Xinjiang
Authorities in the XUAR have carried out campaigns in 2010 and previous years to restrict wearing beards, veils, and clothing perceived to carry religious connotations, associating the practices with "religious extremism" and "backwardness." In some cases, authorities have focused their efforts on younger people, in an apparent effort to stem perceived "religious extremism" among segments of the population deemed more likely to challenge official authority. In at least one reported campaign, authorities described using legal punishments to address wearing beards and veils.
One government commission and two Party offices jointly have issued a new document to further strengthen "ethnic unity" in China. The Central Propaganda Bureau, United Front Work Department, and State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) adopted the Opinion on Further Launching Activities To Establish Ethnic Unity and Progress (Opinion) on February 1, 2010, but did not appear to release the full text of the document until July 2010.
Urumqi Court Sentences Journalist Gheyret Niyaz
Transcript (PDF) (Text)
At this CECC roundtable, panelists examined conditions in the far western region of Xinjiang one year after demonstrations and rioting occurred there. Events in July 2009 exposed longstanding tensions in the region and Uyghurs' grievances toward government policies that threaten basic rights.
Congressional-Executive Commission on China | www.cecc.gov
Statement of CECC Chairman Byron Dorgan and Cochairman Sander Levin on Xinjiang - One Year After Demonstrations and Rioting
Work Forum Stresses Development and Stability
Central government and Communist Party authorities convened a central "work forum" on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in May that sets state objectives for the region's economic and political development. The meeting marks the first work forum directed at the XUAR. (Authorities have held five work forums to date addressing the Tibet Autonomous Region and, most recently, other Tibetan autonomous areas of China. See a related Congressional-Executive Commission on China analysis for details.)
Authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) continue to exert tight control over the practice of religion, according to reports from XUAR government Web sites and Chinese and overseas media. In the aftermath of demonstrations and rioting in the XUAR in July 2009, authorities claimed "religious extremism" as one cause of the events in July and they continue to include controls over religion as part of security measures in the region. Some details about recent controls over religion in the XUAR remained unknown in the aftermath of the July events, as authorities curbed Internet access and imposed other restrictions over the free flow of information from the region.
The Urumqi municipal People's Congress Standing Committee in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) passed a new regulation on April 23, 2010, that regulates the management of rental housing, in a step one official connected to problems allegedly stemming from the city's large "floating population" of migrants, according to an April 26 Tianshan Net report. Among other stipulations, the regulation requires people renting out housing to register with their neighborhood or village committee within 15 days of signing, modifying, or canceling a rental contract. The committee, in turn, is to conduct an on-the-spot verification and submit the rental files to the local office in charge of rental managements. Where files are "standard" and "conform to conditions" (fuhe tiaojian), authorities will issue rental credentials, according to the regulation.
The Communist Party-controlled Women's Federation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has strengthened measures in the past year to regulate the religious activities of Muslim women, according to recent reports from the region. It carried out at least one prefectural campaign in coordination with government offices, while a separate Communist Party office in another locality reported it would increase monitoring of Muslim women religious specialists. The efforts build on previous official steps in recent years to interfere in the religious activities of Muslim women. See previous Congressional-Executive Commission on China analyses (1, 2, 3) for more information. Recent developments include:
Regulating Women Religious Figures
Against a track record of imposing top-down development programs that have exacerbated inequalities and denied local residents the autonomy to chart their own course of development, central and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) government authorities have described plans for new initiatives to accelerate development in the region, according to Chinese government and media sources. Premier Wen Jiabao said in his March 5 work report at the annual meeting of the National People's Congress that the government would draft and implement policies to spur economic and social development in the XUAR, as well as in Tibetan areas of China, according to a copy of the report from the People's Daily (via Sina). (See also a March 5 Xinhua report, via China Daily.) Wen did not provide details on the plan.