Xinjiang
The Yili Kazahk Autonomous Prefecture government has banned the Sala branch of Islam in Xinjiang and arrested 179 practitioners, according to the German-based World Uighur Congress and a report by Agence-France Presse on August 19. High-ranking prefectural officials held a special work conference on the Sala "threat" on August 17, according to the Yili Daily. Government officials accused Sala leaders of "cheating and deceiving the masses, and inciting them to worship their religious leaders," and of pressuring followers to make donations to the organization. Officials also accused the leaders of encouraging "transprovincial worship" and "threatening social stability." The Yili press did not mention any arrests.
The Shuimogou District People's Court in Urumqi on July 21 sentenced six members of the Guanyin Famen [Way of the Goddess of Mercy] organization to prison terms ranging from two to four years for their "cult" activities. Although the central government banned the Way of the Goddess of Mercy organization in July 1999 following its ban on the better known Falun Gong qigong organization, the Xinjiang courts had not convicted and sentenced any of its members for violating the criminal law until July 2005. (For further information on Guanyin Famen see here and here.)
The Kashgar District People’s Intermediate Court sentenced Uighur author Nurmemet Yasin to ten years' imprisonment on February 2, 2005, for publishing a story "inciting splittism." According to a Uighur-language Radio Free Asia report , Yasin published "The Wild Pigeon" in the Kashgar Literature Journal in the fall of 2004, and was arrested in Bachu County (Maralbeshi) on November 29, 2004. The story tells of a wild pigeon that travels far from home, only to be captured by humans and confined to a birdcage. The wild pigeon encounters several tamed pigeons who have lost their souls, in addition to their freedom, in exchange for regular feedings from the humans. The wild pigeon opts to commit suicide rather than remain imprisoned. Chinese authorities apparently interpreted the story as an allegorical criticism of Han Chinese policies in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. The court tried Yasin in closed hearings, and RFA sources report that he was denied access to a lawyer.
At least 40 percent of all new civil servants (other than teachers) recruited through civil service examinations in the Bayingguoleng Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang must "in theory" be ethnic minorities, according to a July 27 decision announced by the prefectural government. About 42 percent of the prefecture's total population are minorities. The decision also pledged to grant tax incentives that the Xinjiang government approved in 2002 to enterprises that increase their total workforce by at least 25 percent with new minority hires.
Wang Lequan, the Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, announced July 25 that university students from outside Xinjiang will be exempt from the civil service examination if they master a minority language during their two-year volunteer service and remain in Xinjiang after completing their tour. Wang made the announcement at a reception for university-level volunteers hailing from the predominantly Han Chinese areas of Guangdong, Gansu, and Shanxi provinces, and Beijing municipality. Since the government launched the program in 2003, a total of 1,379 university students have served two-year volunteer tours in Xinjiang, and 110 of these volunteers opted to remain in Xinjiang permanently, according to a July 26 Xinjiang Daily report.
The Xinjiang provincial education department will begin offering two-year degree programs in vocational schools this year, according to the July 27 Urumqi Evening News. The courses will be taught exclusively in Mandarin Chinese, reflecting an ongoing national and provincial campaign to promote Mandarin Chinese and reduce the use of local minority languages in schools (see 1 and 2 for related articles).
In "Silenced," Serena Fang, a journalist with the Public Broadcasting System program "Frontline," describes the treatment she and her interview subject received at the hands of Chinese authorities for conducting an interview that was not authorized by the government:
The Central Propaganda Department praised 18 model individuals and work units for "strengthening nationality unity" in a recently published "Ode to Progress in Minority Nationality Unity." The State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) Web site highlights the new work, which reflects a national campaign to "intensify propaganda on unity" among China's 56 ethnic nationalities.
More than 200,000 of Xinjiang's most well-educated citizens have moved out of the autonomous region since 1979, according to a May 1 article in the Workers Daily. Post-secondary schools outside Xinjiang admit more than 10,000 Xinjiang students each year, and fewer than half return to the autonomous region after graduation. The article says Xinjiang has 493,000 technically trained workers, just over half of whom are minorities.
Government officials in Kuche (Kuqa) county in Xinjiang have allocated RMB 1 million per year between 2004 and 2009 to improve Han language competency in primary schools, according to a May 10 article in the Xinjiang Daily. More than 90 percent of the county's 60,000 Uighur primary school students who study in Chinese now have working competency in the language, according to the report. The government has enrolled 150 Uighur teachers from the countryside in a five-year Han language program at the Northwest Nationalities Institute in Gansu province. The teachers will return to Kuche County during their school holidays to conduct Han language training sessions for other teachers, and to set up Han language testing centers.