Xinjiang

Authorities in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), held in custody Alim Abdurehim, son of Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, for one hour during early April, informing Abdurehim that he was under suspicion for evading taxes, according to an April 10 article from Radio Free Asia (RFA). Abdurehim told RFA that the XUAR Public Security Department Political Affairs Office, Investigations Office, and Urumqi Public Security Bureau summoned him to the Nanguan police station, where they informed him that he was a criminal suspect. Abdurehim reported that officials also questioned him on his social connections and asked him if he wanted to hire a lawyer. A reporter contacted the Investigations Office of the XUAR Public Security Department, which declined to comment on the case.

Officials in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) "continued to use the threat of violence as justification for extreme security measures directed at the local population and visiting foreigners," the U.S. Department of State reported in its 2005 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for China issued on March 8. The government has targeted the XUAR's Uighur population in particular for these measures.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government will keep the region’s population within 22 million people by the end of 2010, according to news from a XUAR population and family planning work meeting on February 13 that was reported February 14 on Tianshan Net. The XUAR has one of the highest rates of population increase among provincial-level areas in China, and Han migration to the region has been the primary cause of the XUAR's population growth in the past 50 years. The article noted that floating and migrant populations will continue to contribute to the region's population growth, but it reported that the government will carry out its population planning policy by continuing measures to control birth rates.

The Urumqi Cultural Market Inspection Brigade and the Tianshan branch of the Urumqi Public Security Bureau confiscated 350 "illegally printed" religious posters on February 10 and 11 during a surprise inspection of the ethnic language publishing market in Urumqi's Erdaoqiao neighborhood and surrounding districts, according to a February 15 article posted on Tianshan net. Urumqi is the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The article provided no details about the content of the posters.

Authorities in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have tightened controls over who may enter mosques, according to a February 6 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. A photograph sent to RFA depicts a sign in front of a mosque in the southern part of the XUAR that forbids entry to five categories of people: Communist Party and Communist Youth members; state employees, workers, and retirees; minors under 18; local government employees; and women. According to RFA, an imam in Kashgar confirmed some of these restrictions and said that policies elsewhere are the same as at his mosque. A XUAR resident cited in the article said authorities monitor attendance at mosques and levy fines when people violate the bans.

Ismail Tiliwaldi, Chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government, told a session of the XUAR People's Congress on January 17 that the government would continue to crack down against the "three forces" of separatism, terrorism, and religious extremism in 2006, according to the text of the chairman’s work report posted January 25 on Tianshan Net. He said the XUAR government would "resolutely implement" the central government's strategic policies on maintaining stability in the XUAR and would "strike hard" and stay on guard against ethnic separatist forces inside and outside the borders that use non-governmental organizations, rights protection activities, the Internet, ethnic minority religions, and other strategies to carry out sabotage.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) procuratorate approved the arrest of 18,227 criminal suspects investigated by public security, state security, and other agencies during 2005, according to a report delivered at the 4th Session of the 10th XUAR People's Congress and cited in a January 20 Xinjiang Daily article (in Chinese) and a January 23 Reuters article in The China Post. The procuratorate indicted 21,853 people during the same year, and courts acquitted 39 people in public prosecution cases for crimes in the region. The report neither specified the number of arrests or people indicted for state security offenses, nor provided a breakdown by ethnic group of those arrested and indicted in the XUAR.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has one of the highest rates of population increase among Chinese provinces, according to information from a January 23 work meeting on the population and environment reported January 24 on Tianshan Net. While the birth rate and natural rate of increase have held steady in the past five years, the population continues to grow by about 300,000 people annually, the article reported. The article noted that the floating and migrant populations, among other groups, will maintain a relatively fast rate of increase.