http://www.uyghurnews.com/ Uyghur American Association - Feed for Uyghur, Uighur, East Turkistan, Tibet News en-us http://www.uyghurnews.com/SiteDesign/etflag.gif http://www.uyghurnews.com/ China faces rising crime rates and increased social unrest this year, according to the country's top think tank. A new report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said criminal prosecutions were up 10 per cent and public security cases up nearly 20 per cent in 2009, and it predicted the rise would continue even as the economy improved in 2010. In real numbers, that meant 5.3 million criminal cases and 9.9 million public security cases were prosecuted last year. According to the Beijing Times, the 2009 jump was the first increase China has seen in its crime rate in nearly a decade. The report warned that the widening gap between rich and poor in Chinese society, coupled with increased unemployment, will ensure the crime rate continues to climb. It said things such as robbery, petty theft, fraud and bank-card crimes are likely to increase and that Ponzi schemes and illegal fundraising will be more prevalent ]]> SUN, 28 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-rise-in-crime-is-expected-to-continue&ItemID=DT-228201081614361089609 China's top expert on social unrest has warned that hardline security policies are taking the country to the brink of 'revolutionary turmoil'. In contrast with the powerful, assertive and united China that is being projected to the outside world, Yu Jianrong said his prediction of looming internal disaster reflected on-the-ground surveys and also the views of Chinese government ministers. Deepening social fractures were caused by the Communist Party's obsession with preserving its monopoly on power through 'state violence' and 'ideology', rather than justice, Professor Yu said. Disaster could be averted only if 'interest groups' - which he did not identify - were capable of making a rational compromise to subordinate themselves to the constitution, he said. Some lawyers, economists and religious and civil society leaders have expressed similar views but it is unusual for someone with Professor Yu's official standing to make]]> FRI, 26 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-insider-sees-revolution-brewing&ItemID=EI-2282010905343610235086 China last year. The Cambodian government was condemned around the world when it deported the asylum seekers at gunpoint in December. Two Australian women - joint Nobel Peace Prize winner Sister Denise Coghlan and Taya Hunt, a legal officer with the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) - represented the Uighurs for six months prior to their deportation. The pair have spoken exclusively to AM. Ms Hunt provided legal and humanitarian support to the Uighurs and is one of the few people to have close contact with them. "[They were] very grateful for the assistance we were providing them and generally just a nice, calm group of people," she said. "There was a pregnant woman in the group and her beautiful two children." Ms Hunt says the first Uighur arrived in Cambodia in June and the rest in October.]]> THU, 25 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=claims-un-ignored-uighur-deportation-warnings&ItemID=BU-2282010880243610836468 China but its role as a global power and how this will affect Asia and the world. The new US administration under President Barack Obama was to usher in a new and less conflictual relationship but has had to face opposition from rivals as well as allies and friends. Relations with the US have deteriorated fuelled by the differences in Copenhagen on climate change, US arms sales to Taiwan, and Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama. The handling of Tibetan and Uighur protests, as well as concerns over environmental damage, and curbs on information and opposition have dented China’s image. Far from gradually becoming more open and allowing space for dissent, China has been increasingly restrictive, curbing even peaceful opposition with harsh prison sentences for those who fall out of line. The Chinese media and policy make]]> THU, 25 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-global-role&ItemID=MU-2282010569443610580022 Uighur asylum seekers to China in December will likely force the United States to reconsider the nature of its relationship with Cambodia, a senior American official said on Tuesday. Speaking at a daily press briefing in Washington, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley said the US was still unhappy about the sudden deportation. “We’re deeply disturbed that the Cambodian government, in violation of its international obligations, forcibly removed 20 Uighur asylum seekers to China in December without the benefit of a credible process for determining their refugee status,” he said. “We have expressed our disappointment, and we will factor this into future decisions that we make about our relationship with Cambodia.” In response to questions about what specific measures had been taken, Crowley did not comment, but added: R]]> THU, 25 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=us-to-rethink-its-relationship&ItemID=ZM-2282010630143610838272 Uighur quarter (where new construction flanks ancient mosques). "If nothing is done," says Beijing-based preservationist Hu Xinyu, "next year this [Old City] will be gone."The second-story rooms of the centuries-old mud-brick houses were cantilevered atop log beams and nearly touched each other across an alleyway paved with hexagonal stones. Women wearing dark veils leaned out of tiny windows. Poplar doors, painted bright blue or green and adorned with brass floral petals, stood half open—a subtle signal that the master of the house was inside. The aromas of freshly baked bread and ripe peaches wafted up from vendors’ wooden carts. VISIT Smithsonian FOR MORE PICTURE It was early morning and I was exploring the back streets of Kashgar, a fabled city on the western edge of China, with a Chinese ]]> WED, 24 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=demolishing-kashgars-history&ItemID=HL-2282010890643610297486 China and the United States looks far from healing as Beijing reiterates its plan to punish U.S. companies following disagreements between the two countries. Beijing's anger at Washington over a range of issues from arms sales to Taiwan and the U.S. president's meeting with Tibet's exiled leader the Dalai Lama, showed no signs of abating Tuesday.   Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang reaffirmed punitive sanctions against American companies would go ahead, because of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. In addition, China is angry over U.S. positions on a number of issues, including trade, human rights and allegations of Chinese cyber-attacks on U.S. organizations.   He says it is up to the United States to heal relations.   Qin says that China demands that the U.S. seriously regard China's position and take credible measures to undo the damage done. And, he says, sanctions against U.S. companies will go ahead.   Qin refused, however,]]> TUE, 23 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-vows-sanctions-against-us-companies-will-go-forward&ItemID=QD-2282010417243610587803 human rights campaigners on Tuesday urged the US government to fund efforts led by the Falungong spiritual movement to circumvent Internet censorship in China and other nations. Congress approved 30 million dollars in the 2010 budget to combat cyber censorship in China, Iran and elsewhere. But lawmakers have voiced concern that the funding since 2008 has been used ineffectively. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rights advocates - most from China - urged that money go to the Global Internet Freedom (GIF) Consortium, originally set up to evade China's Internet "firewall." "By taking the right steps, the United States can make a historic contribution to its own security and to the advancement of democracy by rapidly tearing down the information firewalls of the world's closed societies," it said. The letter was signed by exiled leaders of the 1989 democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square including Chai Ling, ]]> TUE, 23 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=groups-ask-us-for-funds-to-break-china-firewall&ItemID=CD-2282010106543610331356 Tibetan man (L) in traditional clothing watches as Chinese paramilitary troops in riot gear march along the streets of Guomaying,on the Tibetan plateau.(Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)While those in charge of propaganda work to intoxicate the country with the image of a “harmonious society” at the behest of party leader Hu Jintao, frequent uprisings in China’s western ethnic provinces of Tibet and Xinjiang have, to the embarrassment of officials, laid bare the lie. In fact, the intensifying social conflicts in the west have pushed China’s teetering stability to the limit. Official Chinese media reported that a Tibetan protest on March 14, 2008 resulted in 13 deaths and an economic loss of 200 million yuan (US$29 million). Over the following nine months, numerous other protests broke out in Tibet and surrounding areas. Neighboring Xinjiang Province experienced street protests on an even l]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-crises-in-tibet-and-xinjiang&ItemID=UP-2282010652743610648399 Dalai Lama last week and the predictable response from Beijing. "The U.S. act grossly interfered in China's internal affairs, gravely hurt the Chinese people's national sentiments and seriously damaged the Sino-U.S. ties," said a government spokesman with the usual understatement. But the verbal barrage reveals more about China than it does about U.S. policy toward Tibet. Beijing believes it can browbeat other nations into ignoring its human-rights violations in Tibet. In 2008, China canceled a trade summit with the European Union because of a planned meeting between the Dalai Lama and Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2007, shortly after the Dalai Lama received the Congressional gold medal, U.S. warships were turned away from Hong Kong. Similar petty retaliations have followed the Dalai Lama's meetings with leaders in European countries in recent years. The fist-shaking has yielded]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-tibet-tactics&ItemID=QJ-2282010256243610735084 human rights Council, renowned dissidents, rights activists and experts will come together in Geneva, Switzerland, to urge action against rights abusers, boost democracy dissidents worldwide, and issue a call for internet freedom. The second annual Geneva Summit