http://www.uyghurnews.com/ Radio Free Asia English - Feed for Uyghur, Uighur, East Turkistan, Tibet News en-us http://www.uyghurnews.com/SiteDesign/etflag.gif http://www.uyghurnews.com/ Tibetans have set themselves alight this year in a desperate attempt to highlight rights abuses. AFP Tibetan monks from Kirti monastery in exile in India gather before embarking on a protest march to New Delhi calling for an end to the Kirti crisis, April 26, 2011. Two youths in a Tibetan region of southwestern Sichuan province set fire to themselves on Friday in the latest in a string of self-immolation protests against Chinese rule, sources with links to the region said.At least one of the monks is believed to have died. So far, seven Tibetans have set themselves alight this year in a bid to highlight Tibetan human rights abuses. "On Oct. 7 around 11.30 a.m. two more Tibetans burnt themselves in the streets of Ngaba county town and protested against Chinese rule," said Dharamsala-based monk Kanyak Tsering, who is in close contact with Ngaba's Kirti monastery.The monastery has seen a huge security crackdown and a number of self-immolation protests in recent months. Hundr]]> FRI, 07 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=two-tibetan-youths-self-immolate&ItemID=AR-1082011686584139984876 China's political elite convened unofficially this week to mark the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Gang of Four, which led to the rise of Deng Xiaoping and his economic reforms, amid calls by some for another Cultural Revolution, sources said."If we hadn't smashed the Gang of Four, none of what came later would have happened," said Wang Guixiu, referring to the political force within the ruling Party that was headed by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao until its arrest on Oct. 6, 1976."If they had carried on with all that left-wing stuff, there would have been no progress," said Wang, a professor at the Chinese Communist Party's Central Party School."If the Gang of Four hadn't fallen, there would have been no third plenum of the 11t]]> FRI, 07 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=elite-marks-gang-of-four-fall&ItemID=XB-1082011203184139433935 FRI, 07 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=shedding-light-on-political-prisoners&ItemID=EI-108201192384139378450 FRI, 07 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=call-to-end-media-censorship&ItemID=LH-1082011352984139837663 China-backed dam project opens a floodgate of scrutiny and criticism on planned Chinese dams in Southeast Asia. Photo courtesy of International Rivers. A villager from an island that will likely be flooded if Cambodia's Sambor Dam is built. The Burmese government's stunning suspension of a massive Beijing-backed dam project has thrown the spotlight on China's dam building blitz in Southeast Asia and what environmental groups fear will be its adverse impacts on the region.The halting of the Myitsone Dam project on the headwaters of Burma's key Irrawaddy River also highlights the growing might of non-governmental organizations scrutinizing infrastructure development projects, even in a Burma that has just emerged from five decades of iron-fisted military rule.Risking legal action by key ally China, Burmese President Thein Sein decided last week to suspend the project, which had been assailed by green groups and opposition parties over its environmental ]]> THU, 06 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=broader-concerns-over-chinese-dams&ItemID=CJ-1082011156484139125310 China's Internet users. AFP A Chinese man places flowers beside a photo of Steve Jobs outside an Apple store in Beijing, Oct. 6, 2011. Tens of thousands of Chinese Internet users paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on Thursday, setting up online shrines and gathering outside the Apple store in Beijing to lay wreaths."The entrance of the Apple store in Sanlitun looks like the entrance to Jokhang temple," wrote prominent blogger Hecaitou on Twitter, apparently from the scene. He said large numbers of people had also gathered to shoot video and pictures of the store and its floral tributes to Jobs, who died at the age of 56 on Wednesday after a long battle with cancer."There aren't so many people laying flowers, but there are a lot of people taking photos and video and posting them to microblog sites," he added.On the massively popular Sina Weibo microblog service, the home page was decorated with a black ]]> THU, 06 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=chinese-netizens-mourn-jobs&ItemID=YS-1082011646584139653470 Buddhist nun Miao Jue's Xuzhou hotel room at 1:00 a.m. on Thursday."She wouldn't open it, and then they said they'd break it down if she didn't, so she eventually opened it," said Wang. "They wanted to take her away but she wouldn't go, because everyone's stuff was there.""Then they wre]]> THU, 06 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=chen-campaigners-detained&ItemID=SU-1082011878684139225457 Tibetan monk has a serious head injury from beatings by security forces. AFP Exiled Tibetan monks take part in a candle-light vigil in Dharamsala, India on April 22, 2011 to protest a Chinese crackdown on the Kirti monastery in Sichuan province. Three Tibetan monks nursing burns after their failed self-immolation attempts in China’s southwestern Sichuan province are recovering under tight Chinese security in hospitals, a source said Thursday. One of them, Kalsang Wangchuk, did not suffer serious burns but had a "major" head injury following beatings he received at the hands of Chinese security forces, who had quickly extinguished the flames when he set himself on fire in Ngaba town on Monday.The three monks were from Kirti monastery in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture and their suicide attempts led to a security crackdown on the monastery and the removal of hundreds of monks from the institution. They were among five monks who had set themselves alight this year to protest agains]]> THU, 06 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=monks-nursing-burns-at-hospitals&ItemID=TJ-1082011967784139370934 WED, 05 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=chased-with-guns-on-chen-visit&ItemID=XH-1082011114284139286053 WED, 05 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=power-struggle-delays-prisoner-release&ItemID=OB-108201128908413988398 WED, 05 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=officials-block-parents-questions&ItemID=BX-1082011414484138996032 China's upcoming Party plenum will debate how to better control the flow of information. IMAGINECHINA A woman walks past a newsstand in Beijing, Aug. 7, 2010. China's top levels of leadership look set to further tighten their control over media and the Internet at a forthcoming Party plenum, Hong Kong media and analysts said.The territory's Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper said that a key theme of this year's sixth plenary session of the 17th Party Congress would be "cultural reforms," a phrase analysts took to mean closer controls on freedom of expression.During the plenum, which will run from Oct. 15-18 in Beijing, delegates would debate a motion on the "socialist development and reform of the cultural system," said the article.Xie Xuanjun, a Chinese studies expert in New York, said the motion was unlikely to concern itself with the relaxation of controls on the media, in spite of repeated promises by incumbent premier Wen Jiabao that the government will begin political reforms."D]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=cultural-reforms-to-target-media&ItemID=WS-10820111808413882718 Tibetan monks take desperate action to highlight what rights groups say are Chinese human rights abuses. AFP Tibetan monks from Kirti monastery in exile in India gather before embarking on a protest march to New Delhi calling for an end to the Kirti crisis, April 26, 2011. Recent self-immolations by desperate Tibetan monks from a monastery under siege signal an alarming trend and highlight unrelenting Chinese actions to curb religious rights, according to human rights groups and experts.    "This is an extremely worrying and absolutely unprecedented trend that we hope will end," London-based Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said after Monday's incident in which  a fifth Tibetan monk set himself on fire this year.The monk, identified as Kalsang Wangchuk, 17 or 18 years old and from Kirti Monastery in southwestern Sichuan province's Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture, set fire to himself near the vegetable market in Ngaba town.His upper body was seen to be badly burned and security ]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=self-immolation-a-worrying-trend&ItemID=GJ-108201164998413856629 Tibetan monk for the fourth time in the last five years—and again without filing formal charges against him, according to his brother.Jigme Gyatso, a monk at Labrang monastery in the Kanlho (in Chinese, Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture was picked up on Aug. 20 and is being held in the Kanlho Public Security Bureau detention center, the man’s brother, named Sonam, told RFA.“After he had been missing for several weeks, the Kanlho Public Security Bureau confirmed that they are holding him,” Sonam said.“They wouldn’t say why he is detained, but they told our family that he could face a term in jail if he doesn’t abide by state law.”Calls seeking comment from Kanlho officials last week rang unanswered.Chinese authorities first detained Jigme Gyatso, also called Jigme Goril, in 2006 following his return to]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=tibetan-monk-detained-again&ItemID=KY-1082011167784138486445 human rights. The decision to allow visitation rights came as Liu’s brothers met with him last month at his prison in Jinzhou, in northeastern Liaoning province. It was the first time the brothers had seen each other since shortly after Liu was awarded the Nobel Prize on Oct. 8, 2010. Phone calls to two of Liu Xiaobo’s lawyers and his brothers went unanswered Tuesday, with China in the midst of a week-long National Day holiday. But a third lawyer, Ding Xikui, confirmed the monthly visits. “Monthly visits to a jailed family member]]> TUE, 04 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=nobel-laureate-granted-family-visits&ItemID=FB-108201139988413858433 Tibetan areas amid deteriorating rights situation. Photo sent by a listener in Tibet Kirti Monastery in an undated photo. A young Tibetan monk from a monastery under restriction by Chinese security forces in southwestern Sichuan province set himself alight on Monday, the third such protest in a week. The self-immolation came as protests flared at the weekend in the Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in the same province after a photo of the Dalai Lama and a huge Tibetan flag were removed from a building and thrown in the street.The monk, identified as Kalsang Wangchuk, 17 or 18 years old and from Kirti Monastery in the mountainous Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture, set fire to himself near the vegetable market in Ngaba town, exile Tibetan sources said, citing contacts in the area."He was carrying a photograph of the Dalai Lama and shouted slogans, though bystanders could not hear these clearly," said Tenpa Dhargye, a former political prisoner now]]> MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=another-self-immolation-protest&ItemID=FU-1082011632884138615988 China's transport woes grow. AFP Smoke and steam are emitted from a coal-fired power plant in Shaanxi province, Jan. 23, 2011. More than a year since a massive tie-up stopped traffic on a main highway for over a week, China's coal supplies have stalled on another key road.A long line of trucks has backed up on a 60-kilometer (37 mile) road from a major coal center in Shenmu county of northwest Shaanxi province, according to photos from the official English-language China Daily on Sept. 26. Drivers have been sleeping in their cabs and eating meals outside their paralyzed rigs while loaded trucks stretch into the distance as far as the eye can see.The paper blamed the traffic jam on the limited capacity of the highway, which carries 160 million tons of coal a year from Shenmu county. Trips take three days to a week from end to end, it says, suggesting speeds as slow as one-third of a kilometer per hour.The size of the road may be an issue, but so is the volume of c]]> MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=coal-clogs-roads&ItemID=IR-1082011779284138531107 China's parliamentary body, the National People's Congress (NPC), is currently debating amendments to the criminal law which could remove a current requirement to inform a person's relatives of their detention.Rights activist Hu Jia and his wife and fellow activist Zeng Jinyan have already criticized the move in open letters and online opinions, while prominent rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan has sent a detailed critique of the proposed amendments to the NPC.In a letter to a parliamentary committee considering the legal change, Hu said holding suspects in a secret location is a "pa]]> MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=campaign-against-secret-detentions&ItemID=HV-1082011125584138647188 MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=defiant-activists-plan-chen-visit&ItemID=TN-1082011186284138905438 MON, 03 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=burma-eyes-indonesia-style-reforms&ItemID=OR-1082011103984138737180 Tibetan exile shouts anti-China slogans at a protest march in New Delhi on Sept. 30, 2011 following the self-immolation of two Tibetan monks. Protests flared in a 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 repo]]> SUN, 02 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=tibetan-flag-removal-triggers-protests&ItemID=YZ-1082011421784138966034 China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement posted on the ministry's website that issues related to the $3.6 billion Myitsone Dam should be "handled appropriately through bilateral friendly consultation."He urged the Burmese government to "protect the legal and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," emphasizing that the dam on Burma's Irrawaddy River is a "jointly invested project" and that it has "gone through scientific verification and strict examination [on] both sides."The 3,600 megawatt project in Burma's norther]]> SUN, 02 OCT 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=china-reminds-burma-of-obligations&ItemID=VI-1082011938284138415093 China's Anhui province, March 20, 2008. Authorities in Beijing are holding a group of activists under house arrest and administrative detention after they tried to register as independent candidates in district legislative elections, which are usually controlled by the ruling Communist Party."All 13 of us independent candidates are now under guard," said Han Ying, who applied to stand for elections to the local tier of her National People's Congress (NPC) ahead of a November poll."There are strict orders not to allow any of them to come to my home," said Han, who had planned to launch her election campaign on Friday morning.The attempt to field ordinary citizens to run against Party-backed candidates, who are not used to serious political opposition, has spread across China, with activists coordinating their attempts online, campaigning on each other's behalf]]> FRI, 30 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=election-candidates-held-in-beijing&ItemID=QL-1082011170484138987080 FRI, 30 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=mega-dam-project-halted&ItemID=DE-1082011916584138505085 FRI, 30 