China acts to ease Uighur tension

Date: Sunday, 04-July-2010

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By Kathrin Hille in Urumqi
Published: July 2 2010 19:35
Last updated: July 2 2010 19:35

China has installed a grassroots network of officials throughout Xinjiang, its predominantly Muslim north-west frontier region, to address social risks and spot early signs of unrest a year after bloody ethnic riots erupted in the provincial capital.

Hundreds of cadres have been transferred from southern Xinjiang, the region’s poorest area, into socially unstable neighbourhoods of Urumqi, the capital, and tasked with helping Uighur families find jobs. They are also expected to assist other low-income groups in accessing government money, according to local officials.

Last year’s unrest pitted the Turkic Uighurs, Xinjiang’s largest ethnic group, against migrants from other parts of China who are mostly Han, the country’s dominant group.

The social programmes are the most concrete evidence so far of new policy measures following last year’s ethnic clashes, the worst in the history of the People’s Republic of China.

The string of measures reveals that despite official propaganda that blames external “terrorist” forces for the riots, the government has identified economic and social problems as a root cause of the unrest.

Security remains a policy emphasis. Hundreds of police officers have been moved to Urumqi and officials said more than 40,000 high-definition surveillance cameras had been installed on the streets.

But on Yamalik Mountain, a Urumqi slum that houses about 50,000 migrants from southern Xinjiang, 142 new social workers have begun outreach. Sun Hongliang, director of a community office in the slum, said the area was being redeveloped to reduce social risks.

Throughout Xinjiang, local authorities are focusing on unemployment among Uighur families and on improving the social situation of university graduates.

Zhang Chunxian, the new Xinjiang Communist party secretary who replaced hardliner Wang Lequan in April, has started two new programmes.

“The government now examines all families, and if a household is found where all members are unemployed, the government arranges for one person in the household to get a job,” said Wu Fuhuan, director of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

In Xinjiang universities, official announcements could be seen last month calling upon students to register for the payouts.

Officials in southern Xinjiang towns said several hundred police officers had been stationed in townships and villages over the past few months. “It is to enable closer monitoring of the situation among the people.”

Other News / Uyghur American Association

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