Inner Asia
Uighurs recall independent East Turkestan
In a Capitol Hill ceremony, Uighur exile leaders commemorated the founding of an independent East Turkestan Republic on Nov. 12 in both 1933 and 1944.
Tag: Uighurs
East Asia
China: terror blasts in Shanxi; Uighurs feel pressure
Blasts at the Shanxi Communist Party headquarters left one dead—days after dissident Uighur leader Ilham Tohti said his family was threatened by security agents.
East Asia
Tiananmen Square suicide attack?
Police are said to be seeking two ethnic Uighurs in the apparent suicide attack on Beijing's Tiananmen Square, with exiled Uighur leaders warning of a "fierce crackdown."
Inner Asia
New deadly Xinjiang raid comes to light
Security forces in China’s far western Xinjiang region shot and killed at least 12 men and wounded 20 others during a raid on what authorities described as a “terrorist facility.”
Inner Asia
China: Uighurs imprisoned for online ‘extremism’
Courts in China’s far western province of Xinjiang sentenced 11 ethnic Uighurs to up to six years in prison for promoting racial hatred and religious extremism online.
Inner Asia
China: US hand in Xinjiang violence?
Deadly clashes between Uighurs and Chinese police in Xinjiang came as US Ambassador Gary Locke was visiting the restive province with a trade delegation.
Inner Asia
China: Mongol herders’ protest march blocked
Police in China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region blocked an attempted cross-country march by traditional Mongol herders, with police assaulting hundreds in two incidents.
Iran
Iran-China pipeline route via restive regions
A new pipeline that would link Iran to China via Pakistan, bypassing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, would pass through the insurgent regions of Baluchistan, Kashmir and Xinjiang.
Inner Asia
China: Han-Tibetan solidarity emerging
Human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, who defends Chinese peasants struggling to keep their lands, proclaims his support for the Tibetans and calls for Han solidarity with their cause.
Inner Asia
mosque150
A top US sportswear company announced that it has dropped a Chinese supplier over concerns that its products were made by forced labor in detention camps in Xinjiang. Reports have mounted that the hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uighurs believed to be held in a fast-expanding system of detention camps are being put to forced labor for Chinese commercial interests. An Associated Press investigation tracked recent shipments from one such detention-camp factory, run by privately-owned Hetian Taida Apparel, to Badger Sportswear of North Carolina. After long denying that the camps exist, Chinese authorities now say they are "vocational training centers" aimed at reducing "extremism." (Photo via Bitter Winter)
Inner Asia
GGR
With China accused of detaining hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims without trial in its western province of Xinjiang, a BBC investigation analyzed satellite data to determine that the detention camp system in the region is rapidly expanding. Reviewing images from the European Space Agency's Sentinel satellite service, the BBC finds at least 40 such facilities across Xinjiang, half built within last two years—with a big thrust of construction just in the past six months. Among the largest is a "massive, highly secure compound" still being built at Dabancheng, about an hour's drive from the provincial capital, Urumqi. It is enclosed within a two kilometer-long exterior wall punctuated by 16 guard towers. (Photo via UNPO)
Inner Asia
Jew driver
China is denying claims aired by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination that up to a million Muslim Uighurs have been detained in "re-education camps" in Xinjiang region. But Beijing appears to be imposing harsh surveillance and restrictions on freedom of worship on Muslims throughout China, even requiring those making the pilgrimage to Mecca to be fitted with GPS tracking devices. Yet such methods almost always prove counter-productive, leading to resentment that only fuels the unrest that Chinese authorities are responding to. This week saw mass protests in Weizhou, Ningxia province, after authorities attempted to demolish a newly built mosque which they said had not received construction permits. After days of protest, authorities backed down and agreed to postpone the demolition. (Photo of protest at Weizhou Grand Mosque from Weibo via BBC News)