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=mekong-areas-slammed-by-floods&ItemID=TG-1082011720084138792732 THU, 29 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=political-prisoners-release-imminent&ItemID=SG-1082011896084138575836 THU, 29 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=peace-prize-scrapped&ItemID=FX-1082011956684138834087 China's Long March 2F rocket carrying the Tiangong-1 module blasts off from the Jiuquan launch center in Gansu province, Sept. 29, 2011. China on Thursday launched an unmanned space module aboard a Long March rocket, saying the mission will pave the way for a space station.The Tiangong-1 module was destined for a 300 to 400-kilometer (186 to 248-mile)-high orbit around Earth, and will be used as a "target" for missions that will practice crucial rendezvous and docking procedures.The 8.5-ton Tiangong-1, which means "Heavenly Palace" in Chinese, was shot into space from the launch center in remote Gansu province aboard the Long March 2F rocket, official media reported. They had been on the launch pad since Tuesday, waiting for ideal conditions. An unmanned Shenzhou module will try to dock with the Tiangong.Cui Jijun, director of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, was quoted as saying by China's official Xinhua news agency that the craft w]]> THU, 29 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=china-aims-for-space-station&ItemID=BR-1082011560284138920771 China's Anhui province, March 20, 2008. A farmer from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong has scored a landslide victory in elections to his district-level parliament after campaigning against forced land sales but the government has not endorsed the result and has placed him under round-the-clock police surveillance.Guo Huojia, of Sanshan village near Guangdong's Foshan city, beat the government-backed candidate in elections to the township level National People's Congress (NPC) on Wednesday with more than 4,800 votes, around 2,000 more than his opponent.Guo is the first independent candidate known to have succeeded in taking part in this year's local NPC elections, in spite of bids by dozens of political activists across China to secure nomination as candidates."We did everything according to the law to satisfy the government here," Guo said af]]> THU, 29 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=land-protester-wins-election&ItemID=KJ-1082011192284138894682 China, according to new photos obtained by a Mongolian rights group. The New York-based Southern Mongolia human rights Information Center (SMHRIC) said in a statement Thursday that it had received new information showing Govruud Huuchinhuu, a former activist in the 1981 Mongolian student movement, with severe bruising on her face and arms. “SMHRIC obtained a written communication and new photos dated from July 20 to July 30, 2011, showing that Ms. Huuchinhuu Govruud … was frequently beaten by police from the Tongliao city Horchin district Public Security Bureau in eastern [Inner] Mongolia,” the statement said. Huuchinhuu has been held in Tongliao city under “enforced disappearan]]> THU, 29 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=dissident-suffers-beatings-in-detention&ItemID=US-1082011195684138383292 China's Hubei province, Dec. 20, 2008. Asia is to be a key battleground in the world's biggest fight against deadly chronic diseases since the assault on HIV/AIDS began in earnest a decade ago. But the region is hardly prepared to take on the gargantuan task.In a landmark move, world leaders agreed at the United Nations General Assembly last week that an all-out war has to be fought against noncommunicable diseases such as heart ailments, cancer, asthma, and diabetes—so-called "lifestyle" illnesses that are stunting development, impacting economic growth, and altering demographics in Asia.The global fatality figures are stunning. About three out of five people worldwide die of these diseases, making them the number-one killer in the world. And these people usually perish in the prime of their lives, robbing coun]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=asia-faces-slow-motion-disaster&ItemID=NZ-1082011597984138288256 China's public transport safety record, just two months after a high-speed rail crash near the eastern city of Wenzhou killed 40 people.User @mangguo]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=crash-lessons-still-unlearned&ItemID=VY-1082011858584138747469 China's Chongqing municipality, May 13, 2010. Thousands of ordinary Chinese with complaints against the government have converged on the capital ahead of a key political anniversary, as police stepped up operations to detain them."There are more and more petitioners now," said a petitioner from neighboring Hebei surnamed Cai. "The police are driving them away [in relays.] There were several busloads taken away [on Tuesday evening]," he said on Wednesday.Security is tight in the capital as Beijing gears up to mark the 62nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Saturday, with police swooping down on people from out of town, especially around the southern railway station, where China's army of petitioners tend to congregate."They take some away, but then more keep arriving," Cai said.He said a large crowd had also gathered outside the]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=petitioners-flood-beijing&ItemID=FQ-1082011490584138721380 China said that citizens can no longer travel within North Korea without money, as security agents in charge of issuing travel documents will openly ask for “commissions.” “It has been known for a while that Department 2 of the People’s Commissariat, in charge of issuing travel permits, has been asking for bribes, but these days the system has become so cunning and so greedy that they ask for U.S. dollars or Chinese yuan,” the woman, who gave her name as Kim Jung Hwa, told RFA. According to Kim, in South Hwangh]]> WED, 28 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=officials-solicit-bribes-from-travelers&ItemID=QP-1082011179884138464933 China comes two months after a fatal high-speed rail crash. AFP Chinese rescuers evacuate an injured passenger after the subway train collision in Shanghai, Sept. 27, 2011. Hundreds of passengers were reported injured in downtown Shanghai on Tuesday after a subway train rear-ended another, sparking renewed public anger over China's blemished safety record.The accident came just two months after a July high-speed rail crash killed at least 40 people, amid widespread outrage at official handling of the disaster.The crash occurred about at 2:51 p.m. local time, and was initially blamed on "signal failure," the same cause cited for July 23's high-speed train crash in Wenzhou.Around 500 passengers were evacuated from the trains, operator Shanghai Shentong Metro Group said in a statement.The crash came as staff struggled to direct the trains by telephone, following a failure of the signaling system, it said.Official media estimated the number of injured in Tuesday's crash at 271.]]