for human rights, Tolerance and Democracy, to be held at the Geneva international conference center next to the UN, is organized by a global civil society coalition of 25 human rights groups, including Freedom House (www.freeedomhouse.org), Ibuka (www.ibuka.net), UN Watch (http://www.unwatch.org), and Burmese, Tibetan and Zimbabwean organizations (full list at http://genevasummit.org/the_coalition/new), with support from the Canton of Geneva. Co-chairing the summit’s honorary committee are two of the world’s most recognized former dissid]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=dissidents-ex-political-prisoners-organizing-geneva-rights-summit&ItemID=TG-2282010402643610650203 China’s nimble and imaginative netizens as a way to poke fun at the authorities and their bid to corral online debate and to block access to sites the censors deem inappropriate. Internet satirists were inspired by the language used by a Uighur artist performing on the Spring Festival Gala show, the annual Chinese New Year’s Eve jamboree created and broadcast by China Central Television to entertain viewers gathered at home for the most important festival of the year. Watched by the largest television audience on Earth, it is an opportunity for wholesome family entertainment peppered with propaganda. When the artist from the restive, mainly Muslim western Xinjiang region performed the song “The Party’s Policies are yakexi” – using the Uighur word for “good”, Chinese netizens ]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinese-censors-tormented-by-mythical-animal&ItemID=GG-228201091943610393756 China,” said Professor Yang Zhongdong.  In a country with fifty-six official ethnicities, China’s cultural, geographic and linguistic diversity is astounding.  Yang Zhongdong, a professor at Xinjiang University in Urumqi and currently a visiting scholar at the USC US-China Institute, points out that establishing connections across ethnic lines is the first and most important step in achieving social integration and harmony in China.  The Xinjiang Uyghurs Autonomous Region, Professor Yang adds, has thirteen historical ethnicities recognized by the Chinese government and embodies China’s diversity. Since 1999, Professor Yang has taught at Xinjiang University’s School of Humanities, lecturing on the history of Xinjiang.  His research interest focuses]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=usci-visiting-scholar-yang-zhongdong-exploring-the-interplay-between-ethnicity-religion-and-identity&ItemID=YR-2282010638143610710799 China strategic cooperation and agreed to further expand cooperation between the two friendly countries in all fields. Foreign Minister of Pakistan, who is currently visiting China, held formal talks with his Chinese counterpart, at the Chinese Foreign Ministry.  The official talks lasting more then two hours were followed by a luncheon hosted by Foreign Minister Yang Jeichi in honour of the Pakistan delegation. During the meeting the two sides discussed and reviewed the entire range of bilateral, regional and international issues. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi referred to China as Pakistan’s time tested and all weather friend and underlined that the relations with China remain the corner stone of Pakistan’s foreign policy. He said the exchange of high level visits demonst]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-foreign-ministers-agree-to-further-enhance-cooperation&ItemID=NC-228201070243610483748 China toward integration and openness are more powerful today than ever before,” said President Bill Clinton in 1999. China then, though battered by the Asian financial crisis, was busy dismantling state-owned enterprises and pushing for admission to the World Trade Organisation. Today, however, those forces look much weaker. A spate of recent events, from the heavy jail sentences passed on human-rights activists to an undiplomatic obduracy at the climate-change negotiations in Copenhagen last December, invite questions about the thinking of China’s leaders. Has their view of the outside world and dissent at home changed? Or were the forces detected by Clinton and so many others after all not pulling so hard in the direction they were expecting? The early years of what China calls its “reform and opening” after 1978 w]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=what-are-they-afraid-of&ItemID=XJ-2282010388043610712602 Vancouver Sun By Lisa Baertlei Reuters February 22, 2010 The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, said the United States and other countries could help his campaign for a free Tibet by promoting an open society in China. "Censorship ... is the source of the problem," the Dalai Lama said Saturday in Beverly Hills. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. He now lives in exile in India and advocates "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet within China. "The Chinese people have no opportunity to know our issue," said the Buddhist monk, who Beijing has branded as a dangerous separatist for demanding Tibetan self-determination. "Once China becomes an open society - freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of information - all this unnecessary fear and doubt will reduce," he said. "That's the real answer for this problem. "Americans can help in this change," he said, adding the lack of free information has helped the Chinese government por]]> MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=google-will-pave-way-to-freedom-in-china-dalai-lama&ItemID=PD-2282010562843610514948 MON, 22 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-at-risk-of-a-home-grown-financial-crisis&ItemID=IP-2282010109143610831990 Dalai Lama in the White House on Thursday, he was following a tradition that all recent American presidents had dutifully honored. Yet, to some Chinese Mr. Obama’s support of the Dalai Lama represents something more troubling and disrespectful. The meeting, while low-profile, and the routine announcement last month of American arms sales to Taiwan, were taken as the latest signs that despite China’s rapid ascent, the American government still refused to compromise on issues that China considered sacrosanct: matters of sovereignty and territorial integrity. On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry called in Jon M. Huntsman Jr., the American ambassador here, to lecture him on the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans, whom China considers a separatist. “At this time, China and the U.S. cannot find any agreement on strategic issues,” said Yan Xuet]]> FRI, 19 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=rift-widens-as-us-and-china-seek-opposing-goals&ItemID=KU-2282010884043610232412 human rights events in Turkey and founded the nonprofit East Turkestan National Freedom Center, which supported Uyghur students in Turkey and around the world. Rebiya Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress, described him as a forceful leader. “I am so sad to lose my friend—one of strong alliance to our Uyghur cause. He is a history-maker who brought glory to the Uyghur people and who respectfully dedicated his whole life to their freedom,” Kadeer said. “He continuously pro]]> THU, 18 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=uyghur-leader-dead-at-85&ItemID=HG-2282010858943610833794 China's predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region speaks to students at the Central Nationalities University in Beijing, China. His weekly lectures are a kind of high-wire act and he has been put under house arrest dozens of times over the past decade for criticizing how China runs his homeland and treats his people. Yet Tohti is not a separatist or even a political dissident. He's a Communist Party member and a teacher at a top Chinese university who sees himself as a bridge between Hans and Uighurs. That the government has so far refused to endorse his middle road and work with him shows how difficult it is to resolve differences between the party and its restive Uighurs and Tibetans. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel) (Elizabeth Dalziel - AP)When someone rings Ilham Tohti’s doorbell these days, he gets n]]> WED, 17 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=silence-an-ominous-sign-for-uighur-activist&ItemID=XB-228201033943610636139 WED, 17 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=cambodias-one-party-future&ItemID=SD-2282010265943610208127 WED, 17 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=europeans-still-resisting-obama-over-guantanamo-inmates&ItemID=HM-2282010698043610981075 China within days as it pursues an ambitious free-trade push following its strong recovery from the global downturn, Trade Minister Simon Crean said. He said discussions with China would open in Canberra next week, while Australia was also in talks with Japan and South Korea and was studying a deal with India. He said Canberra and Beijing were strongly committed to free-trade negotiations which stumbled on technical issues before diplomatic ties suffered a series of setbacks last year. "The key market access areas of these negotiations have been difficult, and negotiations have taken longer than we would have hoped," Crean told Australia's Foreign Correspondents' Association on Tuesday. "But high-level political commitment on both sides remains." Rapidly industrialising China has become Canberra's biggest trading partner with deals worth 76 billion Australian dollars (68 billion US) over the past fin]]> WED, 17 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=upbeat-australia-launches-free-trade-push&ItemID=QE-2282010330043610954986 China appear to be getting more numerous and more serious. The Chinese objected in strong terms to Washington’s latest arms deal with Taiwan and threatened to take sanctions against those firms involved. President Obama recently accused the Chinese of currency manipulation. At Davos, Larry Summers, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, made an oblique attack on China by referring to mercantilist policies. The disagreement between China and the US at December’s Copenhagen climate summit has continued to reverberate. The Chinese government reacted strongly to Google’s claims – supported by the US administration – that cyberattacks against it had originated in China and its statement that it would no longer cooperate with government censorship of the Internet. The US has been increasingly]]> TUE, 16 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=us-vs-china-a-dangerous-phase-has-begun&ItemID=CD-228201019343610698539 China watchers are perplexed about the origins and