http://www.uyghurnews.com/ Uyghur Human Rights Project - Feed for Uyghur, Uighur, East Turkistan, Tibet News en-us http://www.uyghurnews.com/SiteDesign/etflag.gif http://www.uyghurnews.com/ China.Rebiya Kadeer is the exiled president of the World Uyghur Congress, and is herself a former Chinese political prisoner.Last time she came to this country it resulted in protests from Chinese officials; this time she's slipped in quietly for a human rights conference in Brisbane.Rebiya Kadeer made a full-time job of fighting for the ethnic Uyghur population in north-western China. She says the so-called Malaysia solution is that very risky because of that country's track record with deporting her countrymen back to China.Jeff Waters reports from Brisbane.JEFF WATERS: When Uyghur leader, Rebiya Kadeer, last visited Australia in 2009 it caused a bit rift with China.Beijing cancelled a visit by a vice minister of foreign affairs and issued complaints against this country granting]]> SAT, 08 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=uyghur-leader-back-in-australia&ItemID=LR-1082011486870510868097 China, which is seen here as an enduring all-weather friend, an alternative to the troublesome and overbearing Americans.Over the years, Beijing has sent military assistance to Pakistan, provided crucial help in initiating Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program and cooperated closely on intelligence. Sturdy Chinese-Pakistan relations are seen as a hedge against India, a rival to both nations. In recent months Pakistani officials have gone to Beijing seeking Chinese investment in a naval base and weapons, as well as trade deals worth millions of dollars.But on closer examination, Pakistan’s ability to use China to offset its collapsing relations with the United States may be far more limited than it appears, raising the prospect that Pakistan will be left on the world’]]> THU, 06 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=pakistan-pulls-closer-to-a-reluctant-china&ItemID=EC-1082011461170510479101 China’s economic espionage has reached an ‘intolerable level’ a top American lawmaker said it’s time that the US and its allies in Europe and Asia confront Beijing and demand to put an end to this piracy.“China’s economic espionage has reached an intolerable level, and I believe the US and our allies in Europe and Asia have an obligation to confront Beijing and demand they put a stop to this piracy,” Congressman Mike Rogers, chairman of the house select committee on intelligence said at a Congressional hearing.“Whether or not we will ever be able to convince Beijing to voluntarily stop their economic cyber espionage campaign and their predatory economic behaviour, we have a lot of work to do here in the US to improve our cyber security, including improving the sharing of cyber threat information with and between the government and the private sector,” he said.He said that t]]> WED, 05 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=hinas-economic-espionage-has-reached-an-intolerable-level-us&ItemID=CM-1082011750470510820729 China by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — a former intelligence agent who plans to return to the Kremlin for up to 12 more years in power in March.China issued no comment while Russian officials stayed mum about why they kept the unusual case quiet since making the initial arrest on October 28 last year.The FSB domestic security service said the case of Tong Shengyong was forwarded by prosecutors to the Moscow City Court on Tuesday.“The investigation established that the Chinese national (was) working on assignment from the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China,” FSB said in a statement.It said Tong had posed]]> WED, 05 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=russia-claims-china-spy-arrest&ItemID=SE-1082011239870510363320 Dalai Lama has cancelled his trip to South Africa, where he had been invited by fellow Nobel Peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Tibetan spiritual leader’s office said the South African government had failed to grant him a visa on time. Pretoria has maintained that it did not come under pressure from China to stop the visit. Archbishop Tutu said South Africa was “worse than the apartheid government” for failing to issue the visa. “… At least you were expecting it from the apartheid government,” he told a nationally televised news conference. The Dalai Lama had been due to take part in celebrations on Friday to mark the archbishop’s 80th birthday. The row intensified as South Africa’s Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe visited China for four days of talks last week, signing a number of bilateral trade and investment deals. He made no public mention of the visa issue while in China. It is the second time in ]]> WED, 05 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=dalai-lama-cancels-south-africa-tutu-trip-over-visa&ItemID=AH-1082011871470510342042 China’s National Day, the anniversary of the founding of communist China. But every year groups of Chinese outside China gather to mark the anniversary a different way, by commemorating Memorial Day, or National Tragedy Day to rebuff the Communist Party and its history of violence and atrocity. In Hong Kong, 800 practitioners of the Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) spiritual practice marched through the streets of the Kowloon District in support of the more than 100 million who have rejected the Chinese Communist Party. The group’s Tian Guo Marching Band drew a crowd that included some mainland Chinese who were shocked to see freedom of speech on display, as such a large gathering would have been banned or brutally suppressed in China. Onlookers explained the significance of Memorial Day to them: “Today [Oct. 1] isn’t a day for celebration, it’s one of sorrow. Ever since c]]> WED, 05 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=chinese-mark-national-tragedy-day-worldwide&ItemID=KU-1082011132470510796444 Rebiya Kadeer. Mrs. Kadeer is known to some of you as a brave (The New York Times describes her as fearless) human rights activist fighting for justice in China. She is president of the World Uyghur Congress. I published her autobiography, “Dragon Fighter”, and have since grown close to her and the Uyghur fight for human rights.The Uyghurs are an ethnic minority in China. There are approximately 20 million Uyghurs worldwide, 18 million of them in China. They had their own homeland, and as has been the case with human nature, they have lost their nation to invading military powers but due to their tenacity over their 4,000 year long history they have survived as a people. In approximately the year 750, they were at their height living in what was then known as the Uyghur Empire. They surv]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=dying-for-a-living&ItemID=BS-1082011678370510118298 China, the world's number two economy, and its desperately poor and unstable neighbor, Afghanistan.Of at least nine Chinese, six were heading for a China-funded copper mine, two were working for a Chinese telecom equipment maker and one was the boss of a Chinese restaurant, struggling to check in several boxes of illicit supplies, from alcohol to frozen pork."The situation is not as bad as news reports suggest, and I am hoping to make money," said Li Xiaofeng, the restaurant owner, who is from the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang and opened his restaurant in Kabul last year.He is contributing to a tiny but growing trade flow between China and Afghanistan, which many in Kabul hope could be the country's financial salvation as Western troops head home.Bilateral trade betw]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=analysis-china-seeks-profit-shuns-politics-in-afghanistan&ItemID=TB-1082011853470510915832 American SpectatorBy Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi on 10.4.11 @ 6:07AMAs U.S. military operations in Afghanistan drag on, a strengthening relationship between Pakistan and China has emerged as tensions between the former and the United States continue to grow.Of particular interest are the trilateral meeting just held between Chinese, Saudi and Pakistani intelligence officials in Islamabad and a two-day visit to Pakistan by the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister Meng Jianzhou. Both of these developments come in the midst of growing concern among U.S. officials about the problem of ISI (Pakistani intelligence) support for a militant group known as the Haqqani Network, which has bases in Pakistan and conducts operations against American and Indian targets in Afghanistan.For example, the Haqqani Network is widely suspected of being behind the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul in 2008, and more recently cell phone trails have established that members of the organization were in contact with Pak]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=pakistan-and-china-strengthening-ties&ItemID=CT-1082011171070510149498 Tibetan area in China's southwestern Sichuan province at the weekend after a photo of the Dalai Lama and a huge Tibetan flag were removed from a building and thrown in the street, eyewitnesses said. The protests by several hundred people in the Serthar (in Chinese, Seda) county city in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture also called for the return of the Dalai Lama from exile and demanded freedom for Tibet. Police tried to intervene but withdrew as the crowd swelled, according to Serthar Tsultrim Woeser, a native of Serthar and a member of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile based in India's Dharamsala hill town. "The detailed identifications of the protesters are not known, but the original protesters were all lay Tibetans," he told RFA, quoting reports from eyewitnesses. The protests on Saturday came amid tensions following the self immolation of two more Tibetan monks—the fourth such burning protest in six months—f]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=tibetan-flag-removal-triggers-protests&ItemID=KR-1082011746070510348957 China earlier this week could not have been more gushing.The relationship was, he told the visiting Chinese public security minister Meng Jianzhu in Islamabad, "higher than mountains, deeper than oceans, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey".Pakistan's show of closeness with China came, not coincidentally, when Islamabad's ties to Washington have grown worse.Admiral Mike Mullen, the soon-to-depart chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency of supporting operatives from the Haqqani network, blamed for a series of attacks in Kabul.In the light of this, Pakistan appeared to be giving the impression that criticism from the United States could send it closer to China, a growing international rival to the US.The closeness between Pakistan and China]]> MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=pakistan-flaunts-its-friendship-with-china-in-message-to-us&ItemID=VU-1082011806370510612018 Tibet CustomSunday, October 02 2011 @ 10:52 am BSTToday (1/10/2011) thirty protesters from Chinese, Uighur and Tibetan Solidarity UK gathered outside the Chinese Embassy in London to mark the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Those present wore white masks, representing the millions of people who have died or dissapeared during the 62 years of the PRC, including victims of the invasions of Tibet and East Turkestan, the Cultural Revolution and the June 4th 1989 massacre around Tiananmen Square.   Their message was that, after 62 years, there is nothing to celebrate. Shao Jiang, a survivor of the June 4th 1989 massacre said: "it is important that we send a clear message on this day: the PRC has caused the deaths of millions, and while its leaders wil mark the occasion with celebrations, ordinary Chinese, Uighur and Tibetan people will go on suffering." Nizamindin Sametov, a Uighur exile said: "For the people of East Turkestan the PRC has meant six]]> MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=masked-protesters-mark-62nd-anniversary-of-the-prc&ItemID=BI-1082011638670510782080 human rights, and Labor, said that the same eight states designated as Countries of Particular Concern in previous years were re-named in the latest report. They are: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.   