Please

Uyghur News / Radio Free Asia English

» Brother Gets 5 Years - 04-July-2010
A Tibetan environmentalist is sentenced on charges of splittism a week after his brother’s trial. Unknown photographer courtesy of Robbie Barnett. Rinchen Samdrup in Lhasa in August 2004. Award-winning Tibetan environmentalist Rinchen Samdrup, 44, was sentenced on Saturday to five years in prison on charges of inciting to split the nation. The Chamdo Intermediate People’s Court found Samdrup guilty of splittism based on evidence that an article about the Dalai Lama had been posted on Samdrup’s Web site. Samdrup pleaded not guilty and said during the trial that someone else had posted the article. “The court recessed for 20 minutes and the verbal verdict of five years imprisonment was given, which seems to have been decided long before the hearing in court,” Samdrup’s eldest daughter Dorjee Sangmo said. Rinchen Samdrup’s sentence comes just over one week after his brother, Karma Samdrup, was sentenced to the maximum penalty of 15 years for grave robbery, on charges that had been origin

» China Mulls License - 02-July-2010
To keep Chinese search engine traffic, Google needs a license from the government. AFP People walk past the Google China office in Beijing, Jan. 13, 2010. HONG KONG—Chinese officials are reviewing the operating license of Internet search giant Google, which official media report has promised in its renewal application to abide by Chinese laws.According to the official Xinhua news agency, Guxiang, a company that operates Google’s Web sites in China, has submitted its application to the government.The application included a letter promising to abide by Chinese laws, it added.The report came after Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote on the company’s corporate blog that Google would stop automatically redirecting China users to its uncensored Hong Kong site in order to appease Beijing and secure the renewal of its Internet Content Provider (ICP) license. However, Internet commentators said Google's current redirection procedure would be untenable without an ICP license anyway."

» Xinjiang Unrest Timeline - 01-July-2010
Key events in Xinjiang—the site of a deadly ethnic clashes in July 2009—since 2008. Anger in Xinjiang Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved. © Radio Free Asia

» Lao Chinatown Dropped - 01-July-2010
A Chinese-Lao joint venture drops plans to build a Chinatown near the Lao capital. AFP Motorcyclists ride past That Luang temple in downtown Vientiane, Dec. 9, 2009. BANGKOK—A Chinese-Lao joint venture has pulled out of a deal to develop a Suzhou-style “model city” on the outskirts of the Lao capital, Vientiane, according to senior Lao officials. The "New City Development Project," which involved a 50-year lease for 1,000 hectares of land in and around the That Luang Marsh, required the group to pay roughly 7,000 households a total of U.S. $400 million in compensation for relocating their homes. Sinlavong Khoutphaythoune, a former mayor of Vientiane and current minister of planning and investment, said the concession had been canceled because the Chinese developer didn't want to pay the compensation. “Previously, the government had an agreement with the Chinese company to build a new city. But this has already been canceled,” Khoutphaythoune said. “Due to the high cost of compensation

» The Risks and the Road - 01-July-2010
Bao Tong, aide to an ousted top Chinese cadre, considers the issue of succession. AFP Bao Tong during an interview at his home in Beijing, April 27, 2009. BEIJING—On the eve of the 89th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party, we have heard two important items of news. One is that Kyrgyzstan has decided by referendum to become a democracy, bringing hope of long-term stability. The other is that North Korea is to hold a Party meeting, which is unprecedented. On the face of it, it seems as if they are trying to give some legitimacy to the succession of state power, or rather, to Partify it. If this succeeds, they could be in for many more years of one-party rule. If there is no system for the inheritance of power, it becomes the source of all chaos and harms a country. It is better to have a system than to have none at all. It might even turn out to be a system if the succession of power were decided through combat. I heard that that is how the king of the monkeys was chosen. The toughes