implications of the new assertiveness. Many believe a threshold has been breached and that China is going to become more difficult to deal with. Others see merely the 30-year pattern of fang and shou, opening and closing, in which one step back is followed by two steps forward. Since the adoption of a fairly progressive decision on intra-party democracy at September’s plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, political reforms have stalled. The foreign business climate has also deteriorated badly, with multinationals complaining of a host of new operating constraints and protectionist measures. Some western executives with long experience in China say it is the worst they have seen since 1989-92. Meanwhile, the]]> TUE, 16 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=the-year-china-showed-its-claws&ItemID=PV-228201079943610956790 Dalai Lama, it is important that he be welcomed not only as a moral and religious leader respected throughout the world but also as a fellow democrat who shares America's deepest values. This is not an aspect of the Dalai Lama that is well understood, especially by those who see him as the spiritual leader of a traditional people. Yet he is a devoted democrat who has defended the universality of the democratic idea against the "Asian values" argument of various autocrats and who has tried, even before he fled Tibet in 1959, to modernize Tibet's system of government. He did so partly to mobilize the Tibetan people against the Chinese attempt to uproot traditional Tibetan society through forced collectivization, a program that was already well underway in the early 1950s under the Orwellian rubric of democratic reform; and because he realized,]]> TUE, 16 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=the-dalai-lamas-principled-pursuit-of-democracy&ItemID=QK-2282010169043610102268 China to align its Iran policy with the long-term interests of the Iranian people. Yet, sadly, as a rising superpower China is treating Iran as a bargaining chip in a great game against the United States. In recent weeks, China's support for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has assumed a decidedly anti-American tone. Echoing Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, the People's Daily, the chief organ of the Chinese Communist Party, attributed the mass protests against Iran's rigged presidential elections as "an instance of naked political scheming" by the United States. Coming in the aftermath of its clash with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Google over censorship and human rights, China blamed the unrest in Iran on "online warfare launched by America via YouTube and Twitter." In t]]> TUE, 16 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-using-iran-to-make-cold-war-against-us&ItemID=BR-2282010486843610331123 human rights, but also things of no particular importance. In no time, I was comfortable and engaged with this gentleman from New York. I learned that he graduated from Colby College in Maine, studied history, and just happened to take a fateful trip to Beijing in 2002 that would ultimately change his life. When I got Jeff on the phone, the first question I asked was one that I had been mulling over all week: w]]> TUE, 16 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=exclusive-interview-with-filmmaker-jeff-daniels-the-10-conditions-of-love&ItemID=LB-2282010490243610819731 China. Conflicts with China have multiplied. Consider: the undervalued renminbi and its effect on trade; the breakdown of global warming negotiations in Copenhagen; China's weak support of efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons; its similarly poor record in pushing North Korea to relinquish its tiny atomic arsenal; the sale of U.S. weapons to Taiwan; and Google's threat to leave China rather than condone continued censorship. The United States and China view the world in starkly different terms. The lesson of the Great Depression and World War II for Americans was that isolationism was self-defeating. Tried after World War I, it failed. The United States had to engage abroad to protect its economy and physical security. These core ideas remain the bedrock justifications for]]> MON, 15 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=the-danger-behind-chinas-me-first-worldview&ItemID=FD-2282010722343610391718 China in December are being or have been put on trial for what China considers criminal activities. “China is a country ruled by law,” Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a written statement to The New York Times. “The judicial authorities deal with illegal criminal issues strictly according to law.” Mr. Ma’s statement came last week in a brief reply to a list of detailed questions The Times sent to the Foreign Ministry inquiring about the fate of the Uighurs. Chinese officials promised to deal with the Uighurs in a transparent manner when they were returned to China in December, but the Chinese government has so far refused to release any information on the whereabouts and well-being of the Uighurs. After the Uighurs showed up in Cambodia late last year, Chinese offici]]> MON, 15 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-hints-at-trials-for-20-seeking-asylum&ItemID=GR-2282010811443610537195 American media have quoted a Chinese official as saying. Ma Zhaoxu, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a written statement to The New York Times last week that China was a country “ruled by law” and was set to implement it in the case of the Uighurs. “The judicial authorities deal with illegal criminal issues strictly according to law,” he said in a written statement to the paper. Like previous Chinese statements, the Times report did not include any information about the nature of the charges against the Uighurs or when they are to stand trial. The vague announcement has done little to dampen increasing concern about the fate of the 20 Uighurs – including three children – who ]]> MON, 15 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-to-try-uighur-deportees&ItemID=DE-2282010786343610138579 China, a fort known as Jiayuguan marks the end of the Great Wall. During the 1500s messages from this distant outpost could reach the imperial capital Beijing in a matter of days via a system of smoke signals and fires. Since July, when China cut off Internet access to neighboring Xinjiang province following ethnic riots, history has come full circle and Jiayuguan is once again at the edge of China’s information network. The small industrial town even has the Internet refugees to prove it. Over the past few months, many Xinjiang residents have made the long journey to Jiayuguan and other towns along the provincial border to contact relatives, update blogs or rejuvenate businesses slowed by the restrictions. Although recently some access to state-run media and other Web sites inside Xinjiang has been restored, the province remains without ema]]> MON, 15 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-self-defeating-censorship&ItemID=XC-2282010760943610744771 Tibetans in south-western China's Sichuan province staged a sit-down protest to mark the start of the Tibetan lunar new year, a news report said on Tuesday. The protest by monks and lay Tibetans in Sichuan's Ngaba county on Monday, the first day of the Year of the Tiger, led to a standoff with police, the pro-Tibetan independence website phayul.com said. In the central square of Ngaba town, Tibetans 'said prayers and threw tsampa (barley flour) in the air to mourn the killings of several Tibetans in the 2008 protests,' the report quoted witnesses as saying. A religious affairs official from nearby Kirti monastery, the home of many of the protesting monks, urged them to disperse. Security forces later surrounded the protesters and confiscated the mobile phones of people seen taking video and photographs of the incident, the report said. Military barricades were set up on the main routes into the square to prevent more protesters ]]> MON, 15 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=tibetans-mark-new-year-with-protest-in-china&ItemID=LT-22820108216436103023 China has a different problem: Its government is under attack for conservative spending policies that critics say are damaging long-term productivity prospects and contributing to the economic imbalances underlying the global financial crisis. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank have long called for China to increase social spending so its citizens have less need to save for a rainy day and can consume more. Still, recent advice to Beijing from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development was remarkably blunt. “Looking ahead at the exit from the ongoing fiscal stimulus programs, it will be important not to revert to budget surpluses,” the O.E.C.D. said in a report this mont]]> MON, 15 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=stingy-china-may-hurt-only-itself&ItemID=MI-2282010910743610148500 China will some day "rule the world." Some people who look forward to a "post-American world" seem to assume that China will either emerge as a great power equal to the United States or take on sole outright leadership of the world. China is indeed on the rise. Its economy grew at an 8.7 percent rate last year. It is modernizing its military with a vengeance, thanks to double-digit growth in defense spending each year since the early 1990s. And its official holdings of around $800 billion in U.S. Treasuries lead some to fear that China has become America's banker. But China has a long way to go to replace America as a world leader. Concerns about its influence and control over the U.S. economy are overblown. So, too, are predictions that its rising military power will lead to world leadership. Yes, China may someday surpass the U.S. as the world's largest economy, but this doe]]> SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=when-china-rules-the-world-sorry-not-likely&ItemID=WP-2282010228643610377355 China cannot co-operate, what hope of stemming climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons, or returning the global economy to a path of stable growth? Over the past decade, the established superpower and the rising one have rubbed along reasonably well; relations with China are, by common consent, one of the few things George Bush junior got mostly right. But under Barack Obama, after a cordial start, slights have been building up for a while. The past week has produced a sharp reminder of how sensitive the relationship can be—and how quickly it might spin out of control. The issue, as so often in the past, was Taiwan, and