There are many other countries, however, where there are serious violation of religious freedom, Posner added. He said they were particularly concerned about the situation of Christians in Syria, where the instability and violence is leading to numerous violations of human rights.   Pakistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and Egypt were other countries P]]> MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=state-department-cites-further-action-needed-in-annual-human-rights-report&ItemID=OX-108201113770510780577 China grows louder.Just days after the U.S. accused Pakistan's premier spy agency of aiding insurgent attacks against U.S. targets in Afghanistan, Chinese Vice Premier Meng Jianzhu appeared this week in Islamabad reassuring Pakistani leaders that China backed Pakistan's efforts to protect its sovereignty.The vice premier's comments apparently referred to Pakistani worries of a future U.S. airstrike or targeted ground operation against Taliban-allied insurgents in the tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan.Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani beamed when talking about his country's friendship with China, deeming it "higher than the mountains, deeper than the oceans, stronger than steel and sweeter than honey."But ]]> SAT, 01 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=could-pakistan-dump-the-us-for-all-weather-friend-china&ItemID=GT-1082011874070510842676 China in 1949, China's main interaction with the Middle East was its support for and cooperation with Arab "revolutionary groups". Gradually though, public support for the Palestinian liberation movement became the key characteristic of China's policy towards the Arab world, to the extent that George Habash called China Palestine's "best friend". Beijing's support for Palestine during this period was a matter of ideology and identity. Perceiving the Palestinian guerrillas/freedom fighters as fellow victims of imperialism and capitalism, the CCP leadership was keen to be identified with the Palestinians and provide them with both military aid and training. China was in fact the first non-Arab state to give diplomatic recognition to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Respectively, it refused to recognise the State of Israel, and in 1978 supported a ]]> THU, 29 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=palestine-un-bid-where-does-china-stand&ItemID=DC-1082011591570510478266 American woman trying to reach you." I was surprised to hear my mother's voice calling from Pittsburgh. "It's war," she said. Needless to say, our sleepy outpost began to bustle in the following days. I was working for the U.S Agency for International Development. Our attention quickly turned to getting as much assistance across the border to Afghanistan, before the anticipated U.S. military campaign there was to begin. In the days before 9/11, I would often travel down to the Afghan border and look across the Amu Darya River to Taliban-controlled territory and see complete darkness. The bustle of activity was a wel]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=the-next-page-looking-for-gauhar-kamardinova&ItemID=RN-1082011709170510510969 China. Days after the stinging accusation that the ISI was backing Afghan insurgents, Islamabad tried to please Beijing by vowing to root out Uighur militants holed up in its territory and staged war games with Saudi Arabia, besides sending and receiving top intelligence officials from the Gulf kingdom."China's enemy is Islamabad's enemy," interior minister Rehman Malik told visiting Chinese vice-prime minister Meng Jianzhu on Tuesday, and vowed to "strike very hard against" Uighur militants based in his country. Alongside, ISI chief Shuja Pasha was dispatched to Riyadh to hold talks with Saudi officials.Malik said Pakistan had killed and extradited several Uighur militants responsible for attacks in China's western Xinjiang province. The U]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=as-ties-with-us-sour-pak-cosies-up-to-china-saudi-arabia&ItemID=RI-1082011741270510881994 China Sea, which Manila now calls the West Philippine Sea. Aquino wants a credible deterrent against China to protect the Philippines' sovereign rights.The compelling need for a deterrent arises from China's belligerent posturing which is causing nervousness within Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Four member states — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — stake claims to the oil and gas-rich Spratly islands.China's so-called "historical claims" to the islands, prompting recent Chinese incursions into the Reed Bank within the Philippines 200-mile exclusive economic zone, are worrying Manila. However, Aquino was categorical about asserting the Phili]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=showdown-in-the-south-china-sea&ItemID=TL-108201183067051022661 China Post news staffThere are times when the only possible response to something an official (usually a politician) says is incredulity — both of the claim itself and that the speaker could ever believe it. If you're looking for examples, any North Korean press release reporting on the tremendous agricultural successes of Kim Jong Il is enough.Sometimes there is just the littlest bit of ambiguity, like when, during a speech in the U.S., Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said “In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country.” Could he possibly have believed this? There is a chance that he could have. The same goes for well-educated U.S. politicians, most recently Rick Perry, who deny evolution.Still others are more difficult to judge. Recently Fu Ying, the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, gave a speech at a conference in Slovenia where she said that Europe's “double standards” are to blame for the lack o]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=europes-political-rejection-of-china-is-politically-correct&ItemID=FP-1082011785570509602128 human rights in the region, the World Uyghur Congress along with Uyghur organizations worldwide are staging mass protests on 1 October 2011, China’s annual celebration of its statehood.  For indigenous populations forced to live under Beijing’s oppressive rule for more than six decades, this marks a day of mourning and sadness. Below is a statement released by the World Uyghur Congress: On the occasion of the National Day of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) celebrated each year on 1 October 2011, Uyghur organizations worldwide will stage demonstrations to protest the occupation of their homeland East Turkestan, also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China (XUAR), 62 years ago. While the Chinese government celebrates the foundation of the PRC, 1 October [2011] represents a mourning day for the Uyghur people since it symbolizes the loss of freedom and human rights. With the prote]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=demonstrations-planned-for-national-day-of-china&ItemID=RF-1082011249570509750912 China has refused new positions in school security after they were laid off because they could not speak fluent Mandarin, saying that authorities should abandon a policy of bilingual education in the region. Uyghur had been the official medium of instruction in schools in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but the language is being phased out in favor of the official national language of China. One of the teachers at the college, located in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi, said the group had planned a protest when they were notified that they would lose their jobs, but the school management approached them Monday and offered them work in exchange for their silence. “They said, ‘We have thought about the teacher income and we have built an Education Research Center for you to work at. Don’t protest, don’t say anything. If you work at this center, you can keep your ]]> TUE, 27 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=laid-off-profs-reject-deal&ItemID=BS-1082011510470509205315 China.Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik made the pledge Tuesday to China's public security minister, Meng Jianzhu. Malik said enemies of China such ethnic Uzbek separatists and the East Turkistan Islamic Movement also are considered enemies of Pakistan. He vowed that Pakistani forces will “strike very hard against them.”China says ethnic Uighur militants it blames for deadly attacks in its western Xinjiang region in July received training in Pakistani terrorist camps. It is not clear how the Pakistani government will take action against such militant bases within its territory.The United States repeatedly has called on Islamabad to launch an offensive against bases of the Haqqani militant group in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, but Pakis]]> TUE, 27 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=pakistan-pledges-to-attack-anti-china-militants&ItemID=RS-1082011628270509233208 human rights NGOs  held a major summit in New York on September 21-22, 2011 to impress upon world leaders gathering for the UN General Assembly that "human rights are universal."We Have A Dream: The Global Summit Against Discrimination and Persecution held next to UN Headquarters in New York at the same time as the 66th Session of the UN General Assembly and the 10th anniversary commemoration of the UN’s Durban conference on racism, discrimination and xenophobia.Bringing together prominent dissidents and human rights activists from countries with some of the most abysmal human rights records—including China, Syria, Sudan, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran—the conference will produce draft UN resolutions for world leaders to adopt on governments that commit genocide, torture, discrimination, and systematically violate civil, religious and political freedoms. Rebiya Kadeer is one of the most prominent Uyghur dissidents. She is a businesswoman a]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=we-have-a-dream-global-summit-against-discrimination-and-persecution&ItemID=JI-108201154567050969760 China's northwestern Xinjiang Province who has been jailed for entering Kazakhstan illegally is worried he will be deported to China, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. A former inmate in the East Kazakhstan Oblast labor camp OV-156/17, who identified himself only as Khamza, told RFE/RL today he wants to publicize the plight of a camp prisoner named Nurmukhammed Abil, a 21-year-old Uyghur from Xinjiang. Khamza said Abil was detained by Kazakh border guards about nine months ago after crossing the Chinese-Kazakh border illegally, for which he was subsequently sentenced to one year in jail. His term ends in November. "Abil is very scared that he may be extradited to China after completing his jail term," Khazma told RFE/RL. "He told me he chose to serve a prison term in Kazakhstan rather than be executed in China. He also said he is wanted in China for participation in terrorist activities, which he says is not true. Abil said he merely ]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=uyghur-prisoner-in-kazakhstan-fears-extradition-to-china&ItemID=WY-108201192077050968257 China.This week's massive sell-off in world markets was sparked, at least in part, by fears that China's huge economy may finally be cooling off. A managed slowdown this year has been the stated goal of China's economic policymakers, worried about steadily rising inflation and an overheated property market. But the question now is whether the slowdown can be calibrated enough for a "soft landing," or whether a more severe slump - a "hard landing" - is in the offing.The answer matters to more than just China. When the world fell into recession in 2008, Chinese officials responded with a massive 4 trillion renminbi ($586 billion) stimulus package that spurred a boom in real estate, construction and car sa]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=global-economy-cant-count-on-china&ItemID=AC-108201110270509208923 China’s top security official and staged war games with Saudi Arabia on Monday, strengthening ties with two regional players as its relationship with the United States plummets over allegations Islamabad supports insurgents in Afghanistan.Ties with Washington have soured over the last year, but Pakistani officials and commentators have been talking up their country’s relationship with Beijing. Some have suggested Pakistan’s emboldened alliance with China could replace its strategic relationship with the United States if the Obama administration decides to downgrade engagement with Islamabad.China’s Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu met his Pakistani counterpart, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who brushed aside questions on the timing of the visit.