Archive for ‘Religious clash’

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21/05/2014

Tibet on track to become global tourist attraction[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn

Tourism increased in the Tibet autonomous region in the first four months of the year, as the region aspires to become a world-class travel destination.

Tibet on track to become global tourist attraction

The region had more than 830,000 tourists from January through April, a year-on-year increase of 23.4 percent, the regional tourism bureau said on Tuesday.

Foreign tourists numbered 20,000, an increase of 10.3 percent, and the number of domestic tourists was 810,000, an increase of 23.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the revenue generated by the tourism industry was 926 million yuan ($148.4 million), an increase of 26.2 percent, it said.

Karral Millar, 62, an Australian tourist, said she had a good time in Tibet.

“It’s wonderful. It’s been three days now. We have visited the Potala Palace and many temples, and we are learning new things about Tibetan Buddhism and history,” Millar said on Tuesday.

Cycling has become a popular way to tour the region in recent years, as many tourists want to have close contact with the natural scenery and culture of Tibet.

“It’s my second time in Tibet. I am absolutely impressed with the natural scenery and unique culture. I feel as if I am at home here,” said Liu Xiaojun, from Hebei province.

“I am also overwhelmed with the hospitality and politeness of the local people,” said Liu, adding that he plans to make a bicycle tour to Zhangmu Port in Tibet’s Xigaze prefecture.

Many businesses near the scenic spots in Lhasa see the coming of summer peak season as a harvest.

“Compared with the same period last year, we had more guests this year. We have 62 rooms, and more than half are booked every day,” said India, 41, a receptionist at the Kyichu Hotel, a Nepalese hotel in Lhasa.

Tibet received more than 12 million tourists from home and abroad lastar.

The region hopes to have 15 million tourists this year.

via Tibet on track to become global tourist attraction[1]- Chinadaily.com.cn.

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16/05/2014

Islamic leaders join efforts against extremism – China – Chinadaily.com.cn

China’s top Islamic leaders urged the nation’s Muslims to resist religious extremism and oppose to terrorism after a number of violent attacks in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in March and April.

An SVG map of China with the Xinjiang autonomo...

An SVG map of China with the Xinjiang autonomous region highlighted Legend: Image:China map legend.png The orange area is Aksai Chin, a part of Xinjiang which is claimed by India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Around 80 religious leaders and scholars discussed Islamic doctrine by quoting the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad on Wednesday and Thursday in Urumqi, the region’s capital. On Thursday, Islamic leaders in China passed a proposal calling on all Muslims in the country to regulate their behavior, resist religious extremism and improve their moral outlook.

Abulitif Abdureyim, director of the Xinjiang Islamic Association, said governments at all levels in the region are resisiting religious extremism.

“The attackers who carried out the terrorist activities cannot go to heaven because they have violated the sayings in the Quran,” he said.

Wang Yujie, a professor of religious studies at Renmin University of China, said separatist forces are the main source of terrorism in Xinjiang.

In recent years, China has seen a number of violent attacks on police, government organs and civilians. Most of the attacks have taken place in Xinjiang.

A national security blue paper said on May 6 that religious extremism was the major reason for 10 violent terrorist attacks last year.

via Islamic leaders join efforts against extremism – China – Chinadaily.com.cn.

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01/05/2014

Two attackers among three killed in China bombing | Reuters

Two of the assailants who carried out a bombing in western China were among the three people killed, state media said on Thursday, in an attack which also wounded 79 and has raised concerns over its apparent sophistication and daring.

Paramilitary policemen stand guard near the exit of the South Railway Station, where three people were killed and 79 wounded in a bomb and knife attack on Wednesday, in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region, May 1, 2014. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic

The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, said on its official microblog that “two mobsters set off bombs on their bodies and died”, though the report did not call it a suicide bombing.

The other person who died was a bystander, the People’s Daily said.

Knives and explosives were used in the assault on a railway station in Urumqi on Wednesday, the first bomb attack in the capital of Xinjiang region in 17 years. The attack was carried out soon after the arrival of a train from a mainly Han Chinese province, state media said.

