Xinjiang

Officials in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region who have financial interests in coal industries and mines have not divested themselves of these holdings, despite a State Council directive to do so, according to an October 14 Xinjiang Daily report. The State Council had issued a Circular on August 24 ordering all government and Party officials and state-owned enterprise managers throughout China to disclose and divest all of their financial holdings in coal industries and mines (other than shares purchased in the public stock exchange) by September 22.

Minorities are still underrepresented in Xinjiang's party and government leadership, according to a series of reports on the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) Web site. The reports were intended to highlight the progress of minorities since the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region was founded on October 1, 1955, but often give the opposite impression. A report entitled "Xinjiang's Hetian Prefecture Rigorously Trains and Promotes Minority Cadres", for example, notes that the Hetian Prefecture Party Personnel Office promoted 28 "outstanding minorities" to the post of township director, 368 to posts as deputy Party secretary or deputy government head at the township level, and two to deputy director positions at the county level. Minorities account for 65 percent of the prefecture's "township leadership ranks," according to the report.

The government of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region has increased efforts to control the "three forces" of separatism, terrorism, and religious extremism, according to an announcement by Wang Lequan, the Xinjiang Communist Party General Secretary, at an August 26 press conference. The Chinese domestic press covered Wang's remarks widely (see 1, 2 and 3).

According to the Xinjiang Daily, 947 government workers from outside the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region began three-year assignments in Xinjiang in mid-2005. Wang Encheng, director of the Central Personnel Department, reported that this fifth class of "Assist Xinjiang" cadres is the largest to date, with 130 more officials than were assigned in 2004. He noted that a "new era in the 'Assist Xinjiang Cadre Policy' has begun," with the new arrivals assuming a larger number of first secretary Party posts at the county level. The Personnel Department will place the cadres primarily in southern Xinjiang, where over 95 percent of the population is Uighur, though new positions also have been added in the north.

Xinjiang authorities have completed a large scale assessment of the region's Fourth Five Year Plan to Increase Popular Understanding of the Law, according to a September 13 article in Xinjiang Capital News. The assessment team distributed over 1,500 anonymous surveys to citizens in 15 prefectures and cities, 15 counties, and 30 administrative villages to determine their understanding of the legal issues covered during the National Fourth Five Year Plan to Increase Popular Understanding of the Law. The report hails "such a high standard assessment of program delivery" as the first of its kind in Xinjiang.

The Chinese government began construction of a $700 million Counterterrorism Training Center in the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on August 29. The government plans to complete the facility within five years. The center will be a training base for police from China and neighboring central Asian states belonging to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

Xinjiang authorities have increased efforts this summer to control the "three forces" of separatism, terrorism, and religious extremism, according to Xinjiang's General Secretary, Wang Lequan. Human rights groups warn that the Xinjiang government is using the Global War on Terror as justification to crack down on Uighurs peacefully advocating for greater ethnic autonomy.

The Munich-based East Turkestan Information Center (ETIC)has released the names of several Uighurs who have been unlawfully searched and beaten by Xinjiang police this summer (in Uighur). The report, which lists the badge numbers of the offending officers, recounts how police beat several Uighurs for questioning the illegal searches. According to the report, police searched Uighur businessman Abdu Semet Abliz without cause and released him only after ordering him to shave his beard and mustache. Many Muslims wear beards as a sign of their faith.

Police arrested seven members of an East Turkestan separatist organization in Hetian prefecture in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, according an to August 30 article in the Hong Kong daily Wen Wei Po. The article also reports that since January, Hetian authorities have disbanded six "illegal underground" religious schools and confiscated unauthorized religious books, periodicals, and audio and video tapes. Xinjiang regulations require that all materials with religious content receive approval from the China Islamic Association before publication or dissemination.