“Let’s not talk USA here. I am here with my friend China,” Malik told reporters. R]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=pakistan-hosts-top-chinese-security-official-and-war-games-with-saudi-as-ties-with-us-plunge&ItemID=ET-1082011899070509158249 China’s five autonomous regions, most primary and middle schools do not allow studies of the Noble Qur’an or Arabic to its Muslim students.The Chinese government claims to allow autonomous regions, home to 55 minority groups, to set up their own education systems under the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law.In practice, policies are set by Beijing and directed by local Communist Party secretaries, who hold more power than their government counterparts.For example, lessons given to the 420 students]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=education-dilemma-for-china-muslims&ItemID=DW-108201155987050914575 China, the Arab Spring’s influence over it, The White Book recently published by its government, and so on. Fatih Agil: Do you think that China wants to establish an organization similar to the European Union through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)? How do you evaluate Turkey’s demand to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization? Selcuk Colakoglu: China’s main purpose in establishing the SCO was at first, starting with the Shanghai Five, to guarantee the security of borders and to prevent newly independent Central Asian countries from becoming bases of opposition movements against China, especially its Xinjiang region. So the security dimension and trying to make these countries develop their foreign policies in a way that kept them on good terms with China were priorities. ]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=usak-asia-pasific-expert-colakoglu-chinese-communist-party-is-worried-about-arab-spring&ItemID=LP-1082011877370509248240 Dalai Lama from celebrating the 80th birthday of his friend and fellow Nobel Peace Laureate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, amid fears that Chinese pressure is trumping the country’s much-vaunted policies on freedom of speech and human rights.South African newspapers are already drawing parallels between the situations of Tibetans under Chinese rule and black South Africans under the racist apartheid regime that ended in 1994. The tensions over the Dalai Lama’s visa application also are a sign of how powerful China’s influence has grown in Africa.“Or, once again to yield as the people who will submit to the will of another nation, to constrict our spirit and our standing as a moral society, and close our doors on a genuine man of peace and the justified hopes of his people.”The Dalai Lama is to deliver the inaugural Desmond Tutu]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=chinas-wrath-or-activists-outrage-dalai-lamas-visit-presents-dilemma-for-south-africa&ItemID=BX-1082011623870509761435 China is warning the Dalai Lama he does not have the legal right to decide if he should be reincarnated.  The statement comes after the 76-year-old said Saturday he plans decide when he is “about 90” whether he should be reincarnated and that China should have no say in the matter.The Chinese foreign ministry warned the Dalai Lama Monday that only Beijing can approve his successor.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei says any decision by the Dalai Lama to appoint a successor through traditional reincarnation would break Chinese law.He insists that China endorses a policy of religious freedom including respecting and protecting succession in Tibetan Buddhism leadership.  But Hong stresses China's historical claim to its rule over Tibet and says the title of Dalai Lama is only conferred by the central government in Beijing and is illegal otherwise.The Dalai Lama formally stepped down as the head of the Tibetan governmen]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-warns-dalai-lama-about-choosing-successor&ItemID=QX-1082011741770509789328 China on Monday highlighted its support for the Palestinian bid for full membership of the United Nations but called for "prudent" international action on Syria.China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said his country would back Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in any Security Council vote on membership, which the United States has vowed to veto."China consistently supports the just cause of establishing an independent Palestinian state and supports Palestine's membership in the United Nations," Yang told the UN General Assembly in a speech.He said China backed "political negotiation" to achieve the two state solution between the Palestinians and Israelis.Yang also called for progress in talks between Israel and Syria and Lebanon to reach a "comprehensive, just and durable peace in the Middle East".He highlighted China's concern about Syria, however. Western nations are pressing for UN sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad and China has threa]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-backs-palestinian-un-bid&ItemID=PX-1082011830570509939615 China – were trying to get to China’s top bureau for making complaints, the State Bureau for Letters and Calls, in the vain hope of getting justice.What’s really amazing is how China’s state media reports the case as if this kind of extra-legality is a perfectly routine piece of news. Which is to say, the "news" part comes from the mistaken identity of the tourist, not the fact that such people get beaten all the time.The Xinhua story (here, in English) adds that the ]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=the-workings-of-chinas-mafia-state-laid-bare&ItemID=WD-108201134270509624376 China. Our muddled approach toward China is nowhere more evident than in the administration’s stance on the sale of F-16s to Taiwan. This summer Reuben Johnson wrote at the Weekly Standard: As Henry Kissinger used to say, at times it is more dangerous to be America’s friend than its enemy. Further confirmation of this sage observation came on June 24 when the Obama State Department blocked another request by Taiwan to purchase 66 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D fighter aircraft. These are badly needed by the Republic of China’s air force to supplement an aging fleet of U.S., French and indigenously-built combat aircraft. . . . As it stands, Washington seems more or less determined to condemn the country to permanent technological inferiority vis-&agr]]> FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=do-we-have-a-china-policy&ItemID=YG-1082011123670509765043 China — The Chinese government has a novel solution to the growing problem of illegal enforced disappearances.“Legalize” them.On Aug. 24, Chinese state media announced a proposed change in the Criminal Procedure Law which would allow police to legally detain individuals and hold them incommunicado in secret detention for up to six months without contact with either their families or legal counsel.The Chinese government is pitching the proposed change as merely an extension of the conditions of the existing practice of residential surveillance, or “soft arrest,” to suspects in state security, terrorism or major corruption cases. “Soft arrest” allows police to confine criminal suspects to their homes for up to six months without trial or due legal process.But Chinese lawyers, legal scholars and human rights activists warn that the proposal is a cynical fig leaf of legal justification for a]]> FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=why-are-people-disappearing-in-china&ItemID=WO-1082011841070509400632 China | Fri Sep 23, 2011 4:22pm ISTLUFENG, China (Reuters) - Hundreds of villagers in southern China protested on Friday over a government seizure of land, the latest outbreak of trouble in the economic powerhouse of Guangdong province that illustrates growing public anger at the practice of land grabs.The farmers gathered outside government offices in Lufeng, a city of 1.7 million, banging on gongs and shouting: "Give us our land back." They held banners that said "return our farmland" and "let us continue farming".Most stood by watching and there was no immediate violence or police presence. Villagers blocked roads with motorbikes and broken bricks were piled by the roadsides.The protests over land seizures, generally carried out by private or state-linked companies but with the acquiescence of local governments, have persisted despite assurances from the government that it will address the problem."We call on the government to come and investigate the]]> FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=hundreds-protest-in-south-china-over-land-grab&ItemID=EP-1082011787170509119600 China’s embassy in the South Korean capital to demand the safe resettlement of those, like themselves, who fled their homeland.The demonstrators chant “Protect the North Korean refugees” and “Stop forced repatriation.” Some activists waved banners accusing China of “aiding murder” and called on the country to respect international law as a member of the United Nations Security Council. After 30 minutes, police informed the participants their event was illegal. The small demonstration quickly end]]> FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=protesters-call-on-china-to-stop-forced-repatriation&ItemID=EK-1082011819370509490624 China's Communist regime manipulated the occasion to present itself as a victim of Islamic extremism. Beijing also accused the U.S. of practicing double standards by not giving unqualified support to its military offensive against what it calls "Muslim separatism" in northwest China. It insisted this campaign is an integral component of the war on terror. These complaints are entirely driven by the regime's domestic agenda. The West should not be fooled by China's attempt to make its nationalities policy more palatable. For decades, China has brutally crushed even the mildest aspirations for self-rule among the non-Han Chinese peoples in its midst. Beijing's actions in Tibet are the best-known example of this policy, yet it is no different in northwest China, the ancient homeland of the Uighur people. In 2009, the state's response to mass ]]> THU, 22 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=chinas-double-game-on-terrorism&ItemID=GN-1082011908770509631291 China will live up to its words and will turn its words into deeds. (1)” - Liu Qi commenting on China’s post -Olympic Legacy It has been nearly three years since China opened her doors and welcomed the world to the Olympics. In order to be granted the right to host such an event, China made certain promises that were meant to show that their governing body was ready to do away with past behaviors that had precluded them from hosting the games in 2000. Memories of the Tienanmen massacre had all but quashed their hopes of hosting the games then, an embarrassment they wished to leave behind. Promising that China had changed and need only be given the chance to prove it, they forged ahead in pursuit