» Kyrgyzstan Lessons - 01-July-2010
China's dissident elder statesman sees something to learn from a neighboring republic. AFP Bao Tong during an interview at his home in Beijing, April 27, 2009. HONG KONG—A former top Chinese official has warned the ruling Communist Party that its current political system is outdated, praising last weekend's constitutional referendum in neighboring Kyrgyzstan amid widespread violence in the south of the country. In an essay written for the 89th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, Bao Tong, former aide to ousted late premier Zhao Ziyang, contrasted two recent items of news. "One is that Kyrgyzstan has decided by referendum to become a democracy, bringing hope of long-term stability," Bao wrote from his Beijing home, where he has been held under house arrest since his release from a seven-year jail term following the 1989 pro-democracy movement. "The people of Kyrgyzstan have produced a new election law, with some determination, on the basis of a nationwide referen

» Trade Pact Under Fire - 30-June-2010
Analysts wonder what the payoff is. AFP Chen Yunlin (R) shakes hands with his Taiwan counterpart Chiang Ping-kun (L) after they sign the ECFA in Chongqing, June 29, 2010. HONG KONG—Critics are lashing out at a recent economic and trade agreement inked by Beijing and Taipei, saying it doesn’t serve the interests of the island’s 23 million people. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed Tuesday in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing is largely a trade and commercial agreement, but many in Taiwan fear it could undermine their hard-won de facto independence. Others said the pact focuses too heavily on Taiwan’s presence in Chinese markets, and takes too little account of its own economic development. “In the tourist industry it’s possible to get the impression that tourists from mainland China are everywhere,” said Li Xunyong, chairman of the U.K.-based Union of European Taiwanese Associations. “But actually this has been damaging to some of the tourist spots in Ta

» Daily Struggle for Lake Dwellers - 29-June-2010
Communities on Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake face a number of hardships, including poverty, floods, and a dwindling supply of fish. Related links: Traveling down the Mekong River Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved. © Radio Free Asia

» Shaoguan, One Year On - 29-June-2010
Han Chinese and ethnic minority Uyghurs lived in separate worlds in the toy factory that employed them, setting the stage for violence. Screen grab from Sohu.com A screen grab from a video allegedly shot by Chinese witnesses inside the toy factory in Guangdong's Shaoguan city, June 26, 2009. HONG KONG—A year after an attack on ethnic minority Uyghurs at the Xuri Toy Factory in southern China’s Shaoguan left at least two people dead, sparking further ethnic tensions across the country, no Uyghur workers remain on the payroll, workers said.A Han Chinese worker at the factory, who was there when the violence was sparked in late June last year by the rumor of a sexual assault on a Chinese woman by Uyghurs, said the anniversary had passed without comment or incident, and that production had continued as normal.“The actual situation on the ground was far worse than the rumors circulating on the Internet,” he said. But he declined to give details, nor to elaborate on the reasons for the clash

» Sweatshops 'Not Enough' - 29-June-2010
Traditional low-cost manufacturing models such as those in China may have to change. AFP Chinese workers assemble electronic components at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen, May 26, 2010. HONG KONG—As Taiwan-invested Foxconn promises to upgrade living conditions at its enormous electronics factory in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen after a spate of employee suicides, experts are calling for a rethink of traditional sweatshop business models amid a wave of industrial action.Foxconn, which assembles Apple's iPhone, said Sunday it had signed an agreement with two property management companies to take over the running of on-site housing for 450,000 of its migrant workers.Critics have blamed inhuman working conditions at the plant for the suicides, as China faces a wave of industrial action at foreign-invested companies over pay and working conditions.Li Xiaobing, director of the Western Pacific Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma, said that labor relations in China are gove