> TUE, 27 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=anger-over-shanghai-subway-crash&ItemID=JC-1082011726084138781976 China. Imaginechina A high-speed train travels through Nanjing, in China's eastern Jiangsu province, March 9, 2011. China's beleaguered railways ministry has ordered a probe into the death of a passenger on one of its regular express trains, after a carriage full of witnesses said they saw a train steward beat him unconscious.Several passengers aboard the K256 express train from Shenzhen West to Hefei in the eastern province of Anhui told local television they had witnessed the beating of a passenger by three train attendants on Monday, one of whom was wearing a chief steward's uniform.The incident took place in Coach 15 of the long-distance train late on Sunday, local media reports said.It comes as China struggles to rebuild public trust in its vast rail system after a high-speed train crash near the city of Wenzhou, south of Shanghai, in July, when at least 40 people died.Calls to t]]> TUE, 27 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=probe-into-railway-death&ItemID=YH-1082011987884138221948 TUE, 27 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=shipbuilding-execs-charged-in-scandal&ItemID=VT-1082011962784138823331 China’s bilingual education policy. AFP Students write on the blackboard in a classroom at a bilingual middle school in Hotan, Oct. 13, 2006. A group of 20 Uyghur professors at a teachers college in northwestern 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 hav]]> TUE, 27 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=laid-off-profs-reject-deal&ItemID=MN-1082011137684138625676 China may be coming to the rescue of Belarus at a critical time as the cash-strapped country faces pressure from Russia to turn over its gas network by the end of the year.During a four-day visit from China's top legislator Wu Bangguo that started on Sept. 17, officials announced a U.S. $1 billion soft loan to Belarus along with a grant of 70 million yuan (U.S. $10.9 million), the official BelTA news agency said. While China's loan is for joint projects, it is likely to prop up the sagging Belorussian ruble, which was backed by only U.S. $4.6 billion in official reserve assets as of Aug. 31.The currency plunged 38 percent when it was freed for trading on Sept. 14 after a similar slide last May.China's help has been a rare ray of hope for President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been shunned and sanctioned by the international community. The autocratic leader has found few places to ]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=boosting-a-role-in-belarus&ItemID=MK-1082011855284138256455 China.Pharmacist Tu Youyou, 81, received the 2011 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award over the weekend for her work on extracting a crucial substance from traditional herbs to treat malaria.According to the Lasker Foundation, Tu extracted artemisinin, now a front-line malaria treatment, from sweet wormwood, a herb used in traditional Chinese medicine, saving "millions of lives.""Tu led a team that transformed an ancient Chinese healing method into the most powerful antimalarial medicine currently available," the Foundation said in a statement on its website.Tu, now the Chief Scientist ]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=scientists-award-defended&ItemID=RX-1082011600384138793701 Tibetan monks at Kirti monastery protest Chinese rule in a 'desperate' act. Photo courtesy of Kanyag Tsering. An undated photo of Lobsang Kalsang. Two more Tibetan monks from Sichuan's troubled Kirti monastery have set fire to themselves, Tibetan sources and rights groups said on Monday.One of them, Lobsang Kalsang, 18, was identified as the brother of Phuntsog, who died in a self-immolation protest against Chinese rule in March, marking an anniversary of unrest three years before.The two monks were "rescued" by police shortly after setting fire to themselves in Ngaba county, in southwestern China, China's official Xinhua news agency said.Quoting a statement from the Ngaba county government, the agency said the incident happened at 11.22 a.m. local time on Monday.The two monks, Lobsang Kalsang and Lobsang Konchog, left the monastery after morning prayers on Monday, said Kanyag Tsering, a monk living at the Kirti branch monastery in exile in Dharamsala, India, citing sources in the Ngab]]> MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=two-more-monks-self-immolate&ItemID=HY-108201140378413881349 MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=police-block-saffron-observers&ItemID=YT-1082011578684138883693 MON, 26 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=political-prisoners-release-difficult&ItemID=EF-1082011611684138240288 Tibet’s spiritual leader says he will re-evaluate the institution in about 14 years. AFP Exile Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama delivers a speech during a Tibetan religious conference in Dharamsala, India on Sept. 23, 2011. The Dalai Lama said Saturday he will decide at age 90 whether he will have a reincarnated successor, but added that Beijing will have no say in who will succeed him as Tibet's spiritual leader if he decides the tradition should continue. "When I am about 90 I will consult the high lamas of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Tibetan public, and other concerned people who follow Tibetan Buddhism, and re-evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not," the 76-year-old spiritual leader said in a statement.His announcement, which followed a gathering of Tibetan Buddhist leaders in India's hill town of Dharamsala last week, hinted that he could choose to end the 600-year-old tradition of selecting a succeeding Dalai Lama through reincar]]> SUN, 25 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=dalai-lama-outlines-succession-time-frame&ItemID=MF-1082011872284138699500 FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=protests-intensify-after-clashes&ItemID=UV-1082011504284138673411 China. AFP A U.S.-made F-16 fighter lands near Tainan city in Taiwan during a drill, April 12, 2011. While China has stepped up its traditional rhetoric in the wake of a U.S. $5.8 billion arms sale by Washington to rival Taiwan, analysts say both sides are more focused on improving bilateral ties than on stoking regional tensions.Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi hit out this week at what he said was "the wrong decision," calling on Washington to revoke the planned arms sale immediately, official media reported."This has ... grossly interfered in China's internal affairs and seriously undermined China's security, its endeavor to achieve peaceful reunification and China-U.S. relations," Yang said."The Chinese side urges the U.S. side to ... correct the mistake of selling weapons to Taiwan, immediately revoke the above-mentioned wrong decision [and] stop arms sales to Taiwan," he was quoted as saying]]> FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=arms-sale-wont-hurt-ties&ItemID=AL-108201122084138103229 China’s Xinjiang region are losing their jobs at an alarming rate because they cannot speak fluent Mandarin, according to instructors, as Chinese authorities move to increase bilingual education in the region. According to a number of interviews RFA conducted with Uyghur educators, at least 1,000 primary school teachers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region have lost their jobs since 2010 because they could not speak Mandarin in addition to their own Uyghur language. Uyghur had been the official medium of instruction in schools in the region, but the language is being phased out. One teacher, who taught primary school for 20 years in Nogayto village in Xinjiang’s Gulja city, said she was forced to quit in 2010 because she could ]]> FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=teachers-fired-over-mandarin-ability&ItemID=RD-108201163308413769655 China’s strictly enforced One-Child Policy has led to increased gender discrimination and violence and could destabilize the world's most populous country, experts warned this week at a U.S. congressional hearing.Chinese authorities have also become more “brutal” in implementing the controversial three-decade-old  one-child-per-couple law, fueling  abortions and increasingly skewing birth sex ratios in favor of males due to the traditional Chinese preference for a son, the experts testified.This has led to millions of girls being “culled” from the population through abortion, said Brigham Young University political scientist Valerie Hudson, speaking on Thursday at a hearing called by the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs subcommittee on human rights.And for each of these girls, someone else’s son will become “surplus” or unmarried—“or