of the games in 2008. Pride and Respect for China For the Chinese, hosting the games brought a sense of pride and respect to the country that up until then had been known as the sickly old man who had suffered from a century of embarrassment. It w]]> THU, 22 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=the-2008-olympics-and-broken-promises-from-china&ItemID=TH-1082011654970509149296 human rights First9-22-2011By Alison SearleAssistant for AdvocacyThe new U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke, has said he intends to make human rights a very visible part of his remit, which is crucial if the United States is to keep pressing the issue with the Chinese government. The latest crackdown in China has shocked activists in its depth and severity. The New York Times reported last week that Chinese dissidents are becoming increasingly vulnerable as new legislation from The National People’s Congress proposes to make disappearances legal: “The proposed revision would allow them to imprison in a secret location anyone who, under home surveillance, is found to hinder an investigation. Suspects’ families would have to be told of their disappearance within 24 hours — unless doing so would hinder the investigation of crimes involving national security or terrorism.” This would make legal current government practices clearly in violation of internati]]> THU, 22 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=human-rights-defenders-in-china-under-attack&ItemID=GC-108201186770509927055 Muslim Uyghurs chafe under Beijing's rule.Tohti, who has been under close scrutiny from the authorities since ethnic riots rocked the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region's capital Urumqi in July last year, said he was notified of the cancellation on Sept. 15, nearly a week after his first class.An employee who answered the phone at the Beijing Minorities University confirmed the decision to cancel the course, which had been titled "Research into the sustainability of population, resources and environment in Xinjiang.""University rules stipulate that courses with fewer than 25 students will be canceled," the employee said, adding that Tohti's course only had 21 students enrolled in it.Tohti told RFA that 59 students had registered for the class as at Aug]]> THU, 22 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=uyghur-scholars-classes-canceled&ItemID=NI-1082011290370509611816 China is again among them.  According to the report, China's government has "engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom."  China along with Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan has been a systematic, on-going, and egregious violator of religious freedom. "In China," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, human rights and Labor Michael Posner, "the government’s overall level of respect for religious freedom declined in 2010 and has worsened this year. The repression of Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims continues."   The Chinese government continued to implement measures that strictly regulated religious activity]]> WED, 21 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=religious-freedom-worsens-in-china&ItemID=UF-1082011865370509811275 American Association +1 (202) 478 1920 A new report by the Uyghur human rights Project (UHRP) documents the challenges faced by Uyghur asylum seekers in Europe, and examines the reasons why they fled East Turkestan (otherwise known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China) or Central Asia. They Can’t Send Me Back: Uyghur Asylum Seekers in Europe is based on interviews UHRP researchers conducted with 50 Uyghur asylum seekers in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands in 2010 and 2011.As the report details, Uyghurs have in recent years been forced to flee severe political, economic and social repression in East Turkestan, as well as institutionalized curbs on the freedom of speech and government efforts to criminalize the expression of Uyghurs’ religious and cultural identity. The asylum applications of Uyghurs who have fled to northern Europe have been handled differently among the various countri]]> TUE, 20 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=they-cant-send-me-back-uyghur-asylum-seekers-in-europe&ItemID=GI-108201192567050974337 China. Her business empire included a trading firm, real estate investments and a department store, putting her among the top 10 wealthiest individuals in the Asian nation.Today, Rebiya Kadeer is a political exile in Washington who works full-time defending the cause of the Uyghur people, one of the 55 national minorities in China.The dramatic change in her life came in 1999 when she was imprisoned by the government and sentenced to eight years in jail for allegedly revealing "state secrets" to the United States. She was released in 2005 after a campaign organised by human rights Watch and Amnesty International, and following the intervention of the George W. Bush administration in the U.S.Since then, she has been working with the Uyghur American Association."I realised that I had to challenge the Chinese government's treatment of Uyghur people after the massacre of Uyghurs in Feb]]> MON, 19 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=things-are-bound-to-change-in-china&ItemID=SG-1082011929370509558135 China thrust the Uyghur people briefly onto the world stage. The protests were an expression of dissent against the execution of Uyghur activists and a government crackdown on traditional Uyghur gatherings, or meshreps, which had been revived as a response to growing social problems in Ghulja’s Uyghur community. Nevertheless, the protests also exposed a seething atmosphere in the city of mistrust between Han Chinese and Uyghur, as well as growing Uyghur marginalization as a result of repressive state policies. With the Chinese government in firm control of information about the Ghulja protests, it took human rights groups to challenge the notion, promoted by the Chinese officials, that the un]]> FRI, 16 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=book-review-crackdown-on-chinas-uyghurs&ItemID=HT-1082011732570509850592 China's restive Xinjiang region backed away Friday from earlier claims that assailants in a series of recent attacks there had been trained overseas, muddying the central government's assertion that the violence is being fueled by international terror groups rather than homegrown separatists.A spokeswoman for the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region said there was no evidence that attackers had trained in Pakistan, as authorities in Xinjiang have previously suggested, or elsewhere overseas. The regional spokeswoman, Hou Hanmin, said attackers in the region were loosely organized with no obvious links to extremists in Pakistan or elsewhere."These people are local, and the weapons they used are homemade," she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. "We can't be certain there were any ties with the outside."A spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry on Friday declined to comme]]> FRI, 16 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=xinjiang-doesnt-see-foreign-link-in-attacks&ItemID=OQ-108201130767050950052 World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or contact@uyghurcongress.org The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) condemns in the strongest possible terms the death sentences handed to four Uyghurs in connection with the violent incidents in Hotan and Kashgar in July 2011 that left around 40 people dead. As state run Tianshannet.com reported yesterday, Abdugheni Yusup, Ablikim Hasan, Muhtar Hasan, and Memetniyaz Tursun were sentenced to death and two other men— Abdulla Eli and Pulat Memet— were sentenced to nineteen years in prison and a five year suspension of their political rights for their part in the attacks. The defendants were convicted of “forming and participating in a terrorist organization, the illegal manufacture of explosives, premeditated homicide, arson, and several other related crimes.” The speedy conviction of these individuals casts serious doubts on the legit]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=wuc-condemns-latest-death-sentences-of-four-uyghurs-in-connection-with-hotan-and-kashgar-incidents&ItemID=TJ-1082011196570509999376 China's minority Uighur community, the majority of whom live in the northeastern autonomous region of Xinjiang, fear they could be left isolated by Chinese government plans to modernise and develop the region economically.This region is the country's largest natural gas-producing areas but as Al Jazeera's Melissa Chang reports from Kashgar, it is also one of the poorest.The Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic ethnic group who have long complained they are victims of government discrimination and repression, say China's declaration of Kashgar, a city in Xinjiang, as a Special Economic Zone, will probably benefit the country's predominant Han Chinese at their expense.They say their jobs and land are under threat as a consequence of a massive influx of Han Chinese migrants.Geoff Crothall, a researcher at the China Labour Bulletin, a rights group, said social problems and ethnic tensions in the region would probably escalate as the government implements new economic ]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=chinas-uighers-fear-a-han-economic-takeover&ItemID=FH-1082011200270509483175 China are still unknown nearly one month after their extradition, though Beijing is required by law to inform family members of their jailing.“Yes, he was captured and deported back to China. So far, we have no information about whether he is dead or alive,” said the father of Kurban Haji, 28, who was part of the group deported in mid-August after being accused by Malaysian immigration officials of involvement in a human-trafficking ring.Siajahmat Haji said his friends and family at home in western Xinjiang region's Hotan city have been searching for his son since his deportation, but have had no luck finding him.“I’ve asked my relatives to look for him through the local government and relevant places. They said they had no information about him,” Siajahmat Haji told RFA from Saudi Arabia where he was traveling with his wife.He said he was puzzled over Kurban Haji’s depor]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=deportees-whereabouts-unknown&ItemID=AI-1082011746770509795408 Xinjiang have been sentenced to death, the state news media reported on Thursday. Two other men were given 19-year prison terms.The convictions were the first for the scores of people detained after a series of violent outbursts in Kashgar and Hotan, two Silk Road outposts whose largely Uighur populations have long had a contentious relationship with Chinese rule.The condemned men, all of them Uighurs, were convicted of homicide, leading a terror group, manufacturing illegal explosives, arson and “other crimes.” A report in the state-run Xinjiang Legal Daily said the trials, which took place on Tuesday in Kashgar and Hotan, were “open and fully protected the suspects’ legal rights.”Uighur exile groups, however, said the defendants were tortured into giving confessions and denied adequate le]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-sentences-four-uighurs-to-death-over-unrest&ItemID=VX-108201192770509916299 China have sentenced to death four members of the Uighur minority ethnic group following deadly attacks in the country's restive Xinjiang region.China was quick to defend the death sentences handed down the four men found guilty on Tuesday of murder, arson and running a terrorist organization following the bloody unrest in restive Xinjiang in July. Two other Uighur nationals were jailed for 19 years for their roles in the separate incidents in Kashgar and Hotan.Trial questionedInternational rights groups claim the four men had been tortured into making confessions and were denied lawyers. Government spokeswoman Jiang Yu refuted the claims, saying the suspects were tried fairly and deserved the harsh punishment.China will continue to use the law to unswervingly crack down on separatist and terrorists, Jiang said.  