in particular America’s promise to defend the island republic from the Communist mainland, which continues to claim sovereignty over it. America&#]]> SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=by-fits-and-starts&ItemID=HY-2282010232043610865963 SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=is-it-safe-to-do-business-in-chinais-it-safe-to-do-business-in-china&ItemID=BC-2282010464143610437951 Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, The 10 Conditions of Love. Screen West, the state government body that helps support such film clubs, alerted colleagues in another department "in case concerns were raised". They then contacted DFAT to warn it. It is impossible to imagine such a trail of fear being provoked by documentaries about the gun culture in Texas or the narcotics subculture of Amsterdam. But China has succeeded in marking itself out as a special case. World Bank president Robert Zoellick, when he was the US dep]]> SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=fear-factor-drives-china-partnership&ItemID=CQ-2282010553243610583428 Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer to visit Taiwan. That's after a previous trip was prevented by the government over concerns it would provoke China. Head of the organization Guts United Taiwan, Freddy Lim, extended the invitation when he met Kadeer in Washington on Wednesday. The group said in a statement that Kadeer wished very much to visit Taiwan for DVD release of the Chinese version of her biopic, The Ten Conditions of Love. The DVD is scheduled to be released in Taiwan in March. Last year Kadeer's biopic was screened across Taiwan, including at a high-profile film festival in the southern city of Kaohsiung. This screening reportedly prompted Beijing to tell its tourists to boycott the city. The Taiwanese government then refused to grant Kadeer a visa, citing security concerns. Government officials suggested that the World Uighur Congress, which Kadeer heads, is linked to a terro]]> SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=pro-independence-group-again-invites-kadeer-to-visit&ItemID=GN-2282010699543610498547 Xinjiang Autonomous Region, northwest China, according to the project operator, the Northwest Oilfield Branch of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec; SEHK: 0386; SHSE: 600028). The local oil deposits are mostly 5,000 meters under the ground, and the exploitation of such kind of high viscosity resources is so hard. Therefore, this discovery is expected to help the Sinopec Northwest Oilfield Branch relieve its exploitation cost pressure and further expand production. As the second biggest oilfield of Sinopec, the Tahe Oilfield is based in the Taklimakan Desert, north Tarim Basin. The first integrated gas field was built here in 2005, offering more than 1.9 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. Currently, its daily supply to the West-East Natural Gas Transmission Proje]]> SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=tahe-oilfield-discovers-100mn-ton-light-oil-reserves&ItemID=ER-228201045943610614627 China has responded to the scheduling of Thursday's meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama - and they want it canceled. "We urge the U.S. side to fully understand the high sensitivity of Tibet-related issues, honor its commitment to recognizing Tibet as part of China and opposing 'Tibet independence,'" said China Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu. The Obama-Dalai Lama meeting is one of several sources of tension between the U.S. and China, a list that includes new arms sales to Tawain, Chinese currency manipulation and evidence of Chinese hack attacks on Google. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the U.S. and Chinese have always discussed their disputes, and will continue to do so. "We think we have a mature enough relationship with the Chinese," Gibbs said. "We can agree on issues that are of mutual interest, but we also have a mature enough relationship that we know that two countries on this planet are not always going to agree on everythi]]> SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-to-obama-cancel-meeting-with-dalai-lama&ItemID=RJ-2282010106643610872878 Xinjiang attack last September," Lau said. "It seems they have not learned any lesson from the last event." On Tuesday, a Cable TV cameraman was grabbed by the neck and hauled away by a Chengdu police officer. An RTHK reporter said a policeman snatched away her mobile phone after she had taken pictures of the scuffle. The photos were then deleted. The incident came after two journalists f]]> SAT, 13 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chief-quizzed-on-roughed-up-media&ItemID=XS-228201068124361077148 Uighurs, Chinese Muslims whom all agreed should no longer be detained but who had nowhere else to go, into the United States. The Bush administration took the view that it is up to the executive branch and Congress, and not the judiciary, to decide who gets to enter the country, and the Ob]]> THU, 11 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=saved-by-the-swiss&ItemID=IA-2282010999043610306003 China and spirit away top-secret information on Chinese submarines. So reported Global Times, a Communist Party-backed newspaper with a nationalist bent, in a little-noticed December article. The paper described the episode as “a major security breach” and quoted one government official who complained that such attacks were “ubiquitous]]> THU, 11 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-alarmed-by-threat-to-security-from-cyberattacks&ItemID=SJ-22820102543610794611 human rights activists, journalists and bloggers arrested during and after the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The international human rights group said their detention was a stain on the International Olympic Committee and accused Rogge of doing "nothing" to deal with it. "Dozens of Chinese families continue to suffer the awful effects of the last Olympics because a loved-one is still in jail for using the fundamental right to free expression," Reporters Without Borders said. "Unfortunately, the International Olympic Committee and its president, Jacques Rogge, are doing nothing to obtain the release of these innocent people, whose ordeal is a stain on the Olympic movement's reputation." Rogge was not immediately available to comment. The group said it had sent a petition to Rogge asking him to intercede with the ]]> THU, 11 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=reporters-without-borders-calls-on-ioc&ItemID=ML-2282010234643610366599 Xinjiang By Damian Grammaticas Lage last updated at 06:21 GMT, Thursday, 11 February 2010 It is minus 20C, and China's frigid far west Xinjiang province feels frozen, cut off. On the streets of the capital, Urumqi, people huddle around braziers to keep warm. The call to prayer rings out from the minaret of a mosque. Every few minutes in the middle of Urumqi another security patrol passes. Chinese policemen in smart blue uniforms march in line, brandishing their guns. Police vans drive by slowly with their blue and red warning lights flashing, officers in helmets and camouflage gear peering watchfully out. Sometimes it is trucks painted in military colours. At other times, men march past dressed in long green greatcoats and fur hats, clutching wooden clubs. China says it is fighting terrorism and separatism here and must be vigilant. The security is a constant presence. And for months now Xinjiang's people have had their communication with the outside world restricted. Intern]]> THU, 11 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=trekking-1000km-in-china-for-e-mail&ItemID=NA-2282010323743610512076 China are now quarrying a priceless booty embalmed in Eurasia — pulsating reservoirs of oil and natural gas required to secure an energy rich future. While reams of print have been written about the tragic link between the US war on Afghanistan and the energy infrastructure it is building to access Eurasian oil and gas, China’s entry in the Game must also be considered. China recently announced its full economic recovery, signaled by a growth rate of]]> THU, 11 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=eurasias-energy-wars-the-us-china-and-muslims-in-pipelineistan&ItemID=RW-2282010470143610427195 China. "We have stable, good relations with China and we want to keep them that way," Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said. Switzerland's decision to take in the ethnic Uighur brothers was guided by humanitarian principles and should not be interpreted as giving preference to one country over another, she said. Tensions between China's majority Han population and Uighurs in the Western region of Xinjiang have flared up recently, and Beijing is highly sensitive to any separatist inclinations. Widmer-Schlumpf said Switzerland carefully examined the men's backgrounds and even checked DNA samples before concluding th]]> WED, 10 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=swiss-govt-approves-asylum-for-2-gitmo-inmates&ItemID=HT-2282010328543609178759 China emerge as a military threat to the U.S.? In most respects the answer is: not anytime soon—China doesn’t even contemplate a time it might challenge America directly. But one significant threat already exists: cyberwar. Attacks—not just from China but from Russia and elsewhere—on America’s electronic networks cost millions of dollars and could in the extreme cause the collapse of financial life, the halt of most manufacturing systems, and the evaporation of all the data and knowledge stored on the Internet. by James Fallows Early in my time in China, I learned a useful lesson for daily life. In the summer of 2006, I saw a contingent of light-green-shirted People’s Liberation Army soldiers marching in formation down a sidewalk on Fuxing Lu in Shanghai, near the U.S. and Iranian consulates. They looked so crisp under the leafy plane trees of the city’s old colonial district that I pulled out a camera to take]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=cyber-warriors&ItemID=HQ-228201046343609809537 China. The US still had no news on the fate of the Uighurs, said Scot Marciel, the US ambassador for ASEAN Affairs, in charge of relations with the 10 members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations. 'We've made it clear a number of times both publicly and privately how concerned and disappointed we were by Cambodia's decision,' he said. 