in colloquial ]]> FRI, 23 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=birth-policy-could-destabilize-china&ItemID=SR-1082011722184137215132 China is haunted by debt, a property bubble and other woes while the region grapples with capital outflows. AFP Chinese women dressed in bikinis promote a property development project in Yichang, central China's Hubei province, Aug. 14, 2011. As Europe reels from financial turmoil and the U.S. economic recovery falters, storm clouds are gathering over China and most of Asia.Both the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank have slashed growth rates for the region, which is beginning to experience a slowdown in exports to the advanced economies.Soaring inflation—led by the region's biggest casualty, Vietnam, suffering from a whopping 23 percent jump in consumer prices—is also taking a toll on economies that have tightened monetary policy to tame rising food costs. Compounding the economic slowdown are concerns over financial instability stemming mainly from China's mountain of debt—its stock of domestic loans has reached a colossal 173 percent of the country's Gross Do]]> THU, 22 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=crises-cast-shadow-over-asia&ItemID=YW-1082011812284137346178 THU, 22 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=schoolgirls-jump-from-building&ItemID=JG-1082011815684137834787 China's health ministry. AFP A woman holds a portrait of her deceased granddaughter outside the Ministry of Health in Beijing, May 8, 2009. Authorities in the Chinese capital have detained a woman after she protested outside the health ministry at her son's illness which she said was linked to medical errors at the hospital.Zhang Chunxia was taken away by Beijing police on Wednesday after she unfurled a banner outside the ministry of health, she said.The health ministry usually calls the police to remove protesters outside its gates, according to a police officer. "I was detained," Zhang said from a hospital waiting room, where she was getting a check-up following a sudden rise in blood pressure. "They didn't announce it formally, but they told me that it would be for five days.""I was held in the Xicheng district detention center, and my blood pressure went up, so right now I am in the hospital with two poli]]> THU, 22 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=health-petitioner-detained&ItemID=DJ-108201147784137406774 China Democracy Party (CDP) who stood as a candidate for provincial elections in 1980 and 1998, was taken away by police outside his Beijing home on Wednesday morning, according to Wuhan-based fellow activist Qin Yongmin."He Depu, who was assisting the candidates, was pulled into a police car by three regular police and two state security police when he left home," Qin said on Wednesday.Police swooped on a group of around 10 people, including Wang Xiuzhen, who was attempting to stand as an independent election ]]> WED, 21 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=beijing-election-bid-sparks-standoff&ItemID=EX-1082011136884137552251 human rights in Vietnam. AFP U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear speaks in Hanoi, Sept. 9, 2011. More than a dozen U.S. lawmakers have urged the newly appointed American Ambassador to Vietnam to give a higher priority to raising human rights issues in the communist-ruled nation. The 14 members of Congress sent a letter to Ambassador David Shear requesting that he address concerns such as rule of law, Internet freedom, and suppression of political dissent, in addition to strengthening ties between the former rival nations. Congressional Caucus on Vietnam Representatives Loretta Sanchez, Zoe Lofgren, Chris Smith, and Frank Wolf led the group in pushing for the tougher stance. The lawmakers said that Shear’s appointment comes at “a pivotal time as Vietnam pursues economic gains through its bilateral relations with the U.S. but continues to fail on what the United States regards as a priority: respect for the fundamental human rights of its citiz]]> WED, 21 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=ambassador-urged-to-press-rights&ItemID=IU-1082011283284137467370 human rights abuses in the country.Meanwhile, a North Korea expert testified to what he called “intensified political repression” in the isolated Stalinist state.Kim Hye Sook, who escaped from North Korea in 2009 and now lives in South Korea, said she was “dragged” to political prison camp no. 18 of the Bukchang prison camp in South Pyongang Province together with her parents, at the age of 13.She was held there for 28 years, Kim said at a hearing called by a House of Representatives Foreign Affairs subcommittee.Kim said that she learned only after her release that she had been taken to the camp because her gran]]> WED, 21 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=survivors-remember-the-camps&ItemID=TY-1082011142784137543900 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]]> WED, 21 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=uyghur-scholars-classes-canceled&ItemID=ML-1082011688984137860943 WED, 21 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=judges-slammed-for-victim-rejection&ItemID=MZ-10820117780841376421 China's pharmaceutical industry is lucrative, but poorly regulated. ImagineChina A Chinese nurse vaccinates a girl against measles in Beijing, Sept. 13, 2010. Parents from across China converged on Beijing this week to call for compensation for the death of at least one child and severe illness in others linked to compulsory measles vaccinations rolled out nationwide last year.Parents from the eastern provinces of Shandong and Anhui, Heilongjiang in the northeast, and the southwestern megacity of Chongqing displayed photographs and posters detailing their children's reactions outside government offices in Beijing on Monday, drawing a crowd of bystanders.A mother from Chongqing surnamed Wen said that her 13-month-old son was taken to hospital with a high fever after receiving the injection in September. He died two days later.Wen said she didn't believe local health experts, who had performed an autopsy on her son and had then denied his death was linked to the vaccine."My child weighed]]> TUE, 20 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=vaccine-linked-to-death-illnesses&ItemID=XH-108201195984137235276 China. RFA Undated photo of Goher Memet. Goher Memet, a 35-year-old factory worker from northwestern China, has been fighting discriminatory practices against Uyghurs since being insulted by a Han Chinese storeowner months after ethnic violence in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region left some 200 people dead in July 2009. The employee of the Xinjiang Bayi Iron and Steel Co. traveled to Beijing for the second time in December last year to bring the case to the United Nations’ human rights office, but was ushered home to the regional capital of Urumqi by local authorities who pledged to resolve her dispute. After nearly a year of continued petitioning, local officials have still not addressed her case. On Sept. 16, the former amateur songwriter was blocked by security personnel from attending the 60-year anniversary of her factory when she tried to bring a photo illustrating the grief of the Uyghur people unde]]> TUE, 20 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=worth-a-thousand-words&ItemID=UQ-1082011586184137763435 TUE, 20 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=sichuan-petitioners-get-rare-visit&ItemID=II-108201164678413721687 TUE, 20 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=opposition-lawmakers-petition-world-bank&ItemID=PH-1082011907384137480899 TUE, 20 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=two-deaths-in-forced-demolition&ItemID=TE-108201153884137396018 TUE, 20 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=no-objection-to-parliament-bid&ItemID=FE-1082011742984137139571 ChinaXtra Heavy smoke spews out from a factory in Jilin, northeast China's Jilin province, Dec. 3, 2010. China could cut its greenhouse gas emissions substantially without sacrificing economic growth, a joint U.S.