She added the law is being used to safeguard China's national security, development and the unity of all Chinese wh]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-sentences-4-ethnic-uighurs-to-death&ItemID=TI-1082011382170509257928 Uighur minority have been sentenced to death over attacks in China's restive Xinjiang province, which left 32 people dead.The men were found guilty of murder, arson and running a terrorist organisation, state media reported.Two others were jailed for 19 years for their roles in separate incidents in Kashgar and Hotan in July.China accuses Uighur militants in Xinjiang of waging a violent campaign for an independent state.China says the incidents were organised terror attacks, but activists say they were anti-government riots carried out by angry citizens against Beijing's heavy-handed rule in the region.Details of the court action were published on www.tianshannet.com.cn, a news website run by the Xinjiang government.The trials related to a deadly attack on a police station by a mob in Hotan in mid-July. Fifteen people were killed later that month in Kashgar, in an explosion and when men drove a truck into pedestrians."Du]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-sentences-four-to-death-over-xinjiang-attacks&ItemID=RL-108201142970509114255 China's western region of Xinjiang, over violence in two cities during the summer which left 32 people dead, a government website said.The Chinese government blamed the incidents in Kashgar and Hotan – both in the majority Uighur southern part of Xinjiang – on religious extremists and separatists who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to Xinjiang, resent Chinese rule and controls on their religion, culture and language.The courts in the two cities found the four, who all had Uighur names, to be guilty of crimes including involvement in terrorism, arson and murder, the Xinjiang government website said."Both cases were heard in open courts in accordance with the law, with representatives from all walks of life attending," the report said. "During the trial, the accused … confessed]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-court-sentences-four-uighur-men-to-death&ItemID=RE-1082011503070509779240 China, has long been the exit point for Chinese who yearn for a new life outside the country. There, one can sneak out of China by land, passing through pristine forests, or one can go by water, floating all the way down the Lancang River until it becomes the Mekong, which meanders into Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.So each time I set foot there, in a land where red soil gleams in the sun, I turned restless; my imagination ran wild. After all, having been imprisoned for four years after I wrote a poem that condemned the Chinese government’s brutal suppression of student protesters in 1989, I had been denied permission to leave China 16 times.I felt very tempted. It doesn’t matter if you have a passport or visa. All that counts is the amount of cash in your pocket. You toss your cellphone, cut off communications with the outside world and sneak into a village, where you can easi]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=walking-out-on-china&ItemID=IC-1082011935370509547379 China's military build-up, urging his giant neighbour to act as a "responsible member of the international community".Japan wants to deepen relations with China in the run-up to the 40th anniversary next year of the restoration of diplomatic ties, Noda told parliament."On the other hand, I am concerned about their reinforcement of national defence power, which lacks transparency, and their acceleration of maritime activities," Noda said."I expect China to play an appropriate role as a responsible member of the international community," he said, adding he wanted to visit the country at a convenient time for both sides.Noda, known to have slightly hawkish views on China, has irked Beijing in the past with his assertion that prominent Japanese war criminals from World War II, should no longer be considered "criminals".However, since coming to power he has pledged that ne]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=new-japan-pm-concerned-by-china-military-rise&ItemID=YY-1082011481370509869232 human rights, and Labor, Suzan Johnson Cook, our Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, and members of their teams. They will brief you on our efforts to promote religious freedom and will take your questions afterwards. Before I begin on this important topic, I want to address the situation in Afghanistan, where there was an attack on our Embassy in Kabul today. It appears that a number of Afghan civilians have been hurt, and we, of course, will do all we can to assist them. There are no reports of casualties among Embassy personnel at this time. We are following this very closely, also the unfolding situation in the area, including at NATO-ISAF Headquarters, which, for those of you have been in Kabul, you know is across the street from our Embassy compound. We will ]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=remarks-at-the-release-of-the-13th-annual-report-on-international-religious-freedom&ItemID=WI-1082011206970508374943 Rebiya Kadeer called on foreign companies to consider what she called "humanitarian responsibility" when conducting business in the volatile region."Companies should not be a cause of unjust policies including the acceleration of Han immigration to the region and should not take sides in any events occurring between the Chinese government and Uyghurs," said Kadeer, the U.S.-based president of the World Uyghur Congress.Her comments followed the Sept. 5 close of the first China-Eurasia Expo in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region's capital Urumqi, which netted $5.5 billion in foreign trade contracts. Project contracts, including domestic deals, reached about $120 billion dollars covering the mining, crude oil processing, construction, and tourism sectors, among others, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Russia ranked as the top]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=call-for-responsible-investments&ItemID=XS-1082011924970508912 Xinjiang’s current Communist Party Chief) took over as governor after hardliner Wang Lequan’s dismissal following the Urumqi riots in 2009, he was expected to usher in an era of peace and tranquility in Xinjiang’s Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). For this purpose he adopted a soft-approach towards Uyghurs marking a strategic shift from the legacy of his predecessor. However, his endeavour to project stability and prosperity on the eve of the second anniversary of the Urumqi riots (5 July 2009), when he tried to reach out the local communities, was marred by a dreadful providence of events which unfolded on 18 and 30-31 July 2011 in Kashgar and Hotan. The Chinese government quickly adduced the terrorist angle to explain the incidents whereas the locals came up with a contrary view. What exactly are the major reasons causing these recurring disturbances? Is terrorism alone a valid expla]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=xinjiangs-july-syndrome-terrorism-or-misgovernance-analysis&ItemID=NX-108201199570508808067 Uyghur Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region of China—that’s according to a press release of the German-based organization the World Uyghur Congress (WUC).WUC president Rebiya Kadeer says, “The Chinese authorities found in 9/11 the perfect excuse to crack down on all forms of peaceful political, social and cultural Uyghur dissent and to attribute any out spark of violence in the region to the ‘three forces’ of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism.”Discrimination against Uyghurs has increased significantly since 9/11, according to the WUC.Chinese authorities have misused the fight against terrorism to suppress and silence all political opponents—attributing any unrest in Xinjiang to Uyghur pro-independence members.Protests]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=ccp-uses-911-as-excuse-for-crackdown-on-uyghur-muslims&ItemID=RT-1082011560370508463432 China’s rich. But they want to immigrate to America, a country with an economy barely growing.  According to an Associate Press article, moving overseas is on the top of China’s wealthy wish list—with the US being the most desirable destination. Why? What does the American society possess that China is still missing?What America possesses is the right cocktail of institutions. Over the course of its history, America has developed and maintained a good (if not ideal) combination of free markets and government, with each institution deployed in areas of society it excels: Free markets in allocating economic resources efficiently and effectively in the production of private goods and services, and government in creating a “general equality of condition among the people,” as graphically described in Alexis De Tocqueville De]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=why-chinas-rich-want-to-immigrate-to-america&ItemID=JL-1082011496705086023 China’s weapons industry ticked off the hurdles that any proposal to sell Chinese weapons abroad must clear. Among them: arms sales must not alter another nation’s internal security. They must not violate United Nations arms embargoes. And they must win government approval.“If you want to export a product, you should get permission,” said the official, Wang Feng. “You want to talk to some other country, you ship to the country, you should get permission.”That was on June 11, or roughly a month before three of China’s biggest state-owned arms companies secretly offered to sell Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s army $200 million in weapons to put down the rebellion. The offer, discovered by a Canadian journalist in documents tossed into a Tripoli trash heap, flouted a United Nations em]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=secret-bid-to-arm-qaddafi-sheds-light-on-tensions-in-china-government&ItemID=YP-1082011538670508553424 China, who see it as a threat to its "one China" policy. As a result Beijing has repeatedly warned that any declaration of independence would be a justification for war. iLIVE spoke to the island's Minister of Government Information, Philip Y.M. Yang, about Taiwan's ambiguous status. Milazi: Do you think the People's Republic of China (China) will ever accept the Republic of China's (Taiwan) independence, should you declare it? What exactly is the relationship between the two countries, as you are clearly seen as a "government in exile". Yang: "Changes in the cross-strait relationship directly affect peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As a responsible stakeholder in the international community, Taiwan must deal with this key issue. In fact, through the ups and downs of this relationship after exchanges resumed in 1987, the Rep]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=what-one-china-means-to-taiwan-ilive&ItemID=BS-1082011628070508694090 China became the last major power Monday to recognize the National Transition Council as the ruling body of Libya in the wake of the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi.China, a large investor in Libya which has been linked to possible military sales to Gadhafi that would violate a U.N. arms embargo, said it "respects the choice of the Libyan people."Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said China attaches great importance to the role of the NTC and has been in close contact with it.China is the last member of the U.N. Security Council to recognize the NTC. China had previously criticized the NATO-led air campaign against Gadhafi's forces and refused to condemn the dictator. It is a big investor in Libya, with 26 Chinese companies taking on an estimated $20 billion in business.Ma said in a statement that China hopes that all treaties and agreements signed with Libya will remain in effect and implemented in earnest.It was unc]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-recognizes-ntc-as-libyas-ruling-authority&ItemID=LF-10820112670508702208 American Association +1 (202) 478 1920A new report, “Offers They Can’t Refuse: China’s Relations with the Muslim World”, examines the Chinese government’s relationships with the governments of predominantly Muslim countries, and how these relationships have muted the Muslim world’s response to China’s repression of the Uyghur people. Written by Uyghur human rights Project intern Jessica Smith[1], the 24-page report provides insight into the factors motivating Muslim countries to preserve and enhance strong ties to China while remaining silent about human rights abuses that have intensified in the wake of July 5, 2009 unrest in East Turkestan. In light of China’s recent intensified push to expand trade and diplomatic links with Muslim countries on its borders and beyond, it is particularly important to explore the context behind Sino-Muslim partnerships, which appear like]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=offers-they-cant-refuse-chinas-relations-with-the-muslim-world&ItemID=QS-1082011834770508872270 China has used the global "war on terror" to jail thousands of ethnic Muslim Uighurs in the far-western and restive Xinjiang region, according to a minority rights group.Beijing has attributed any social unrest in Xinjiang to the forces of "terrorism, separatism and religious extremism" and has jailed and even executed alleged perpetrators, the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress said."The Chinese authorities found in 9/11 the perfect excuse to crack down on all forms of peaceful political, social and cultural Uighur dissent," the exiled head of the Congress, Rebiya Kadeer, said in a statement."The past decade has proved that the Chinese government is misusing the fight against terrorism to curb Uighur dissent and silence political opponents."While the number of protests against government policies is increasing day by day in the whole country, only Uighur protests are labelled as 'terrorism'."Numerous outbreaks of ethnic ]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-uses-911-to-crack-down-on-xinjiang-group&ItemID=WX-108201138470508557031 China, students were irritated to find that their professors were escorting them to lunch last month — an odd occurrence since they were more than capable of finding the cafeteria themselves. There was an ulterior motive, students told travelers who recently visited the city of Kashgar: The college wanted to make sure that the students, most of them Muslims, were eating rather than fasting in daylight hours during the holy month of Ramadan. Then, something even stranger happened, the students said. When Ramadan ended late last month, launching the three-day Eid al-Fitr feast, all the restaurants and the cafeteria on campus were shut down. Students were barred from leaving the campus. On the next two days of the holiday, the cafeteria was open, but the students were locked in, unable to leave to celebrate with their families. "It was totally bac]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=how-china-kept-lid-on-ramadan&ItemID=TN-1082011384470508677923 China has stepped up persecution of religious, ethnic, and cultural minorities, according to human rights groups.Among those targeted by Beijing were Muslim Uyghurs in the western Xinjiang region, and monks in Tibet and Tibetan-majority areas, the groups said.Most governments in Asia have introduced or beefed up anti-terror laws or delayed revising draconian legislation, such as those allowing detentions without trial, in the wake of the 9/11 mayhem. This gave some of the establishments cover to label peaceful dissidents as terrorists, silence political opposition, commit torture on suspects, and carry out extra-judicial killin]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=rights-concerns-stalk-terror-fight&ItemID=XJ-1082011845270508333288 China | Thu Sep 8, 2011 9:27pm EDT(Reuters) - The filthy back alleys and packed mosques of the remote far western Chinese city of Urumqi are one of the more obscure front lines in the U.S.-backed war on terror, launched after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.Streets crawl with baton-wielding riot police and heavily armed SWAT teams brought in for a trade fair in a tense reminder that China considers the region fertile ground for terrorism and Islamic radicalism, a claim many scoff at.Ten years ago, China used the 9/11 attacks to justify getting tough with what it said were al Qaeda-backed extremists who wanted to bring similar carnage to Xinjiang, a heavily Muslim region with close cultural links to Central Asia.A sweeping crackdown on Uighurs (pronounced "Wee-gur"), the Turkic-speaking people who call Xinjiang home, followed.China has used a carrot and stick approach, going after Uighurs it suspects of harboring separatist views, but ]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=insight-chinas-war-on-terror-widens-xinjiangs-ethnic-divide&ItemID=LU-1082011962870508365991 China has in region, and its confusion in the face of the changing political landscape. China’s traditional foreign policy of staying aloof of other countries’ internal affairs is being sorely tested in the turmoil of the Arab Spring as Beijing’s commercial ties with the Middle East have grown, Chinese analysts say.China has a huge economic stake in the region, which is an important source of energy as well as a market for goods and services such as construction. But analysts said they don’t see Beijing raising its political profile for fear it lacks sufficient knowledge of the region and to avoid bumping heads with the West.“This region is very, very complicated, with its religions, ethnic groups and big-power struggles” Wei Da, a researcher at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing, told The]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=beijing-stays-aloof-of-arab-spring-for-now&ItemID=MM-108201142307050830977 China's military trajectory is cause for alarm should take a look at "Asian Alliances in the 21st Century," a new report co-authored by several well-known Asia security experts, including Dan Blumenthal, Randall Schriver, Mark Stokes, L.C. Russell Hsiao and Michael Mazza. The report details the rapid modernization of China's military capabilities and claims that Beijing is interested neither in benign hegemonic rule nor in helping Washington address global challenges. Rather, China's leaders are ultimately concerned only with maintaining their power and expanding their maritime reach.The thrust of the report has merit. China's assertiveness in the East and South China Seas, as well as its increasingly unattractive foreign policy rhetoric, gives significant reason for concern and little reason for optimism about China's real interest in strengthening regional security cooperation in the near term.There are no shades of ]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=is-chinas-military-a-competitor-or-potential-ally&ItemID=PN-1082011940570508465603 China and Kyrgyzstan met in Beijing to discuss how the two countries could work more closely together in combating regional terrorism. The meeting came against the backdrop of a violent summer in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang, which shares an 850-kilometre border with Kyrgyzstan. After the meetings, Meng Jianzhu, Chinese Minister of Public Security, expressed the importance of the enhanced ties and noted that they would ‘improve the capability to prevent and fight terrorist acts in order to safeguard security and stability in both countries and in the region.’ Public security officials in Beijing are concerned about migrant flows between the two countries and the potential of cross-border havens for accused criminals and terrorists.China is especially concerned about Uighur militants in Xinjiang, and continues to pressure its western neighbours—including Kyrgyzstan—to clamp ]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-kyrgyzstan-ties-warm&ItemID=FN-108201158570508493496 China's top official newspaper warned on Friday that "madmen" on Capitol Hill who want the United States to sell advanced weapons to Taiwan were playing with fire and could pay a "disastrous price," as the Obama administration nears a decision on a sale.The People's Daily, the main paper of China's ruling Communist Party, said the United States should excise the "cancer" of the law which authorizes Washington's sale of weapons to the self-ruled island of Taiwan that China considers its own territory.Taiwan's biggest ally and arms supplier, the United States is committed under a 1979 law to supply it with the weapons it needs to maintain a "sufficient self-defense capability."Taiwan hopes to buy 66 late-model F-16 aircraft from the United States, a sale potentially valued at more than $8 billion and intended to phase out its remaining F-5 fighters.The arms sale debate has been building steam in the United States, with U.S. Senator ]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-paper-tells-us-not-to-play-with-fire-over-taiwan&ItemID=LB-1082011890670508663559 human rights Defenders (CHRD) group said in a statement on its website that many of Wang's supporters were prevented from leaving home to attend the court or had to wait outside the building.Among them was Zhao Lianhai, a campaigner for parents of children affected by the 2008 tainted milk scandal, the group said."Se]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=clampdown-around-activists-trial&ItemID=EI-108201117947050814809 American Association +1 (202) 478 1920 On the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, the Uyghur American Association (UAA) mourns the loss of innocent lives lost in the senseless violence of that day. UAA stands united with the Americans of all backgrounds who are rebuilding their lives after September 11 and who have maintained an unwavering commitment to the democratic ideals this country was founded upon.     “The American people have shown that they will not give up their freedoms in the face of extremism. Americans, and the rest of the world community that is striving toward a peaceful future, stand in stark contrast to those who seek to destroy our liberty and democracy,” said UAA president Alim Seytoff. “The Chinese government, on the other hand, has used the tragedy of 9/11 to justify its wholesale attack on the Uyghur people and their Muslim faith, and it ]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=commemorating-the-victims-of-september-11&ItemID=HL-1082011268970508155475 China in 1979, a few months after our countries normalized relations. China was just beginning to remake its economy, and I was in the first Senate delegation to witness this evolution. Traveling through the country last month, I could see how much China had changed in 32 years — and yet the debate about its remarkable rise remains familiar.Then, as now, there were concerns about what a growing China meant to America and the world. Some here and in the region see China’s growth as a threat, entertaining visions of a cold-war-style rivalry or great-power confrontation. Some Chinese worry that our aim in the Asia-Pacific is to contain China’s rise.I reject these views. We are clear-eyed about concerns like China’s growing military abilities and intentions; that is why we are engaging with the Chinese military to understand and shape their thinking. It is why the president has dire]]> THU, 08 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=chinas-rise-isnt-our-demise&ItemID=LE-1082011157770508104801 China for currency manipulation.Republican Mitt Romney, who was until recently the front-runner in the race for the right to challenge President Barack Obama next year, made the threat in a jobs-creation program announced this week.Campaign analysts say Romney's proposal is an early sign that criticizing China may be popular among candidates in the 2012 presidential race.He said that if elected, on his first day in office he will sign an order sanctioning China