'We had urged the Cambodian government before they deported the people not to go that route because they had not gone through the [UN refugee agency] process to determine whether they had a legitimate claim to asylum.' Marciel, who is on a five-nation visit as part of US President Barack Obama's strategy of greater engagement with the region, said he hoped the Cambodian gove]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=us-asean-ambassador-ends-cambodia-trip-slams-uighur-expulsions&ItemID=DK-2282010649743609896222 China not to broadcast a controversial Australian documentary about Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer. But Mr Scott's claim that the film The 10 Conditions of Love was never "locked in" for screening appeared at odds with an ABC email sent to its producer, John Lewis, apologising for shelving the original broadcast date of December 17. Mr Lewis said yesterday that when he asked the reason, he was told: "We'd like to let things settle down a bit." The email was sent within three months of Ms Kadeer's visit to Australia last August, when China tried to stop the film being shown at the Melbourne International Arts Festival. Mr Lewis is concerned the ABC's decision not to show his film is linked to Mr Scott's "soft diplomacy" ambitions in China. Beijing blames Ms Kadeer for instigating f]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=abc-boss-denies-caving-in-to-china-on-uighur-documentary&ItemID=GI-2282010796143609811341 China and India as important markets for the Australia Network, the decision to postpone broadcast of the documentary indefinitely could be seen as giving in to diplomatic pressure from China, but ABC MD Mark Scott told Radio National that such suggestions were “ludicrous” and he was “looking into it” and expected the film to air sometime this year, “sooner rather than later”.  ABC corporate communications director Mark Millett denied that this was a diplomatic issue. Encore contacted the ABC for comment, but we ]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=abc-caught-in-chinese-diplomacy-controversy&ItemID=QR-2282010799543609299951 China, and spirit away top-secret information on Chinese submarines. So reported Global Times, a Communist Party-backed newspaper with a nationalist bent, in a little-noticed December article. The paper described the incident as ‘‘a major security breach’’ and quoted one government official complaining that such attacks were ‘‘ubiquitous’’ in China. The information could ]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-sees-an-array-of-internet-threats-and-moves-to-tighten-control&ItemID=LT-228201031743609871937 China. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney in Santa Ana imposed a 188-month prison term on Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 73, a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Orange. Carney declared that he could not "put a price tag" on national security and sought to send a signal to China to "stop sending your spies here," according to the U.S. attorney's office. Chung, who worked at Boeing's Huntington Beach plant, denied being a spy and said he was gathering documents for a book, not for espionage. His attorneys argued that much of the material was already available on the public record. At his sentencing, Chung professed his love for the United States, even as prosecutor]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinese-born-engineer-gets-15-years-in-spying-for-china&ItemID=GN-2282010635143609958622 China's surveillance network. telegraph.co.uk By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai Published: 10:58AM GMT 09 Feb 2010 Liu Xingchen, the 56-year-old assistant to the head of Kailu County, a farming region in Inner Mongolia, said his vast network of informants meant he could be "very sensitive" to any signs of dissent and protest. In an interview with Xinhua, the government-run news agency, Mr Liu described how he was able to "quickly and accurately discover all sorts of information that might destabilise society". "Every policeman and auxiliary policeman, no matter their division or particular police station, has to establish at least 20 informants in their community, village, work unit and so on. Altogether, these add up to 10,000 spies. "Then the actual criminal units, the economic crimes unit, the Domestic Security Department, ]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinese-police-admit-enormous-number-of-spies&ItemID=PF-2282010267243609932533 American Progress By Nina Hachigian February 9, 2010 The news coverage of the U.S.-China relationship is getting more hysterical by the day. The Washington Post last week ran an editorial accusing the Obama administration of spending its first year “going out of its way” to “cater” to Beijing. Moreover, the editorial concluded, this approach backfired, and now China is more aggressive than ever, “busting with hubris,” and testing to see how far it can push the new U.S. president. The Economist’s coverage was nuanced, but its cover this week shows a giant, smoking dragon looming over a tiny Barack Obama, who appears to be pleading for a rational chat. The New York Times has run a series of pieces suggesting the administration is kowtowing to Beijing, and Robert Kagan and other conservative commentators accuse the Obama administration of appeasing dictatorships and abandoning democracies. A common narrative in this coverage is that th]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=stop-already-with-the-china-hysteria&ItemID=CF-2282010956343609676086 China's National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency. The interviews with Major Generals Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao appeared in the issue published on Monday. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) plays no role in setting policy for China's foreign exchange holdings. Officials in charge of that area have given no sign of any moves to sell U.S. Treasury bonds over the weapons sales, a move that could alarm markets and damage the value of China]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-pla-officers-urge-economic-punch-against-us&ItemID=TQ-2282010502643609993129 China under a new round of Defence cost-cutting. The decision could put at risk the jobs of up to 400 Victorian textile workers and has raised national security concerns, the Herald Sun reports. The hi-tech material for the uniforms, which are also worn by the elite SAS troops, is currently made in Wangaratta by Bruck Textiles. But while a Chinese company will make the fabric for several thousand uniforms, it is believed that firm is seven months late in meeting Defence's rigid specifications. Australian Defence Association executive director Neil James blasted the decision. "Do we seriously expect our soldiers to fight a war dressed in a uniform made in China?" he said. "There's a simple dignity issue." Mr James said there were also crucial national security concerns. The uniform is made to specifications that are monitored closely by]]> TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=diggers-uniforms-made-in-china&ItemID=PL-228201010624360979815 TUE, 09 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-malign-influence-in-sri-lanka&ItemID=TI-2282010252543609994933 Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer may have been pulled by the ABC to promote managing director Mark Scott's vision of a "soft diplomacy" role for the public broadcaster. Producer John Lewis yesterday told The Australian the ABC had bought the rights to the documentary about Kadeer, The 10 Conditions of Love, and scheduled it for broadcast on December 17. However, the film never went to air. "We had believed that the line `the Australian film China doesn't want Australians to see' would be a good one for the ABC to use to publicise its broadcast," said Mr Lewis, who worked in senior roles for ABC TV for about 20 years. "It would be most regrettable if it were to be instead `the film that China and the ABC don't want Australia to see'." Mr Scott was yesterday grilled in a Senate estimates hearing on why the film had been bought but never shown. In a frequently torrid appearance before the S]]> MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=uighur-film-shelved-in-abc-china-push&ItemID=ER-2282010255943609483542 Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer. The ABC has purchased the film but cancelled a planned broadcast last December. At the time, Beijing brought pressure to bear on film festivals and other outlets following an uprising by Uighurs in north-western China. Mr Scott told a parliamentary committee approaches from Chinese officials to the ABC about the film were not about whether it would be shown. "In my recollection it has not been raised with me," he said. "The discussion about the film was discussion about the film in general rather than the ABC showing it or any plans of the ABC to show it. "And if the film has been scheduled, we have a backlog of documentaries which will be shown in coming time and I'm not sure whether a date has been scheduled for that yet." ]]> MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=abc-boss-questioned-about-uighur-leader-film&ItemID=RJ-2282010316643609741793 Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region, Bashkortostan and Tatarstan will be screened during the festival which aims at highligting the common culture of the participating countries, officials said in a written statement on Monday. The event will be organized with the cooperation of Istanbul University's Eurasia Institute, Turkish Culture & Tourism Ministry, Municipalities of Istanbul and Beyoglu, Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) and The International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY), the statement also said. ]]> MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=turkish-world-cinema-days-to-be-held-in-istanbul&ItemID=TO-228201091643609142214 China’s relationship with Cambodia as part of a broader effort to deepen its influence in mainland Southeast Asia, and cited the December deportation of 20 Uighur asylum seekers – which came two days before the two countries signed aid agreements worth US$1.2 billion – as proof that the effort was working. Speaking before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Donald Weatherbee, a leading American scholar on international relations in Southeast Asia, said China’s “accelerating” economic penetration of Cambodia was “a prime example of ‘RMB diplomacy’”, a phrase that refers to the Chinese currency, the Renminbi. “In China,” he said, “the government of Hun Sen has an enabler, not concerned with issues of human rights, corruption, environmental degradation, th]]> MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=us-panel-examines-kingdoms-china-ties&ItemID=PH-2282010808643609782613 