» Protesters Sing 'Red' Songs - 28-June-2010
Petitioners who use Maoist songs to highlight grievances are told to keep quiet. Photo courtesy of the Petitioners' Village Committee Song-sheet for the Revolutionary Songs Concert performed by the China Petitioners' Village. HONG KONG—Authorities in Beijing have dispersed a group of protesters who gathered near a railway station in the southern part of the capital and sang revolutionary songs from the Mao era, petitioners said.The protest came after an attempt to stage a silent sit-in outside the complaints department of China's ruling Communist Party was thwarted by police, and followed an entire concert of songs organized by petitioners on the previous evening."There was a group of petitioners outside the central government complaints office who were dispersed by a group of around 30 police," said Xu Nu, one of the protesters who sang the songs early Sunday.The petitioners, who have come to Beijing from across China in a bid to draw attention to alleged abuses in their hometowns, re

» China’s Cautious Float - 28-June-2010
China is likely to let its currency rise slowly under new reform, experts say. AFP A Chinese bank worker arranges U.S. currency next to stacks of 100-yuan notes, March 20, 2010. BOSTON—China’s latest currency policy has received mixed reviews from U.S. analysts and economists amid signs that changes in the yuan’s value may be small, gradual, and slow.After months of mounting international pressure, China’s central bank announced June 19 that it would “proceed further with reform” of its rigid exchange rate system, which has kept the yuan tightly tied to the dollar for nearly two years.U.S. exporters have complained for years that China artificially undervalues its currency by 25 to 40 percent, giving its goods an unfair price edge abroad.Under its new policy, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has resumed a “managed float” that allows narrow daily fluctuations in value, which were suspended during the world financial crisis in 2008.Economists say the slight flexibility may add up to a s

» China Expands Internet Controls - 25-June-2010
New controls on cybercafes reach Sichuan as Beijing publishes an Internet policy paper. AFP Chinese netizens surf the Web at an Internet cafe in Hefei, in central China's Anhui province, Jan. 25, 2007. HONG KONG—Tough new regulations aimed at monitoring Internet usage are being rolled out across China, with Internet cafes in the southwestern province of Sichuan now requiring a swipe of smart ID cards before allowing people online."You have to have a second-generation ID card now," an employee who answered the phone at one Internet cafe in the provincial capital, Chengdu, said. "And it has to belong to you."Local media reports said a new clampdown would get under way in Sichuan from June to September this year, following a similar police campaign in the central city of Wuhan, in which people using their relatives' ID cards were taken into administrative detention.Government regulations are calling for Internet cafes in the province to hook up their surveillance cameras to a central view

» Tibetan Gets 15 Years - 24-June-2010
A prominent Tibetan has 10 days to file an appeal to a higher Chinese court. RFA Karma Samdrup in a December 2009 photo. HONG KONG—A court in China’s troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang sentenced a prominent Tibetan businessman-turned-activist to the maximum term of 15 years in jail and a heavy fine on Thursday on theft-related charges that were initially dropped in 1998, according to his wife and lawyer. Karma Samdrup, 42, denied the charges and has 10 days to appeal, his lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, said in an interview. "The verdict was unfair,” his wife, Dolkar Tso, said. “I asked for some time to meet and talk to my husband but I was not allowed.” “I just want to let him know all his relatives are proud of him and he shouldn’t worry about us. But I wasn’t given the chance.” Pu, the lawyer, said that in addition to 15 years in jail, Karma Samdrup was sentenced by a court in Yanqi county, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), to five years’ deprivation of his political rights and a

» Huge Pressure on Farmland - 24-June-2010
Urbanization is claiming Chinese farmland, but the cost is steep. AFP Chinese farmer poses with a copy of China’s Property Law on the outskirts of Wuhan in Hubei province, June 6, 2010. HONG KONG—Vast tracts of China's rural land have already been lost to agriculture in the name of economic development, and the country stands to lose a further 1.2 million square kms unless the government acts to stop it, experts said. "Changes in land use must be controlled within set parameters," China Agricultural University chief Ke Bingsheng told a recent top-level meeting in the northern Chinese proivince of Shanxi. Around 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) of agricultural land could soon be lost, Ke warned. "There is a shortage of land supply, and the forces of urbanization are an inevitable part of development," he said. Land acquisition for development, often resulting in lucrative property deals for local officials, sparks thousands of protests by farming communities every month, many of wh