-China study says.The question of curbing carbon dioxide (CO2) has been a challenge for fast-growing China, which has become the world's leading source of global warming gases, according to the International Energy Agency.Until now, the government has resisted absolute limits on emissions in treaty talks to replace the Kyoto Protocol, arguing against any restrictions on China's economic development.Instead, China has set a proportional goal, pledging to reduce carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45 percent from2005 levels in 2020.The problem with that, says the study by Harvard and Tsinghua Universities, is the economy is growing so fast that China's emissions could climb 75-90 percent by then.But Harvard economist ]]> MON, 19 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=china-study-eyes-carbon-tax&ItemID=XQ-1082011289284137456614 human rights campaigners attempting to visit blind Shandong-based activist Chen Guangcheng, who has been under house arrest with his wife and child for almost a year, were detained and beaten by unidentified thugs guarding the road into the village, activists said on Monday.Beijing-based activist Liu Shasha traveled to Chen's home village in Shandong's Yinan county on Sunday along with four companions, according to Nanjing-based rights activist He Peirong, known by her online nickname as @pearlher.The group, which included Miao Jue from Beijing, Peng Yuanzhong from Hunan, Ge Jiang from Jiangsu, and Hunan-based netizen Chen Jianfeng, traveled to Dongshigu village in the hope of visiting the family.Miao said the group was pounced on by around a dozen men who were watching the main intersection of the vill]]> MON, 19 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=chen-supporters-attacked&ItemID=NU-1082011577484137817484 China issues an apology for polluting the local environment. Photo appears courtesy of villagers Villagers and police clash in Zhejiang province, Sept. 16, 2011. A company in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang has issued a public apology following several days of mass protests over pollution from its solar panel factory, vowing to clean up its act after hundreds of people rioted at one of its facilities."Zhejiang Jinko has always paid a great deal of attention to environmental issues and complies with and follows the state's relevant demands," company spokesman Jing Zhaohui told a news conference on Monday."In the course of doing so, this incident still happened, and we cannot shirk responsibility for the legal consequences which have come from management slips," he added.The company "sincerely apologizes" and will take "appropriate" steps to clear up the pollution, Jing said.Police in Haining have detained at least 20 people after hundreds of local]]> MON, 19 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=firm-pledges-clean-up-after-riots&ItemID=PC-108201137984137477659 China’s southern Hunan province died hours after being taken away for questioning by prosecutors, and his body was covered with injuries, according to his son.The family believes that Tan Kaihai, 60, the party chief in Xinan village in Qidong County, was beaten to death after being questioned over a village account expense.On Sept. 15 at about 6:00 p.m., Tan "was working in the field, when someone came and took him away,” said the son, who did not give his name.“The guy said he was from the Prosecution Office of Qidong County.” The son said that the family was informed that Tan had died early morning the next day.“At 4:00 a.m. the next morning, my uncle was woken by a phone call saying that my father was sick and in the emergency room of the hospi]]> MON, 19 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=village-official-dies-in-detention&ItemID=DT-1082011984984137182196 MON, 19 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=pushing-for-dam-construction&ItemID=CQ-1082011702684137812974 MON, 19 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=im-not-being-made-use-of&ItemID=FV-1082011477684137213396 FRI, 16 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=part-7-stinking-but-suitable-for-use&ItemID=CI-1082011452584137814778 FRI, 16 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=factories-shut-over-lead-fears&ItemID=SC-1082011627484137617123 FRI, 16 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=clash-over-demolitions&ItemID=AE-1082011372784137149560 China cracks down on would-be 'independent' candidates for parliament. Courtesy of He Depu. An undated photo of He Depu, who says the aspiring candidates have been taken to a police station. Authorities in the Chinese capital on Friday briefly detained 12 people seeking to stand in forthcoming nationwide parliamentary elections, as hackers targeted the Skype accounts of another activist.The group was taken to the Jingshan police station, according to fellow activist He Depu."We were planning to organize an activity at the home of one of the candidates this morning," He said on Friday. "We were going to divide up our campaigns by residential district.""At around 8.30 a.m. the head of the Jingshan police station showed up, and told the candidates to go with him, separating them from the rest of us.""A lot of police showed up around 9.00 a.m. and took the 12 candidates away for questioning. We haven't heard anything yet," said He, a member of the banned opposition China Democracy Party (C]]> FRI, 16 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=police-detain-election-hopefuls&ItemID=BS-1082011461884137295037 China is stepping up media training for its officials, as well as an army of freelance commentators paid to direct public debate online, known as the "50 cent army," official media reported.A news report from local television station, Hubei Xishui TV, said local officials from the Xishui county propaganda department had held training exercises for official spokespersons and "Internet commentators."The report showed footage of a classroom, with a training session led by county propaganda department head Zhou Liya."The channels for putting out information are many and varied," Zhou was quoted as telling the trainees. "Information reaches the Internet particularly fast."Zhou's training course included tips on how to influence coverage by the country's biggest news organizations, as well as numerous methods of using the Internet and social m]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=training-online-pr-teams&ItemID=KK-108201193884137268948 China Aid.Zhang was apparently uncontactable by phone this week, however.Fellow members of China's unofficial Protestant "house churches" say they continue to be targeted by authorities with detentions, house arrest, a]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=pastor-freed-others-still-held&ItemID=DT-1082011954584137326237 China in recent years. The whereabouts of 11 Uyghurs deported by Malaysia to 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 Saud]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=deportees-whereabouts-unknown&ItemID=VG-1082011500884137643279 China leads an uphill battle to cope with unprecedented demographic changes in the region. ImagineChina Chinese senior citizens eat bananas at a retirement home in Xinshao, central China's Hunan province. Asia's rapidly growing economies are grappling with populations that are also growing older at breathtaking speed.And among those facing the onslaught of this worrying demographic deficit is China, whose red-hot growth rate in recent years transformed the world's most populous nation into the world's second largest economy.Asia's economic success so far has been fueled by a "demographic dividend"—a jump in the rate of