Xinjiang
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government is currently considering a draft regulation that would tighten formal legal prohibitions on children's freedom of religion and parents' right to impart religious teachings. A draft XUAR regulation on the protection of minors, submitted for deliberation to the Standing Committee of the XUAR People's Congress in June, adds new language that elaborates on and tightens enforcement of an existing XUAR legal prohibition on children's freedom of religion that already constitutes the harshest known legal provision on the issue within China.
Local governments in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) reported throughout early 2009 on measures to strengthen control over religious activity. Measures include carrying out a campaign aimed at "weakening religious consciousness," implementing rules to expel religious leaders for missing political study classes, monitoring students' activities during school vacations, and holding open trials to punish "illegal religious activity" and demonstrate its consequences to the public. (See below for more details). The reports indicate a continuing trend in heightened repression over religion in the region, which according to official statistics has a majority Muslim population. The measures also form part of broader efforts in the XUAR to strengthen security and guard against perceived threats to stability. The XUAR government identifies "religious extremism" and "illegal religious activity" as key threats to the region.
Official: More Serious Security Issues for XUAR in 2009
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At this CECC Roundtable, a panel of experts discussed the Chinese government's treatment of and policies toward asylum seekers and refugee communities, particularly North Koreans fleeing persecution and starvation in their homeland, and assessed Beijing's compliance with international laws and conventions that protect refugees.
Courts in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) completed trials in 2008 for a total of 268 cases involving crimes of endangering state security (ESS), a number that appears to represent a surge over previous years, based on available data. (See analysis below for more details.) The XUAR High People's Court announced the number of cases during a report made at a January 9, 2009, meeting of the XUAR People's Congress, according to a January 10 report on the Xinhua Xinjiang Web site. Crimes of ESS (also translated as "endangering national security") are defined in articles 102-113 of the Chinese Criminal Law to include acts such as separatism, espionage, and armed rebellion. Many of the ESS crimes carry the possibility of life imprisonment and capital punishment.
Authorities in a city in western China have launched a demolition project that has undermined the preservation of a cornerstone of the Uyghur ethnic group's cultural heritage and will result in the resettlement of roughly half the city's population. Official Chinese media have described the project to "reconstruct" the historic Old City section of Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), as a way to address infrastructure shortcomings and to guard against risk of earthquake damage. Chinese sources indicate that most of the existing buildings in the Old City will be demolished rather than restored. Overseas media have reported that authorities have undertaken the project despite opposition from local residents and have compelled residents to leave their homes, with reported cases of inadequate compensation. While reflecting ongoing problems across China with property seizure, resettlement, and heritage protection, the Kashgar demolition project also reflects features unique to the region.
Uyghur historian Tohti Tunyaz completed his 11-year sentence for "inciting splittism" and "unlawfully obtaining state secrets" on February 10, 2009, according to information accessible to the public in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Political Prisoner Database, and he has since been released from prison, according to February 10 reports from the Sankei and Mainichi (via Yahoo) newspapers, based on information from sources close to the case. According to the reports, after being met by his sister at the prison in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Tohti Tunyaz traveled to a relative's home. The Sankei report said it is unclear whether Tohti Tunyaz will be allowed to return to Japan, where he had previously lived.
The number of ethnic minority students in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) receiving class instruction through Mandarin-focused "bilingual" education in 2008 increased by more than 125,000 students over the previous year, according to available data from the XUAR government and media, reflecting a continuing trend in XUAR schools to diminish the use of ethnic minority languages. As noted in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) 2008 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.
Hiring practices that discriminate against ethnic minorities have continued in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), according to Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) monitoring of job recruiting announcements from the past year. The CECC found employment advertisements posted on government Web sites that reserved positions for Han Chinese in civil servant posts, state-owned enterprises, and private posts, indicating direct government involvement in discriminatory practices, as well as implicit government endorsement of and failure to prevent discriminatory practices in private hiring. The practices contravene provisions in the PRC Constitution and in Chinese laws that forbid discrimination.