for unfair trade practices unless it moves quickly to make its currency fully convertible. Many of China's trading partner's complain that China achieves an unfair trading advantage by keeping the value of its currency artificially low.Romney also promised measures to punish China for pirating intellectual property.His position has sparked controversy even among ]]> THU, 08 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=us-presidential-candidate-romney-pledges-sanctions-on-china&ItemID=QR-1082011989970508274863 China has yet to recognise the new government in Tripoli, a clue as to how the recent upheaval in the Arab world has put unusual stress on the country’s much-vaunted hands-off policy when it comes to others’ affairs. With growing economic interests and ever more citizens to worry about in far-flung regions, Chinese policymakers are tweaking their strategy. A more normal—that is to say, less reactive—big-power approach could be slowly in the making.Rhetorically, the principle of “non-interference” remains sacred. On September 6th China issued a white paper on its “peaceful development” (ie, rise), its first on the topic since 2005, well before financial crisis crushed Western economic confidence and propelled China even more to the fore in international terms. The document said China still upheld the principle and ]]> THU, 08 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=chinas-evolving-foreign-policy&ItemID=ZK-1082011307570508508528 China. They are Bo Xilai, the governor of Chongqing, the so-called gateway to the west, and Wang Yang, the governor of Guangdong province in the east, a primary locomotive of China's economic transformation. Bo's "Chongqing" model and Wang's "Guangdong" model have become the touchs]]> THU, 08 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=chinas-new-politics&ItemID=HI-1082011882570508707987 Xinjiang and increasing lack of confidence in the Pakistani government's ability to crack down on terror were the likely factors behind the Communist Party of China's unexpected move to sign its first ever cooperation agreement with an Islamist political party in 2009, leaked United States Embassy cables suggest.The CPC sought the support of Pakistan's Jamaat-e-Islaami (JI) to tackle “radicalised” groups who were backing separatists in Xinjiang, scholars in official Chinese think-tanks and Afghan diplomats told U.S. officials, according to a cable from March 2009 that was among the last tranche of cables released by Wikileaks.The cable underscores China's long-persisting concerns over the spread of extremism from neighbouring Pakistan, voiced recently following attacks in Kashgar and Hotan which Chinese authorities blamed on terrorists trained in Pakistan. The separ]]> THU, 08 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=cpc-sought-jamaat-support&ItemID=YX-1082011686270508990823 China and India's growing involvement in Africa, and what that means for the continent's economic future.(CNN) - With Chinese yuan and Indian rupees increasingly finding their way into Africa's economies, Western powers are worried that they are losing influence in the resource-rich continent, according to analysts.Driven by their appetite for natural resources, trade opportunities and political alliances, emerging powers such as China and India are moving from the sidelines to the center stage in Africa - a region the West has long considered to be its own trading partner.While Western countries are still important players in Africa's energy sector, the deepening engagement of China in Africa's infrastructure, mineral sector and telecommunications is creating "deep nervousness" in the West, says David Shinn, the former U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.Asian ]]> THU, 08 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=is-the-west-losing-africa-to-china&ItemID=FJ-1082011946570508454847 China and other foreign donors to assist impoverished Pacific island nations.The top diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific, Kurt Campbell, said despite enduring U.S. strategic and political interests in the region dating back to before World War II, Washington has reduced diplomatic missions there and assistance over the past 20 years.As part of efforts to reverse that trend, the U.S. Agency for International Development office will open a regional office in Papua New Guinea this year to administer a $21 million grant to assist islands coping with the effects of climate change.Campbell is part of a U.S. delegation that departs Wednesday for a meeting of Pacific leaders in New Zealand.  ]]> THU, 08 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=us-says-it-wants-to-work-with-strategic-rival-china-to-help-pacific-islanders&ItemID=RI-1082011635870508198401 Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in July 2009. At least 200 people were killed in the riots. But according to new evidence provided by Ilshat Hasan, vice-president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association (UAA), Muhemmed had already been living in Thailand for nearly nine years as an illegal immigrant after moving to the country to es]]> WED, 07 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=deportation-based-on-bogus-claim&ItemID=IF-1082011390770507576906 China’s intense and growing interest in Central Asia has long been known, a new report brings home just how intense that interest is, and how Beijing has overtaken other powers in the last decade. The report, titled “The New Great Game in Central Asia,” was released Tuesday jointly by the European Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Centre. It shows that the European Union, long the most important trading partner with the five states that make up the Central Asian region, was overtaken in 2010. China trade in 2010 was 23 billion euros compared with 21 billion for the European Union. China, the report notes, “is clearly confident that it can reorient Central Asia towards Beijing.” The region, which formerly made up a major geographical segment of the collapsed Soviet Uni0on, is a vast breadbasket, primarily growing cotton and wheat, with 60 percent of the popu]]> WED, 07 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=the-great-game-in-the-stans&ItemID=LB-1082011851570507232271 Tibet Post International Melbourne: It seems the Chinese people have just about had enough of the ruling communist regime, as recent comments from intellectuals and ordinary netizens show indications of the impending collapse of the government that has oppressed the Chinese people for the past sixty-one years. This year, unrest has reached new levels and emboldened citizens are standing up for their rights.Only days ago, a seminar hosting a gathering of Chinese scholars and intellectuals, including top government advisors, warned the government that its 'obsession with stability' would lead to its collapse. The regime's stubborn refusal to adopt reform, it was argued, was unconstitutional and had led to a deterioration of universal values such as freedom of expression, which was in far better shape in China thirty years ago. Speaking at the seminar, Professor Zhang Weiying formerly of Peking University's management school said that ]]> TUE, 06 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=2011-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-chinese-communist-party&ItemID=YV-108201128337050710030 human rights Watch is asking China to account for at least 17 ethnic Uighurs forcibly returned from Malaysia, Thailand and Pakistan in August.The rights group also said China should stop pressuring countries to deport ethnic Uighurs.An HRW official says China should honor the rights of individuals seeking asylum.HRW Refugee Director Bill Felick says China should immediately allow international organizations access to Uighurs already returned.The Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking, mainly Muslim ethnic group living in far western China. Beijing accuses some Uighurs of involvement in Islamist terrorism.Chinese officials have also blamed Uighur groups for several violent uprisings in the Xinjiang region.Uighurs and Han Chinese clashed in ethnic rioting in 2009, resulting in the deaths of 197 people.  ]]> TUE, 06 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=rights-group-urges-china-to-account-for-forcibly-returned-uighurs&ItemID=ML-10820116584705078527 China’s role in Syria, I had the opportunity to spend late August in Beijing, conducting interviews and participating in roundtables with Chinese academics and government officials. Most of these talks addressed recent developments in the Middle East, an area of growing interest for China due to its energy resources and the religious ties linking Middle East Muslims with co-religionists in Central Asia. Although Chinese officials and academics perceive threats to their country’s national interests in the current crisis, some believe the Arab Spring does offer China opportunities to develop new ties in a region that until now has been most heavily controlled by other foreign powers, especially the United States.In its formal policies toward the region, China adheres to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. These are to let Middle East nations choose their own soci]]> TUE, 06 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=how-china-sees-middle-east&ItemID=KR-1082011690270507384362 China due to its proximity, natural resources and historical links to regional terrorism and narcotics trafficking. Based on my conversations and other sources, it is clear that Chinese policymakers hold conflicting sentiments regarding the planned U.S. and NATO military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has already begun and will likely be completed in a couple years.Chinese officials expressed their commitment to collaborate with the international community to promote political stability, social progress and economic development in Afghanistan. In pursuit of the latter, they are encouraging Chinese firms to secure access to Afghanistan's natural resources in orde]]> TUE, 06 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=global-insights-china-ponders-us-withdrawal-from-afghanistan&ItemID=ON-108201115117050739727 China Post news staffA Taiwan tour group of 17 travelers was trapped in a severe traffic jam in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region yesterday amid intensified security measures in the area.The travelers from Taiwan were caught in travel snarls on their way to the Hami City of Xinjiang from Dunhuang, Gansu Province.Officials from the Tourism Bureau and Yang Jui-chung, representative of the Taiwan Cross-Strait Travel Association stationed in Beijing, confirmed the incident.They started communications in both Taiwan and China to locate the tour group in order to confirm the reports on the serious transport snarls in Xinjiang.The officials said the group has joined a package tour arranged by Joan Travel Service Co. in Zhongshan District of Taipei City.The vehicle carrying the travelers was held up in the long convoy of cars on the highway for several hours. All of the tourists were safe and sound except that they had to rely on the]]> FRI, 02 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=taiwan-tourists-trapped-in-xinjiang-traffic-jam-amid-intensified-security&ItemID=GD-108201168570507876278 China? How about Xinjiang, or the “New Frontier,” as the northwestern autonomous region is known in Mandarin? Home to the Uighur people—a Turkic group that briefly helmed two self-proclaimed republics called East Turkestan in the 1930s and ‘40s—Xinjiang seethes with resentment toward the oppressive rule of China's ethnically Han leadership. And now the New Frontier, once a vital stop along the ancient Silk Road, is fully open for foreign business.On September 1 the inaugural China-Eurasia Expo commenced in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi, with Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva in attendance. “Our goal is to give full play to Xinjiang's role as a bridgehead in the process and forge it into