» Call to Open Flood Gates - 23-June-2010
Residents on the Mekong River in Thailand fight to permanently open the gates of the Pak Mun Dam. Related links: Traveling down the Mekong River Copyright © 1998-2010 Radio Free Asia. All rights reserved. © Radio Free Asia

» North Koreans Shun New Won - 23-June-2010
The national currency hasn't yet collapsed because there's so little of it circulating, North Koreans say. Yonghap News Agency Images released by Chosun Sinbo, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan, show the front and back of the newly issued North Korean 5,000, 2,000, and 1,000 won bills, Dec. 4, 2009. SEOUL—North Koreans who can afford to save their money are ignoring a new currency brought in by the ruling Workers' Party in the isolated Stalinist state in favor of the more trusted renminbi yuan from China. "Our [North Korean] money is now called ‘the commoners’ currency,’ used only as a means of exchange when goods are purchased, but not as a means of saving," a resident of Chungjin city in the northern province of Hamgyeong said. "North Koreans [still] hold their savings in Chinese money," the resident said. On the country's black markets—the chief source of essential goods for many under a planned economy in which products are scarce and often monopolized by the country's elite—an

» Strike Halts Toyota Plant - 23-June-2010
Striking workers in China reject an initial offer, sparking an assembly plant closure. AFP Visitors view a display in Beijing by Japanese auto maker Toyota, April 25, 2010. HONG KONG—A strike at a Japanese-invested car parts manufacturer in south China's Guangdong province prompted car giant Toyota to halt production at a Chinese car assembly plant, after workers at the supplying plant went on strike calling for a pay increase. Denso's joint venture Nansha plant in Guangzhou halted production early Monday. Workers said they were unhappy with a proposed pay rise of 450 yuan per month and were calling for a pay increase of 800 yuan per month instead, raising their salaries to 2,000 yuan, in line with a recent award at Shenzhen-based, Taiwan-invested electronics giant Foxconn. "Of course we are unhappy with such a raise," one striking working said. "We are going to continue negotiations." "Our salaries right now are low, so low we have a hard time using words to describe how low they are.

» Rohingya Could Get Aid - 22-June-2010
Aid workers look into the case of 32 ethnic Rohingya asylum-seekers in Cambodia. AFP Rohingya migrants board a prison bus in Ranong, Thailand before being transported to immigration, Jan. 31, 2009. PHNOM PENH—A group of 32 ethnic minority Rohingya who fled to Cambodia from Burma are in a safe shelter and could soon get food and other aid, according to an official from a humanitarian group here. Legal officer Lian Yong of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) in Cambodia said Tuesday that her organization would meet with the group to determine how to help. “JRS, as with all asylum-seekers and refugees, will assist [the group] after we have made an assessment of their situation, and we will provide legal and social assistance.” The Rohingya, based in western Burma’s northern Rakhine state, face systematic harassment and discrimination at home, rights groups say. Burma’s military government, which calls the country Myanmar, doesn't recognize them as citizens, and hundreds of thousands have fle

» Tibetan Activist on Trial - 22-June-2010
A prominent Tibetan goes on trial, 12 years after a court threw out charges against him. RFA Karma Samdrup in a December 2009 photo. HONG KONG—A prominent Tibetan businessman-turned-activist has gone on trial in China's troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, on theft-related criminal charges that were initially dropped in 1998, his relatives said. Tibetan environmentalist and art collector Karma Samdrup went on trial Tuesday at a court in Yanqi county, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), on charges related to a grave robbery, regional sources said. Dolkar Tso, Karma Sandrup's wife, said in an interview that her husband's trial lasted from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, with a short lunch break. She said he appeared to have been drugged, deprived of sleep, and tortured. "I was allowed inside the courtroom," she said, adding that she wasn't able to speak to her husband. "When I saw my husband, I couldn’t recognize him. He is so thin ... He was a tall, heavyset man, but now he l