economic growth due to a rising share of working age people within the region's population.But over the next four decades, the region's population will be aging on the back of declining birth rates and increasing life expectancy. The region will see families with few children, scarce workers, and rising number of senior citizens."Asia's population is aging at a speed unp]]> THU, 15 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=asias-diminishing-dividend&ItemID=QF-1082011248284137142044 China's largest city say waste from a battery plant is making them sick. RFA In an undated photo, a Pudong district resident displays dust they say was emitted by a nearby battery plant. Residents of Shanghai's Pudong district, whose gleaming skyscrapers and financial buildings have become an icon of a rising China, say their children are being poisoned by lead emissions from a nearby battery plant."There is a battery factory very close to us," said a resident of Pudong's Kangqiao township surnamed Lu. "Every day they smelt lead powder and the smoke often billows out in thick white clouds.""There is a very bad smell and the lead powder has contaminated our food and water," Lu said. "We have been to the government to tell them about this and they say that the factory has a waste permit."Lu said a group of families from Kanghua New Village had already had their children tested for lead poisoning, with many showing moderate-to-high levels of lead in their blood.Further tests ]]> WED, 14 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=shanghai-parents-battle-pollution&ItemID=YW-1082011880184137115955 Tibetan monks and nuns under detention are subject to 'extrajudicial punishments,' a U.S. government report says. AFP Chinese military patrol the streets in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on March 15, 2008 after violent protests. A monk in Tibet has died after suffering beatings and enduring hard labor during his 10-year prison sentence for campaigning for freedom, a source said.News of his death comes amid a U.S. State Department report that many of the Tibetan monks and nuns under detention are subjected to "extrajudicial punishments, such as beatings and deprivation of food, water, and sleep for long periods."Yeshe Tendzin died on Sept. 7 in Sog county of the Nagchu prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) after being bedridden and in extremely poor health following his release in December last year, said Ngawang Tharpa, a Tibetan resident in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala.  "He was imprisoned in 2001 after being convicted of copying and distributing posters calling for T]]> WED, 14 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=monk-dies-after-beatings&ItemID=EL-1082011397984137545771 China's Chongqing municipality, May 13, 2010. Officials in China's southeastern Fujian province have detained seven petitioners in a "black jail" after they protested at the U.S. embassy over the Mid-Autumn Festival.Separately, petitioners in south-central Changsha city say at least 21 people have been formally arrested after traveling to Tiananmen Square to air grievances.The seven petitioners who traveled to Beijing from Fujian's capital Fuzhou, and from the port city of Quanzhou, were detained by police on their way to the U.S. embassy in the Chinese capital and were being held in a guesthouse under lock and key by officials from their hometowns, sources said on Wednesday."They are all being held at the Duxinyuan Guesthouse, Room 107," said a fellow petitioner surnamed Lin, citing a guesthouse in the Xicheng district of t]]> WED, 14 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=police-detain-embassy-protesters&ItemID=YO-1082011630084137117759 China has sentenced four ethnic Uyghurs to death in connection with a series of July attacks in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region which left dozens of people dead, state media reported Thursday, drawing condemnation from overseas groups. Abdugheni Yusup, Ablikim Hasan, Muhtar Hasan, and Memetniyaz Tursun were handed the death sentence while two other men—Abdulla Eli and Pulat Memet—were sentenced to 19 years in prison and a five-year suspension of their political rights for their part in the attacks, according to tianshannet.com, a state-run website. The mainly Muslim Uyghur minority has long chafed against Chinese rule in Xinjiang, and authorities have accused "terrorists" of operating in the region. Tianshannet said that the defendants were convicted of “forming and participating in a terrorist organiz]]> WED, 14 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=four-sentenced-to-death&ItemID=GN-1082011890684137576971 China will assist in reconstruction after its existing agreements are honored by the new government. AFP China's foreign affairs Vice-Minister in charge of Africa and Middle-East arrives at a summit on the post-Gadhafi era in Paris, Sept. 1, 2011. Beijing has said it will seek a role in the reconstruction of Libya following its official recognition of the National Transition Council (NTC) as the new government, in return for the honoring of treaties and agreements made during the rule of former leader Moammar Gadhafi.China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had received reassurances from the NTC that the country's new government will uphold all agreements signed with Beijing prior to the revolution."We appreciate that and we would like to promote the stable transition and continuous development of China-Libya relations," foreign affairs spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a regular news briefing in Beijing.China on Monday formally recognized the NTC as the rulers of Libya, making it the last ]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=seeking-a-role-in-libya&ItemID=PB-1082011273384136455210 TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=guangdong-rights-lawyer-released&ItemID=HU-1082011448184136257555 China's eastern Anhui province have released writer and activist Hu Di, who went missing amid a nationwide crackdown on dissent in February, his relatives said.His disappearance in February had sparked concerns that he was at risk of torture.According to Hu's friends, his family was worried over the activist's mental health since his release from detention Monday, on which the Mid-Autumn Festival fell.Hu "disappeared" in February after supporting online calls for a "Jasmine" revolution inspired by uprisings in the Middle East, according to the China human rights Defenders (CHRD) group.Calls to Hu's mobile phone went unanswered on Monday. However, a close friend in Guangzhou surnamed Zheng said he had recently spoken to Hu."He didn't gi]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=concerns-over-writers-mental-health&ItemID=UM-1082011508784136515806 TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=us-to-maintain-sanctions&ItemID=PG-1082011112384136602491 China’s Mid-Autumn Festival. AFP High rise residential buildings in Shanghai, Jan. 14, 2011. While families across China celebrated the annual Mid-Autumn Festival, a group of mostly homeless petitioners in Shanghai gathered to share their grievances against the government and seek comfort from one another. Most people spent their festival celebration on Monday watching the full moon and eating traditional food, including mooncake pastries. But some 20 petitioners and rights activists in China’s second city met that night to share their stories and offer each other support in their hunt for justice. At least one petitioner was stalked by police after lodging a complaint. Wang Kouma, a petitioner who joined the group, said many who gathered had lost their homes to the government. “We had a Mid-Autumn Festival gathering of Shanghai petitioners and rights activists. Among us many people lost their homes and had become homeless. Some of us had ]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=petitioners-share-grief-during-holiday&ItemID=GI-1082011915784136890137 Buddhist pagoda in downtown Hanoi, Aug. 20, 2010. The U.S. State Department on Tuesday maintained China, Burma, and North Korea in an annual blacklist of top violators of religious freedom but did not include Vietnam in the list as demanded by rights groups.