous year, according to a January 12 Xinjiang Daily report (via Xinhua). As noted in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) 2009 Annual Report, educational policies described as "bilingual" by the XUAR government have placed primacy on Mandarin Chinese through methods including eliminating ethnic minority language instruction or relegating it solely to language arts classes.
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) People's Congress Standing Committee passed the XUAR Ethnic Unity Education Regulation on December 29, 2009, effective February 1, 2010, that promulgates Communist Party policy on ethnic issues and imposes tight controls on freedom of expression, with implications in areas such as academic freedom, educational curricula, and commercial decisions. The regulation follows unrest in July 2009 that underscored deep tensions in the XUAR and rifts between Han and Uyghur communities. While the regulation includes such stated aims as promoting equality, taken as a whole, the regulation represents a far-reaching and intrusive tool for imposing Party policy on XUAR residents, placing them at risk of violating vaguely worded prohibitions that restrict free speech.
The current series of discussions between the Party's United Front Work Department (UFWD) officials and the Dalai Lama's representatives began in September 2002 and stalled in November 2008 after the eighth round of formal dialogue.