a major window and pillar of [China's] opening-up,” Li said, according to the China Daily, the E]]> FRI, 02 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=looking-to-invest-how-about-chinas-new-frontier&ItemID=HN-1082011786470507502247 China's Communist thinkers are warning the government to nail down the runaway growth of Internet as it could destroy the party's control over the giant nation. This reveals rising fears about the possible impact of people's rebellion seen in some Arab countries, where Twitter and Facebook played key roles. "Internet opinion is spontaneous, but increasingly shows signs of becoming organized," a group of Communist writers said in an article by a group of writers in the Communist Party of China's theoretical journal, "Qiushi," which means "Seeking Truth." It is clear the article was vetted by high officials in the CPC before it was published. The writers warned the party and government that a lot of what is being written and distributed over the Internet is not voluntary. It is driven by vested interests. "Among the many controversies stirred up on the Internet, many are organized, with goals and meticulous planni]]> FRI, 02 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=internet-can-destroy-communist-control-over-china-party-supporters-fear&ItemID=WV-108201153297050715442 China have attempted to purge an essay written by prominent artist and dissident Ai Weiwei by manually tearing the pages of the article from a weekly news magazine.The essay, which appears in the September 5 issue of Newsweek, urges Chinese citizens to speak out against what he says is the government's denial of "basic rights." He also blasts the Chinese judicial system as being untrustworthy.However, the article was still accessible online to English speakers as of Friday afternoon local time, despite China's vigilant online censorship.Ai was understood to be barred from speaking to media or leaving Beijing after being released from jail in June. The internationally renowned artist was detained for almost three months after being charged with tax evasion. Ai's arrest came in the midst of a Chinese crackdown on dissidents that saw dozens of activists and lawyers rounded up just as pro-democracy uprisings were sweeping through the Middle East. Weste]]> FRI, 02 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-censors-newsweek-article-of-prominent-dissident&ItemID=NT-108201178970507337295 American universities are competing to establish themselves in China, with new campuses and research centers springing up quickly. Nearly 40,000 undergraduates from China study in the U.S., more than from any other foreign country.For many American scholars, this is a boon. Money is flowing, and new research opportunities abound. But for some professors - especially those who study sensitive topics like Tibet or Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang - academic freedom cannot be taken for granted. China has stymied the work of numerous scholars or prevented them from entering the country altogether to conduct fieldwork. A recent Bloomberg News article detailed several such cases, and said that the colleges that employ the professors tended to keep quiet.How do American universities balance their responsibility to defend academic freedom with their need to be engaged with the world's most dynamic economy? Read the Discussion A False Dilemma Updated S]]> FRI, 02 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=how-can-us-scholars-resist-chinas-control&ItemID=GC-1082011254170507134830 American road trip with a difference. It was the first day of Ramadan, the month when Muslims across the world fast during the hours of daylight. Writer Aman Ali and film-maker Bassam Tariq set out to mark their month of fasting with a tour of 30 mosques, a different one each day. Travelling across the breadth of the United States they reported every step of their journey in a blog, 30mosques.com, that reveals just how diverse America's Muslim population is. Here are five examples. Ta'Leef Collective, California One of the places that had most impact on Aman Ali was a mosque in the San Francisco bay area, in northern California. "There really were people from all walks of life," he says. One of the issues facing Islam in America is the divide that sometimes emerges between Muslims who immigrate to America and communities and individ]]> FRI, 02 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=ramadan-road-trip-30-mosques-30-us-states-30-days&ItemID=UP-108201157370507427287 human rights WatchSeptember 1, 2011(New York) – Proposed legislation in China to empower the security apparatus to detain criminal suspects secretly for up to six months in undisclosed locations would be a major setback for basic human rights, human rights Watch said today. Chinese human rights activists, lawyers, and legal experts have strongly opposed the measure, which would violate China’s international legal obligations. “The Chinese government’s proposed legislation would give the security apparatus free rein to carry out ‘disappearances’ lawfully,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at human rights Watch. “Legalizing secret detention puts detainees at even greater risk of torture and mistreatment.” Under proposed revisions to the Criminal Procedure Law, which the government made public on August 30, 2011, law enforcement authorities would be allowed to place suspects in detention for up to six months at a location determ]]> FRI, 02 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-dont-legalize-secret-detention&ItemID=WS-1082011146770507567954 human rights in China today called on Chinese authorities to reveal the whereabouts and status of 11 Uyghur men who were forcibly deported from Malaysia to the People's Republic of China on August 18, in violation of international law.The American lawmakers also strongly urged Malaysian authorities not to deport the five Uyghur asylum seekers who were arrested and remain in Malaysian custody."Forced returns of Uyghurs to China reflect a blatant disregard for international law, not only by the countries deporting Uyghurs, but by the Chinese government, which is complicit in their return and responsible for egregious rights abuses within its borders," said Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), the chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC)."This most recent incident follows other cases in the past year of Uyghurs returned to China under the sway of Chinese i]]> THU, 01 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=statement-of-cecc-chairman-christopher-smith-and-cochairman-sherrod-brown-on-uyghurs-forcibly-returned-to-china&ItemID=NS-1082011264670507595846 China says it has foiled "terror" plots by extremists during a visit by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. The Pakistani leader had traveled to the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang to celebrate the end of a traditional month of fasting alongside Uyghur Muslims.Zardari attended the Eid prayer alongside Uyghur worshipers and his own high-ranking officials in charge of commerce, defense,and natural resources, local media reported.But an exile Uyghur group said the Turkic minority Uyghurs were themselves subject to tight controls during the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, which mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan with prayers and feasts.Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, said controls and surveillance had been stepped up on the region's Muslim Uyghur people, many of whom are unhappy with Chinese rule and call for the right to "self-determination.""In Kashgar, Hotan, and Aksu]]> THU, 01 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=urumqi-in-anti-terror-lockdown&ItemID=SD-108201152487050759870 human rights in China criticized Malaysia on Wednesday for its decision to repatriate nearly a dozen ethnic Uyghurs last month and called on Beijing to reveal the whereabouts of the men. Republican Representative Chris Smith and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, chair members of the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China, also urged Malaysia not to deport five Uyghur asylum-seekers still in custody. "Forced returns of Uyghurs to China reflect a blatant disregard for international law, not only by the countries deporting Uyghurs, but by the Chinese government, which is complicit in their return and responsible for egregious rights abuses within its borders," Chris Smith said. Senator Sherrod Brown noted that the deportation to China was only the latest deportation of Uyghur refugees by countries that have been swayed by the Asian giant’s influence through large trade]]> THU, 01 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=officials-slam-deportation&ItemID=UO-1082011242970507685838 China, Sept 1 (Reuters) - China's far western region of Xinjiang opened its largest ever trade fair on Thursday, but a marked absence of the Uighur people who call the area home underscored the challenge facing the government in addressing the root economic causes of unrest.China has ramped up security in regional capital Urumqi for the China Eurasia Expo, sending armed police units to patrol the city's heavily Uighur old quarter, which erupted in bloody ethnic violence two years, ago killing some 200 people.Since 2009, Beijing has turned its attention to boosting development in Xinjiang and providing greater job opportunities for the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people, many of whom chafe at Chinese rule and restrictions on their culture."It's very difficult being a Uighur-owned business," said Weili Maimaitiaili of Dastur, an Urumqi-based maker of herbal tonics that employs just seven people.The exp]]> THU, 01 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=uighurs-in-short-supply-at-far-western-china-trade-fair&ItemID=XO-1082011760370507120466 Xinjiang, though he provided few details.The first China-Eurasia Expo opened in the regional capital Urumqi on Thursday, and attendees include Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari and Kyrgyzstan's caretaker President Roza Otunbayeva. The expo is aimed at cementing Urumqi's place as Central Asia's business center for trade and industry, despite a sometimes violent insurgency among its native Muslim population.Urumqi's Communist Party boss Zhu Hailun, the city's most powerful official, said police had defused a number of threats to public safety in recent weeks, though he mentioned only one case. He said a man attempted to take a knife on board a flight departing from Urumqi airport and is now being held on suspicion of planning to carry out an ]]> THU, 01 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=china-attacks-thwarted-in-xinjiang-few-details&ItemID=UY-108201149770507462095 THU, 01 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=asia-faces-diminished-terror-threat-10-years-after-911-attacks&ItemID=HU-1082011481470507239854 Uighurs back to China and urged Beijing to reveal the group's whereabouts.Republican Representative Chris Smith and Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown, co-chairs of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China which looks at Beijing's policies, also urged Malaysia not to deport five Uighur asylum-seekers still in custody."Tragically, the deported Uighur men face the real threat of torture, arbitrary detention and abuse back in China," Brown said in a statement."The Chinese government has long waged a harsh campaign of suppression in Xinjiang that violates international law and it appears to have conscripted its neighbors to help carry out its oppressive policies," he said.Smith urged China to "respect the asylum seeker and refugee designations" of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and to "ensure the fundamental rights and freedoms of all its citizens."Uighurs]]> WED, 31 AUG 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/humanrights/Read.asp?HumanRights=us-lawmakers-seek-china-news-on-deported-uighurs&ItemID=WB-1082011568770507414193