Uighur and Hmong refugees held Friday in Rome has drawn international attention to ongoing problems faced by a group of Khmer Krom refugees in Cambodia. Human rights groups, activists and foreign dignitaries attended the conference organised by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), which came two months after 24 Khmer Krom seeking asylum in Thailand were deported to Cambodia after fleeing alleged persecution in Vietnam. The 24 Khmer Krom refugees still have not been granted identity documents by the Cambodian government, which prevents them from working or renting apartments, the group’s representative, Thach Soong, said Sunday. He said the conference was exactly the type of exposure he had been trying to get from the international community, but he said he held little hope that the asylum seekers would be granted full citizenship. &]]> MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=meeting-highlights-plight-of-refugees&ItemID=ZQ-2282010812043609271223 American president, how are they going to treat the rest of us?” Almost every day there appears to be a new source of irritation between China and the US about Tibet or Taiwan or the Chinese currency. That is on top of Google, Iran, tyres and chicken feet. And it is not just the Americans: similar stories are being told by Indians, Russ]]> MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-sabre-rattling-risks-starting-trade-war&ItemID=TT-228201044243609843209 MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=miff-starts-search-to-fill-top-jobs&ItemID=PN-2282010647643609929894 Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and its population of Muslim Uyghurs. Urumqi mayor Jerla Isamudinhe announced a persistent crackdown on the “three forces” of terrorism, separatism, and extremism on Thursday, saying the city faced an “arduous fight against separatism now and for years to come.” Isamudinhe told a session of the municipal People’s Congress that all “sabotage activities” should be prevented, by keeping a closer eye on migrants’ communities, ex-convicts, and other “sensitive areas and suspicious]]> MON, 08 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=urumqis-winter-of-discontent&ItemID=RU-2282010108243609590070 China will be hit hard by Switzerland’s decision to give asylum to two Uighurs from China’s Xinjiang province. The Chinese foreign ministry said on Thursday that the Swiss government’s acceptance of the two men from the United States prison in Guantanamo “will certainly affect Sino-Swiss relations”. “It will impact trade relations, but not significantly,” said Nicolas Musy of the Swiss Center Shanghai, a non-profit organisation that assists small- and medium-sized companies interested in entering the Chinese market. Musy told swissinfo.ch it was too early to tell if China would follow up its threat. A sign that Beijing might not act is the fact that the Chinese media has made little fuss of Switzerland’s announcement on Wednesday that it would give refuge to the Uighurs. The Chinese government claims the two Uighurs are members of a terrorist organisati]]> SUN, 07 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinese-may-slap-swiss-wrists-over-uighur-affair&ItemID=DT-2282010797443609333623 Uighurs, at the U.S. naval base in Cuba now have been offered a place to live. The Pacific island nation of Palau has invited the other five. ]]> SUN, 07 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=doj-seeks-to-dismiss-case-about-holding-detainees-in-us&ItemID=VG-2282010343743609650666 China's Xinjiang region Saturday restored access to 27 Internet sites that had been blocked following last July's ethnic unrest in the province, state media reported. The restored websites included official government services as well as commercial sites such as Taobao and Alibaba, and airlines and online games, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Partial access was also restored to the public discussion forums of official media such as the People's Daily newspaper and Xinhua itself, Xinhua said. Authorities in the Xinjiang autonomous region wanted to re-establish communication links "progressively," following the recent reinstatement of long-distance phone calls and mobile phone text messaging to phones within the country, Xinhua said. Such services were cut following the July outbreak of clashes between ethnic Han Chinese and mainly Muslim Uighurs, in which almost 200 people died and 1,600 were wounded. The authoriti]]> SUN, 07 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-xinjiang-restores-access-to-27-websites&ItemID=YL-228201011874360951087 China. Sabin Willett, a lawyer acting for the Uyghurs, said the deal to bring four of the prisoners to Bermuda last June had opened the way for this week's agreement. He added: "We ar]]> FRI, 05 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=bermuda-uyghurs-joy-as-guantanamo-brothers-freed&ItemID=CI-2282010265043609966205 ChinaAid ContactsAnnee Kahler, Media CoordinatorTel: (267) 210-8278, or Annee@ChinaAid.orgJenny McCloy, Director of Advocacy, Washington DCTel: (202) 213-0506, or Jenny@ChinaAid.orgWebsite: www.ChinaAid.org and www.MonitorChina.org ChinaAid January 31, 2010 Last Updated: 2/02/2010 XINJIANG-On January 18, 2010, Gulinuer issued a call to Christians around the world to pray for her husband, Uyghur Christian-convert Alimujiang Yimiti. In a recorded video message, Guli shares her determination and persistence in her faith, despite the persecution against Alim and their family. The video was first posted on January 28, 2010, but within 24-hours, had been blocked by Chinese censors on more that 10 different websites. Watch Gulinuer's inspiring appeal here, and click here to read the full text of Guli's Petition for Prayer. Alimujiang Yimiti was issued a notice In September 2007 by the Kashgar, Xinjiang Ministry of Ethnic and Religious Affairs, accusing him of spreading Christianity in the Ka]]> FRI, 05 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=gulinuer-wife-of-imprisoned-uyghur-christian-alimujiang-yimiti-petitions-for-prayer&ItemID=TC-2282010439943609768550 American Association +1 (202) 349 1496 The Uyghur American Association (UAA) marks the thirteenth anniversary of the Ghulja Massacre, when police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration of Uyghurs in the city of Ghulja [Ch: Yining] in East Turkestan (also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), and thousands of people were detained on suspicion of participating in the demonstration. The anniversary follows a year in which an untold number of peaceful Uyghur demonstrators were killed by Chinese security forces in the regional capital of Urumchi, and police and military forces conducted mass arrests and arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs throughout the city. “Thirteen years later, mothers, wives and children of many who disappeared in the Ghulja Massacre do not even know if their loved ones are dead or alive,” said Uyghur democracy leader Rebiya Kadeer. “The families of those who disappeared dese]]> FRI, 05 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=thirteen-years-on-the-victims-of-the-ghulja-massacre-remain-unaccounted-for&ItemID=MN-228201098614360985594 China's communist leadership. It publicly put human rights concerns on a back burner, delayed a presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama and did not press Beijing hard about its currency manipulation. Now it appears that effort produced the opposite of the intended effect. Rather than respond with its own gestures of cooperation, Beijing is pressing hard for more American concessions. Bursting with hubris about its emergence as a global power, it is testing to see how far a new and inexperienced U.S. president can be pushed. That explains China's aggressive response to the administration's announcement last week of a $6 billion arms sale to Taiwan; its dire-sounding warnings about the consequences of an expected meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama this month; and its public resistance to a U.S. effort to impose new sanctions on Iran. China is t]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=its-time-for-the-obama-administration-to-burst-beijings-bubble&ItemID=OS-2282010761143609486015 human rights Watch February 3, 2010 Switzerland’s Decision to Resettle Two Uighurs Will Help Close US Prison (Washington, DC) - Switzerland's decision to accept for resettlement two Uighur detainees who have been wrongfully detained at Guantanamo for more than eight years is a significant contribution toward closing the prison, human rights Watch said today. Swiss authorities announced today that they would resettle two of the seven remaining Uighurs at Guantanamo on humanitarian grounds. The announcement comes just a week after Switzerland agreed to resettle an Uzbek detainee from Guantanamo. "Switzerland should be commended for its humanitarian action," said Andrea Prasow, senior counterterrorism counsel at human rights Watch. "By agreeing to resettle three Guantanamo detainees, the Swiss are making a major contribution to shuttering Guantanamo." Several other European countries, including Albania, Belgium, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Slovakia, have accepted]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=eu-follow-swiss-example-of-accepting-guantanamo-detainees&ItemID=LF-228201073604360987398 China has criticised a Swiss offer of asylum for two ethnic Uighur Chinese inmates at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay. "The position of Switzerland will surely undermine China-Switzerland relations" a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman told the AFP news agency. Switzerland had agreed on Wednesday to take two Uighurs from Guantanamo Bay for humanitarian reasons. China says all of the Guantanamo Uighurs are terrorist suspects. It says they should be returned to China to face justice. The spokesman, Ma Zhaoxu, repeated China's position that the two Uighurs were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a group listed by the UN as a terrorist group. "Every country has international obligations, and so has Switzerland" he added. New homes Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the decision had been made for humanitarian reasons, not diplomatic or economic ones. She said the two men did not pose a security risk and should be]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-attacks-guantanamo-uighurs-asylum-in-switzerland&ItemID=PB-2282010996043609556231 China from Cambodia, 14 Khmer-Krom refugees were deported back to Cambodia by the Thai police and the government of Thailand forcibly repatriated over 4,000 Lao Hmong to Laos.  