The bombing was possibly timed to coincide with a visit to the region with a large Muslim minority by President Xi Jinping, when security was likely to have been heavy.

On Thursday, dozens of black police vans were parked around the station, while camouflaged police with assault rifles patrolled its entrance. Despite the security, the station was bustling and appeared to be operating normally.

The government blamed the attack on “terrorists”, a term it uses to describe Islamist militants and separatists in Xinjiang who have waged a sometimes violent campaign for an independent East Turkestan state – a campaign that has stirred fears that jihadist groups could become active in western China.

State media accounts did not say if any other attackers had been killed or captured. Nor did they say if Xi, who was wrapping up his visit, was anywhere near Urumqi at the time.

Pan Zhiping, a retired expert on Central Asia at Xinjiang’s Academy of Social Science, described the attack as very well organized, saying it was timed to coincide with Xi’s visit.

“It is very clear that they are challenging the Chinese government,” he said.

“There was a time last year when they were targeting the public security bureau, the police stations and the troops. Now it’s indiscriminate – terrorist activities are conducted in places where people gather the most.”

There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

via Two attackers among three killed in China bombing | Reuters.

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07/03/2014

China’s restless West: The burden of empire | The Economist

After a brutal attack in China, the Communist Party needs to change its policies towards minorities

A GROUP of knife-wielding assailants, apparently Muslims from western China, caused mayhem and murder on March 1st in the south-western Chinese city of Kunming, stabbing 29 people to death at the railway station and injuring 140 others. The attack has shocked China. The crime against innocents is monstrous and unjustifiable, and has been rightly condemned by the Chinese government and by America. But as well as rounding up the culprits, the Communist Party must face up to an uncomfortable truth. Its policy for integrating the country’s restless western regions—a policy that mixes repression, development and Han-Chinese migration—is failing to persuade non-Han groups of the merits of Chinese rule.

The party says the attackers were “Xinjiang extremists”, by implication ethnic Uighurs, a Turkic people with ties to Central Asia who once formed the majority in the region of Xinjiang. The killers may have been radicalised abroad with notions of global jihad. Whatever the truth, there is no doubt that Uighurs are committing ever more desperate acts. Scarcely a week passes in Xinjiang without anti-government violence.

The party claims that Xinjiang has been part of China for 2,000 years. Yet for most of that time, the region has been on the fringe of China’s empire, or outside it altogether. An attempt to incorporate these lands began only with the Qing dynasty’s conquests in the mid-18th century. (The name Xinjiang, “new frontier”, was bestowed only in the 1880s.) During the chaos of the 1940s, Uighurs declared a short-lived independent state of East Turkestan. But from 1949 the Communists began integrating Xinjiang into China by force. Demobbed Chinese soldiers were sent to colonise arid lands, the state repression of Uighurs drawing heavily on the Soviet tactics for handling “nationalities”. Uighur resentment of the Han runs deep. The feeling is mutual. Many Chinese are openly racist towards Uighurs, and the government thinks them ungrateful. In 2009 hundreds of people were killed during street fighting between Uighurs and Han, who now make up two-fifths of Xinjiang’s population and control a disproportionate share of its wealth.

Identity crisis

The Kunming killers’ motives may never be known. But fears of militant Islamism arriving at the heart of China must not obscure the broader problem of Chinese oppression in Xinjiang. Recent crackdowns hit at the heart of Uighur identity: students are banned from fasting during Ramadan, religious teaching for children is restricted, and Uighur-language education is limited. Many Uighurs, like their neighbours in Tibet, fear that their culture will be extinguished. Xinjiang and Tibet (and Inner Mongolia) are still China’s colonies, their pacification under the Communist Party a continued imperial project. Were it not for the Dalai Lama’s restraining influence, violence in Tibet might be as bad as it is in Xinjiang. As it is, over 100 Tibetans have burned themselves to death in protest at Chinese rule.

