Xinjiang
On February 20, 2014, the Urumqi Municipal Public Security Bureau formally arrested Minzu University professor Ilham Tohti on charges of separatism.[1] The arrest notice indicated authorities were detaining Tohti in a detention center in Urumqi, the regional capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).[2] Authorities reportedly only informed Tohti’s wife about her husband’s arrest on February 25.[3] Prosecutors formally approved Tohti’s arrest just short of the 37-day limit mandated by Article 69 of the PRC Criminal Procedure Law.
Foreign Reporters Curbed; Social Media Comments Censored
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.