The individuals concerned face significant threats of torture and in some cases the death penalty. Representatives from UNPO and its members, including the Uyghurs of East Turkestan, the Khmer Krom and the Hmong will be invited to discuss the urgent situation affecting individuals from their respec]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=returning-refugees-extradition-to-torture-unpo-panel-in-rome&ItemID=IN-2282010542343609873274 American Proverb. This is the emotional slippery slope that the Chinese leadership needs to worry about.   Americans are greedy, no doubt; or simply clueless.  For two decades, Americans have been living large on the backs of cheap Chinese labor, especially female factory hands, and borrowing Chinese money.   But there is a point at which even American greed can be overcome by provocation and the Chinese leadership is getting pretty close to that tipping point. Getting mad at America doesn’t play well on the evening news here in the States.  Cutting off military exchanges, aiming 1,000 missiles at Taiwan, hollering at the American President in  Copenhagen, telling us we can’t arm our allies, threatening us if we meet with the Dalai Lama, gagging the Internet, turning a blind eye to the Iranian threat, it is all getting a bit tiresome. I, for one, don]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-beware-anger-is-stronger-than-greed&ItemID=WW-2282010974343609646223 China,” the International Federation of Journalists says what little progress was made during the Summer Olympics in Beijing evaporated after new restrictions were imposed by the government.   “Multiple new regulations were issued throughout the year, many seeking to control online content and traditional media’s reporting of online information,” reads the IFJ’s report. “The authorities themselves acknowledged that online communications presented a growing challenge to national security and social stability. Online surveillance was stepped up, websites were entirely or partly closed, online social networks were shut down, online news portals were censored, online journalists and bloggers were detained and arrested.”   Authorities also tried to limit the press coverage of the riots in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China. Both domestic a]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=press-freedom-in-china-from-bad-to-worse&ItemID=HF-2282010292243609875078 China on Wednesday again urged President Barack Obama not to hold a planned meeting with Dalai Lama, saying it would further hurt already strained bilateral relations. It was the second successive day that China has spoken out against the meeting, and comes after Beijing said ties had been harmed by a U.S. announcement last week that it would sell arms to Taiwan. "China resolutely opposes the visit by the Dalai Lama to the United States, and resolutely opposes the U.S. leader having contact with the Dalai Lama in any name or any form," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Wednesday. The United States has already brushed aside previous warnings from China, and White House spokesman Bill Burton said Tuesday the meeting was still planned, although no date has been set. "The president told ... China's leaders during his trip last year that he would meet with the Dalai Lama, and he intends to do so. The Dalai Lama is a]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=obama-to-meet-dalai-lama-despite-continued-objections-from-china&ItemID=RP-2282010190143609680093 China kidnapped my husband. I don't know where he is. I don't know what is being done to him. The only thing I know is why he disappeared: My husband, Gao Zhisheng, defied Beijing by representing people the government finds threatening. As a leading human rights lawyer in China, he fought for those who had been abused by police, those who had their land stolen by the government and those who were persecuted for their religious beliefs. And now my husband is one of those persecuted people he so vigorously defended. Chinese authorities abducted Zhisheng on Feb. 4, 2009. But they did not officially arrest him and won't tell anyone where they've taken him. My children and I feared the worst. After nearly a year, a Foreign Ministry official said on Jan. 22 that my husband is "where he should be." I focused on the only thing I could glean with certainty from those ominous words: the indication that the govern]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=the-us-must-speak-out-against-chinas-offenses&ItemID=LR-2282010422243609252081 China By SIMON ELEGANT BEIJING — About halfway through the movie “Confucius,” the wispy-bearded sage is shown dispensing wisdom to the Duke of Wei, one of the numerous petty rulers in chaotic fifth-century B.C. China who sought his counsel. How best to ensure that he would govern well, the duke asks. Confucius, played by the veteran Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat, gives a trademark smirk. “Ensure the people are prosperous,” he says. “But the people of Wei are prosperous,” replies the exasperated ruler. “And yet there is still much discord and unrest!” “Then the people must be educated!” Confucius intones. At this, the 20-something man seated behind me in the Beijing cinema where I was watching the heavily promoted biopic gave an audible snort. He muttered something to his companion that included the familiar phrase “harmonious society” and she laughed in reply. A]]> THU, 04 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=as-chinas-rulers-confront-generation-gap-they-grow-more-flexible&ItemID=MG-2282010511343609397558 American Association +1 (202) 349 1496 The Uyghur American Association (UAA) commends the Swiss government for its decision, announced February 3, to grant asylum to Bahtiyar Mahmud and Arkin Mahmud, two Uyghurs who have been detained without charge since 2002 at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The Swiss Federal Council said in an official statement that it made the decision based on humanitarian reasons. “We welcome the Swiss government’s decision, which will allow Bahtiyar Mahmud and Arkin Mahmud to live free and productive lives,” said Uyghur democracy leader Rebiya Kadeer. “The government and people of Switzerland have made an extraordinary humanitarian gesture, which is even more remarkable in the face of unrelenting pressure from China not to accept the two men. This gesture finally ends the saga of two brothers who simply sought to live in peace and liberty. I am also grateful to th]]> WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=swiss-government-accepts-uyghur-brothers-from-guantanamo&ItemID=JS-2282010486243609998940 Americans, but they’re expecting, perhaps, that the men should be on Swiss soil in a month,” Gilson said. “I think they will not believe it’s true until their feet are on the ground in Switzerland … They have been told things many times,” she]]> WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=resettlement-in-30-days&ItemID=HW-2282010832543609115022 China's Xinjiang region is stable more than six months after deadly ethnic riots, but "hostile forces" are still looking for ways to foment unrest there, the country's public security minister said Wednesday. Meng Jianzhu, the country's top police officer, praised security forces for their work in restoring stability to the region but warned the situation was still complicated. "Now the overall social situation of Xinjiang is stable and the situation is now developing toward a good direction," Meng said in a letter sent to police in the region to mark the upcoming Lunar New Year. But he added that "hostile forces at home and abroad are not content with their failure, and are looking for any possible opportunities to launch new sabotage activities against us." Nearly 200 people died in July when Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority ethnic group, clashed with]]> WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-police-boss-says-xinjiang-getting-better&ItemID=UO-2282010893143609373273 Xinjiang in July 2009, internet access in the province has been severely restricted - far more than in other parts of China. The situation is gradually improving, but an American blogger living in the area says many sites are still strictly censored. JOSH, KARAMAY, XINJIANG Until recently, my only hope of communicating internationally and making contact with my family in the United States was to leave the province of Xinjiang. For six months after the riots in Urumqi we were left without text messages, international calls and the internet - save for some local government websites. Then, after Christmas, we got news that the internet and various other communication systems would be restored. The city where I live, Karamay, was suddenly buzzing with excitement. This fizzled out quickly when, out of the millions of websites currently blocked, only two were opened: the People's Daily and Xinhua, ]]> WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=blogger-describes-xinjiang-as-an-internet-prison&ItemID=PJ-2282010496743609459957 China (CNN) - Challenge China's position on Taiwan and watch China go ballistic. When the United States last week announced plans to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan, China fired back with vitriolic anger. It's a "crude interference in China's domestic affairs," said He Yafei, vice minister of foreign affairs. It could "lead to repercussions that neither side wishes to see," he said. The same day, China suspended plans for military exchanges and threatened sanctions on American companies involved in the arms sales. China's angry response comes as no surprise. "The Chinese take this seriously," said Jim McGregor, senior adviser at APCO, a U.S. consulting company. "We're in a political season in China. People are jockeying for positions for a change in leadership a few years down the road, so I guess it makes the Taiwan issue even more sensitive." China considers Taiwan as a mere renegade province. Beijing sai]]> WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=analysis-tibet-taiwan-google-sour-us-china-ties&ItemID=GK-2282010300143609747604 China's decision to suspend bilateral military dialogue. Beijing said it would halt such talks after Washington approved a $6.4bn (£4bn) arms deal with Taiwan last week. "For China to cut off all military dialogue is ridiculous in my view," Bruce Lemkin, deputy undersecretary of the US Air Force, told BBC News. Mr Lemkin also criticised China's threats of sanctions against firms