There is a large military presence in China’s west. The government seems to believe that unless Uighurs and Tibetans are held in check by force, the western regions could break away. That is always a danger. But suppression, which leads to explosions of anger, may increase the risk, not mitigate it.

The only way forward is to show Uighurs (and Tibetans) how they can live peacefully and prosperously together within China. The first step is for the party to lift the bans on religious and cultural practices, give Uighurs and Tibetans more space to be themselves, and strive against prejudice in Chinese society. Economic development needs to be aimed at Uighur and Tibetan communities. Otherwise, there will be more violence and instability.

via China’s restless West: The burden of empire | The Economist.

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04/03/2014

Xi vows opposition against words, actions damaging ethnic unity – Xinhua | English.news.cn

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits members of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from ethnic minority groups and joins their panel discussion in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2014. Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also attended the event. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

Chinese President Xi Jinping (R), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits members of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) from ethnic minority groups and joins their panel discussion in Beijing, capital of China, March 4, 2014. Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also attended the event. (Xinhua/Ding Lin)

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for resolute opposition to any words and actions that damage the country’s ethnic unity.

“We will build a ‘wall of bronze and iron’ for ethnic unity, social stability and national unity,” he said while joining a panel discussion with members from the minority ethnic groups of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Xi said the tradition of all ethnic groups in the country “breathing the same air and sharing the same fate” should be handed down from generation to generation.

“Unity and stability are blessings, while secession and turmoil are disasters,” he said. “People of all ethnic groups of the country should cherish ethnic unity.”

via Xi vows opposition against words, actions damaging ethnic unity – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

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03/03/2014

China’s bloody train station attack shows how terrorism is spreading out of Xinjiang

The map does seem to show that terrorism is moving well outside of Xinjiang into major urban areas.

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14/02/2014

China says 11 ‘terrorists’ killed in new Xinjiang unrest | Reuters

Eleven “terrorists” were killed during an attack in China’s far western region of Xinjiang on Friday, state news agency Xinhua said, in the latest violence to hit a part of the country with a large Muslim population.

A leading member of the ethnic Turkic Uighur community in exile said such attacks were a response to heavy-handed Chinese rule in the region and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to Beijing, expressed concern over the state of human rights in Xinjiang, to the annoyance of his hosts.

“The terrorists, riding motorbikes and cars, attacked a team of police who were gathering before the gate of a park for routine patrol at around 4 p.m. in Wushi County in the Aksu Prefecture,” Xinhua said in an English-language report.

“Police said the terrorists had (an) unknown number of LNG cylinders in their car which they had attempted to use as suicide bombs. Several terrorists were shot dead at the scene,” it added.

Eight were killed by police and three died “by their own suicide bomb”, Xinhua said.

via China says 11 ‘terrorists’ killed in new Xinjiang unrest | Reuters.

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28/01/2014

More violence in Xinjiang: Unquiet on the western front | The Economist

THE LATEST flurry of news from and about Xinjiang—a fresh bout of deadly violence in the region and the arrest of an activist scholar in Beijing—suggests that Chinese authorities are not about to change their strategy for managing ethnic tensions there. But neither do they look like succeeding in bringing an end to the anger, suppression and unrest.

Twelve people were reported killed January 24th in the latest flare up of violence. And on January 15th, police in Beijing detained Ilham Tohti (pictured above), a 44-year-old professor of economics, a native of Xinjiang and a member of the native Muslim Uighur minority, which has long bristled under Han Chinese rule. Chinese officials have only cited unspecified “violations of law” but Global Times, a party-run newspaper, accused him of frequently giving “aggressive lectures” and “attempting to find a moral excuse for terrorists”.

In another article, Global Times quoted police as saying Mr Tohti “recruited and manipulated some people to make rumours, distort and hype up issues in a bid to create conflicts, spread separatist thinking, incite ethnic hatred, advocate ‘Xinjiang independence’ and conduct separatist activities”.