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton designated the three nations together with Eritrea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan in the "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPC) list.The eight countries have been "long-term, chronic, and egregious violators of religious freedom," the State Department said. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, human rights, and Labor Michael Posner indicated that the situation in Vietnam, which was in the in the CPC blacklist from 2004 to 2006, would continue to be monitored. "In these and other places, we will continue to review and assess the state of religious freedom, and we are prepared to designate]]> TUE, 13 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=vietnam-excluded-from-blacklist&ItemID=PW-108201163084136790825 China's Anhui province, Aug. 11, 2011. China's government has been delaying the release of energy efficiency reports without explanation while considering new environmental goals, analysts say.The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) appears to be more than a month late in reporting China's total energy use in the first half of the year as a proportion of Gross Domstic Product (GDP). In 2010, the NBS issued its first-half "energy intensity" results on Aug. 3.China energy expert Philip Andrews-Speed said the NBS has also omitted first-quarter reporting of the key conservation index, although officials have issued quarterly figures for much of the previous five years.Last year, the government made a major push to meet Premier Wen Jiabao's goal of reducing energy use per unit of GDP by 20 percent from 2006 through 2010, hoping to curb energy waste from runaway economic expansion in 2003-2004.The ]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=china-delays-energy-data&ItemID=JY-1082011295184136362813 MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=cable-sources-denounced-online&ItemID=RX-1082011555784136822025 China's safety record into question. AFP Workers clear the wreckage after a fatal high-speed rail crash in Shuangyu town in China's eastern Zhejiang province, July 24, 2011. Separate accidents have left 21 people dead and 30 injured as millions of Chinese take to the country's transport network and shopping malls for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day celebrations.Nine people died and 27 were injured in the eastern province of Jiangsu when a long-distance bus service from Nanjing to Ma'anshan plowed into a cement truck on the Ningwu national highway on Sunday, according to local police."Yes, that's right," said an officer who answered the phone at the Ma'anshan municipal police department on Monday when asked about local media reports that many of the passengers were making their way home for the holidays.But he declined to comment further. "I can't really say," he said, when asked to confirm the number of casualties.China’s]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=tragedies-mar-holiday&ItemID=UU-1082011702084136737144 MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=thaksin-visit-to-follow-sisters&ItemID=MP-1082011876984136539489 human rights activist Li Bifeng after summoning him for questioning, according to his friends.Li Bifeng, 44, was asked to report to police in Mianyang city for a “conversation” over his so-called “economic problems” on Thursday. As he walked out of the police station after the questioning, several police officers rushed to him, pushed him down and handcuffed him.The following day, Li’s wife Jiang Xia received the detention notice from the police, listing him as a “suspect of economic fraud.”“The police just said that Li should come to their office for questioning but not for detention. However, they arrested him following the conversation. This is a trap,” said ]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=rights-activist-detained&ItemID=MH-1082011450784136758189 MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=prominent-dissident-dies-in-jail&ItemID=NV-1082011539984136903666 China Power Investment Corp. in northern Kachin state, saying it would cripple rice paddy production.  But Burma’s minister of electric power, Zaw Min, stoutly defended the project at the weekend, saying the government will "never stop the project before finishing.”"As a politician, to say something like this is not only irresponsible, but rather idiotic," Win Tin, a central executive committee member in Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, told RFA."After all these protests and rejection from all over the w]]> MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=work-on-dam-to-proceed&ItemID=QS-1082011686284136818785 MON, 12 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=dont-look-at-problems-in-isolation&ItemID=BC-1082011689684136307395 human rights questions. DPA/AFP Smoke billows from the top floors of the World Trade Center Towers in New York following terrorist attacks, Sept. 11, 2001. Under the pretext of fighting terrorism, some Asian nations have cracked down on political dissent and increased repression of ethnic minorities in moves experts warn could fuel unrest in the region.As the United States turned its back on many civil and political rights following the September 11, 2001 attacks, 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 ]]> SUN, 11 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=rights-concerns-stalk-terror-fight&ItemID=IJ-1082011578884136251910 China-Eurasia Expo in Urumqi, Sept. 1, 2011. A week after Chinese authorities hosted an international trade fair in Xinjiang, exiled Uyghur activist 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, ]]> SUN, 11 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=call-for-responsible-investments&ItemID=CI-1082011326284136750673 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 th]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=clampdown-around-activists-trial&ItemID=LZ-1082011958184136724584 China's propaganda chief has spoken publicly about the problems of controlling the activities of the country's 500 million netizens, fueling fears that further attempts at control are on the way.Propaganda department chief Liu Yunshan made the comments on Wednesday during a round-table media discussion held with participants from China, Japan, and South Korea, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency."The central propaganda department won't be able to completely control [the actions] of 500 million netizens," Liu was quoted as saying in response to widespread criticism of his department."The criticisms [leveled at us] overestimate the propaganda department," he said.Many online activists have expressed concern that further controls over China's Internet users are imminent, especially in the wake of official campaigns against "rumor-mongering" via social n]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=further-web-controls-feared&ItemID=XY-1082011647484136468138 FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=burmas-new-political-dynamics&ItemID=CP-1082011850784136157709 human rights Defenders and Promoters (HRDP) filed cases on their behalf with the International Labor Organization (ILO). Zaw Wai Lin, of Rangoon division’s Hlaing Tharyar township, told RFA that he was released from the Mandalay 111 Directorate of Signal in front of local authorities and his parents. "A group of army officers,]]> FRI, 09 SEP 2011 00:00:00 EST http://www.uyghurnews.com/radiofreeasia/Read.asp?RadioFreeAsia=child-soldiers-released&ItemID=WP-1082011624584136577371