involved in the Taiwan arms deal. He described these threats as "truly counterproductive". The row between China and the US has dominated discussions at the Singapore air show, Asia's largest aerospace event. Companies that could be affected by Chinese sanctions include McDonnell Douglas, a unit of Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Sikorsky Aircraft, part of United Technologies. "We certainly hope China will look at this again," Mr Lemkin]]> WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=us-slates-chinas-taiwan-response&ItemID=QT-2282010303543609236214 WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=switzerland-admits-two-uyghurs-for-humanitarian-reasons&ItemID=DL-2282010364243609494464 Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) ]]> WED, 03 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=uyghur-decision-imminent&ItemID=GQ-2282010139243609894885 China warned President Barack Obama on Wednesday that a meeting between him and the Dalai Lama would further erode ties between the two powers, already troubled by Washington's arms sales to Taiwan. The White House confirmed on Tuesday that Obama will meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader reviled by Beijing as a "separatist" for seeking self-rule for his homeland. China's response to the announcement underscored the tensions in ties between the world's biggest and third biggest economies, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry saying President Hu Jintao himself had urged Obama not to meet the exiled Tibetan leader. Ma Zhaoxu, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said his government "resolutely opposes the leader of the United States having contact with the Dalai under any pretext or in any form," according to a statement on the ministry's website (www.mfa.gov.cn). Ma said that during O]]> TUE, 02 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-warns-against-obama-dalai-lama-meeting&ItemID=NR-228201085343609613852 China's indignant reaction to the announcement of U.S. plans to sell weapons to Taiwan appears to be in keeping with a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing that is worrying governments and analysts across the globe. From the Copenhagen climate change conference to Internet freedom to China's border with India, China observers have noticed a tough tone emanating from its government, its representatives and influential analysts from its state-funded think tanks. Calling in U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman on Saturday, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei said the United States would be responsible for "serious repercussions" if it did not reverse the decision to sell Taiwan $6.4 billion worth of helicopters, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, minesweepers and communications gear. The reaction came even though China has known for months about the planned deal, U.S. officials said. "There has been a change in ]]> TUE, 02 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=chinas-strident-tone-raises-concerns-among-western-governments-analysts&ItemID=YR-2282010774543609357406 China poses to liberty around the world. We the People and the China Threat ]]> MON, 01 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=we-the-people-and-the-china-threat&ItemID=MJ-2282010835143609615656 American who recently visited Cambodia. On December 26, I visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The horrendous display of the actual rooms and real instruments of torture used by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979 for interrogation, torture and killing of prisoners reminded me of similarly gruesome stories told by thousands of Tibetans who escaped since China’s total takeover in 1959. Cambodia and Tibet have many things in common: They are predominantly Buddhist countries, both colonised by foreign powers, both victims of communism. Each one lost over a million people due to man’s inhumanity to man, the only difference being that the tortures and killings in Cambodia were done by its own people, the Khmer Rouge. In Tibet they were perpetrated by the People’s Liberation Army of China, which invaded and occupied Tibet in the early 1950s. In the last hall of the exhibition on the third f]]> MON, 01 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=uighurs-being-held-in-chinese-tuol-slengs&ItemID=NX-2282010924243609761133 China has stepped up its criticism of the latest U.S. arms sale to Taiwan. The $6.4-billion arms package - announced Friday - has already prompted Beijing to suspend military exchanges and security talks with Washington, and threaten sanctions against U.S. companies that sell Taiwan weapons. Chinese state media Monday strongly criticized the sale.  The China Daily said the sale reflects what it called "Washington's arrogance," while the Global Times said the United States should "feel the heat" for continuing arms sales to Taiwan. Beijing considers Taiwan a renegade province, and has threatened to use force against the island if it tries to declare formal independence. The United States has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but provides the island with weapons for defensive purposes.  Washington says its policy contributes to stability and security in the region. The Pentagon says the latest arms sale to Taiwan will include Black Hawk helicopters, Patrio]]> MON, 01 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-steps-up-criticism-of-us-taiwan-arms-sale&ItemID=RU-228201070743609676252 China tried to increase control over its domestic media in 2009, issuing orders not to cover several topics including ethnic rioting in Xinjiang and corruption by government officials, an international press freedom group said. In the report released Sunday by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists, the group gave details on 62 specific orders issued to local media between January and November 2009 that illustrate the wide range of subjects deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. Banned topics included sensitive anniversaries such as the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and mass protests in western Xinjiang. The orders detailed increased efforts by authorities since early 2009 to control online content and commentary, the 18-page report said in its assessment of restrictions faced by local and foreign journalists in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. Among t]]> MON, 01 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=report-china-increases-media-controls-in-2009&ItemID=CE-228201074143609164862 Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari and Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen arrived in China on January 26,2010, for the ninth round of discussions with the representatives of the Chinese leadership.The eighth round terminated without any agreement in November 2008. The present dialogue started in 2002. They were accompanied by senior assistants Tenzin P. Atisha, Bhuchung K. Tsering, both members of the Tibetan Task Force on Negotiations, and Jigmey Passang from the Secretariat of the Tibetan Task Force. As the talks progress, China seems to have suspended for the time being its campaign of demonisation of His Holiness. Even overseas supporters of His Holiness concede that the Chinese Government and the Communist Party have toned their rhetoric against His Holiness. Messages coming out of commentaries and editorials on the resumption of the talks after an interval of 14 mont]]> MON, 01 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-wants-dalai-lama-to-be-realistic&ItemID=VG-2282010306243609736848 China stuck to its hard line in its first talks with Tibetan envoys in 15 months, refusing to discuss changes to the Himalayan region's status and thus dashing hopes of a breakthrough. Chinese negotiator Du Qinglin said Monday he told the Dalai Lama's representatives that Beijing was only willing to address the future of the exiled spiritual leader - not any greater autonomy for Tibet. Du, head of the United Front Department of the Communist Party, the government department that handles the talks, said China's national interest was inviolable, and "there can be no room for discussion, no room for compromise" on territorial issues. China maintains that Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries, but many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for much of its history. At the last talks in 2008, the Dalai Lama's envoys proposed a way for Tibetans to achieve more auto]]> MON, 01 FEB 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-sticks-to-hard-line-in-talks-on-tibet&ItemID=WU-2282010395343609882325 China is planning a surge of economic development for the far-west region of Xinjiang, where ethnic riots killed almost 200 people last year. While Beijing deals with the politics of the issue, security forces continue to round up Uighurs who fled after the violence, with 17 Uighurs deported from Burma. Presenter: Liam Cochrane Speakers: Nicholas Bequelin, Researcher human rights Watch; Philip Crowley, US Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs COCHRANE: The American Uighur Association has published photos that appear to show a group of handcuffed Uighurs being transferred to Chinese officials on the Burmese border. The site says the deportation occurred on January 18, and two days later a Chinese news website published the names and ages of the 17 Uighurs. Nicholas Bequelin is a researcher with human rights Watch. BEQUELIN: The problem we've had with Uighur asylum seekers or refugees being sent back forcibly to China is that they disap]]> SUN, 31 JAN 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=china-sees-investment-as-cure-for-ethnic-unrest&ItemID=AR-2282010541643609797444 China. Kazakhstan shares part of its eastern border with China. And despite being one of the largest countries in the world it has a population of just 16 million. China is one of its leading investors. Holding banners that read "Kazakh land is not for sale", between 500 and 1,000 people gathered in one of Almaty's parks. Addressing the crowd from a platform under a giant statue of Lenin, a group of opposition leaders urged the government to reconsider. The action follows remarks made by President Nursultan Nazarbayev in December that China was interested in renting a million hectares of farmland from Kazakhstan. But the announcement has sparked controversy. P]]> SUN, 31 JAN 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/american/Read.asp?UighurNews=kazakhs-protest-against-china-farmland-lease&ItemID=MR-2282010230943609540997