Mr Tohti is a well-known scholar, focussing on topics like labour and migration. He has also been an outspoken critic of Chinese policies in Xinjiang, and an advocate for better treatment of Uighurs. Last year, he was stopped at Beijing airport as he tried to travel to the United States to take up a teaching position at Indiana University.

The American government said in a statement that the case appeared to be part of a disturbing pattern of arrests and detentions of people “who peacefully challenge official Chinese policies and actions”. Scholars who are familiar with Mr Tohti’s work have also expressed concern. “It’s not a good sign,” says Dru Gladney, a Xinjiang specialist at Pomona College, in California.  “It gave us some hope that some Uighurs were still able to teach classes, speak out and speak to foreign media. I’ve never known him to advocate independence or violence, or to associate with separatists.”

via More violence in Xinjiang: Unquiet on the western front | The Economist.

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22/01/2014

China urges respect for ethnic traditions in restive Xinjiang | Reuters

Ethnic traditions in Xinjiang must be respected, the top official in the restive far western region of China said, despite criticism that government policies there unfairly target the Muslim Uighur ethnic community.

Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Zhang Chunxian delivers a speech during a tea forum celebrating the Corban Festival in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, November 5, 2011. REUTERS/China Daily

The government must implement \”ethnic unity education and propaganda\” among all communities, especially among the region\’s youth, the ruling Communist Party\’s Xinjiang chief Zhang Chunxian said in comments carried in state media on Wednesday.

\” must treat issues of local tradition with respect and resolve issues of violence with rule of law and severe measures,\” the official Xinjiang Daily cited Zhang as saying.

China has intensified a sweeping security crackdown in Xinjiang, further repressing Uighur culture, religious tradition and language, rights groups say, despite strong government assertions that it offers Uighurs wide-ranging freedoms.

In November, officials demanded that lawyers in Turpan, an oasis city southeast of the regional capital, Urumqi, commit to guaranteeing that relatives do not wear burqas, veils or participate in illegal religious activities, and that young men do not grow long beards.

Many Uighurs resent local policies imposed by the government and an inflow of Han Chinese migrants, and some Uighur groups are campaigning for an independent homeland for their people.

Experts say China\’s repression of religious practices has pushed some Uighurs to more strongly embrace Islamic traditions.

Zhang\’s pledge follows state media reports in early January that President Xi Jinping was shifting the region\’s focus to maintaining stability over development, after a series of attacks last year fuelled by what the government said was religious extremism.

\” must acknowledge the long-term, acute and complex nature of the anti-separatism and violent terrorism fight,\” Zhang said, adding that there was no contradiction between stability and development.

via China urges respect for ethnic traditions in restive Xinjiang | Reuters.

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02/01/2014

China denounces U.S. for sending Uighur ‘terrorists’ to Slovakia | Reuters

China\’s Foreign Ministry criticized the United States on Thursday for sending the last three Uighur Chinese inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention center to Slovakia, saying they were \”terrorists\” who posed a real security danger.

Yusef Abbas, Saidullah Khalik, and Hajiakbar Abdul Ghuper are the last of 22 Muslim minority Chinese nationals to be moved from the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba, according to the Pentagon.

Slovakia\’s Interior Ministry confirmed that it would take in the three. Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people from China\’s far western region of Xinjiang.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the three were members of the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which Beijing labels a terror group.

\”They are genuine terrorists. They not only threaten China\’s security, they will threaten the security of the country that receives them,\” he told a daily news briefing.

\”China hopes that the relevant country … does not give asylum to terrorists, and sends them back to China as soon as possible.\”

Qin added that China did not appreciate a recent U.S. State Department call for Chinese security forces to exercise restraint following the latest outbreak of violence in Xinjiang, also blamed by Beijing on \”terrorists\”.

\”These remarks neglect the facts and are feeble,\” he said. \”We urge the United States to abandon their double standards when it comes to terrorism, and immediately stop saying one thing and doing another, to avoid sending the wrong message to violent terrorist forces.\”

via China denounces U.S. for sending Uighur ‘terrorists’ to Slovakia | Reuters.

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