Xinjiang
The legal status and health condition of a group of Uyghur children in detention remain unknown, following a reported clash in Pishan (Guma) county, Hoten district, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, at which the children were present, according to a series of reports from Radio Free Asia (RFA) based on interviews with residents and local officials. Sources cited by RFA described the incident as a clash between public security officials and a group of Uyghurs attempting to flee China due to religious repression. Official Chinese media sources reported the incident as police intervention, after members of a terrorist group took two people hostage.
Chinese Media Reports "Terrorist" Group Takes Hostages
Several local governments in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have reported carrying out steps to tighten controls over religion, singling out aspects of Islam in a number of cases. The recent measures continue similar efforts in recent years, as documented by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (1, 2, 3, 4). The ongoing campaigns indicate that religious practice remains a main target of government control in the region, at the same time that some local residents continue to find space to practice their religion or express their beliefs apart from state-dictated confines.
The Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) People's Congress recently completed a first stage of deliberations over draft implementation measures for China's Employment Promotion Law, according to October 9 and October 13, 2011, reports from Legal Daily.
The State Council has issued an opinion on the development of pastoral areas that bolsters longstanding grazing bans and the resettlement of herders, policies that have drawn concern over the efficacy of their stated environmental aims and for their impact on herding communities, including several ethnic minority groups.
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have continued to exert tight controls over the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. Directives from local governments throughout the region indicate that during the month-long period of daily fasting, authorities prohibited students, teachers, and government workers from observing the fast, ordered restaurants to stay open, and increased oversight of mosques and religious personnel. The Ramadan curbs follow similar controls in place in previous years, as documented by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) (1, 2, 3).
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
Statement of CECC Chairman Christopher Smith and Cochairman Sherrod Brown on Uyghurs Forcibly Returned to China
August 30, 2011
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continue to target "illegal religious activities" and "religious extremism" as threats to the region's stability, maintaining curbs over religious activities undertaken outside of government-approved parameters and singling out Islamic practices in a number of cases. At a December 2010 XUAR Communist Party Committee Standing Committee meeting, attendees called for "resolutely preventing illegal religious activities and striking against religious extremist forces in accordance with law" as part of the region's work to maintain stability, according to a Xinjiang Daily report (via Xinhua, December 8, 2010). Following the meeting, the Party issued opinions on demarcating and preventing "illegal" religious activities in early 2011, which multiple localities reported implementing, according to descriptions of the opinions. (Full text not available.