More outbreaks of
violence show the government’s policies are not working
IN SHANSHAN county in the western region of Xinjiang,
efforts in May to promote “ethnic-harmony education month” were declared a
success after official lecture teams delivered more than 100 speeches on the
topic to 80,000, mostly Muslim, residents. On June 26th it became clear that
their hard work had failed, as 35 people were killed in Shanshan in the
bloodiest outbreak of ethnic violence in Xinjiang for four years. The
government, as usual, has blamed Islamic terrorists.
The unrest, in Lukqun township, near the oasis city of
Turpan, was followed two days later by another violent incident 1,000km (600
miles) to the south, near the city of Khotan. Details of both events are
sketchy. Officials say that in Lukqun 15 knife-wielding members of a “violent
terrorist gang” rampaged through the town after one of their associates was
arrested. They are said to have killed 24 people before police shot dead 11 of
them. In Moyu county, in Khotan prefecture, about 100 people riding motorcycles
and armed with knives attacked a police station, according to an official
newspaper.
Coming just days before the fourth anniversary on July 5th
of ethnic unrest in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, that left nearly 200 people
dead, these latest incidents have clearly unnerved the leadership in Beijing.
On June 28th President Xi Jinping called a meeting of the Politburo’s standing
committee to discuss Xinjiang. The committee demanded a “resolute strike”
against “violent terrorist forces”. Two Politburo members—domestic-security
chief, Meng Jianzhu, and head of minority affairs, Yu Zhengsheng—were
dispatched to the region. On June 29th Mr Meng presided over a large parade
through Urumqi by paramilitary police with armoured vehicles. A similar show of
force was staged on July 1st in a county town near the city of Aksu, with
regular army troops joining in. Such military involvement is rare.
Global Times, a Beijing newspaper, quoted an
unnamed anti-terrorism official as saying that since last year nearly 100
ethnic Uighurs (Xinjiang’s largest minority) had gone to Syria to fight
alongside rebels to hone their “terrorist skills”. But in spite of efforts to
link Xinjiang’s violence with Islamist forces abroad, there is little evidence
of any organised links.
Spontaneous anger triggered by heavy-handed controls on
religious expression is probably a bigger factor than officials are prepared to
admit. In Turpan, the prefecture to which Shanshan belongs, the authorities
have been waging a campaign to persuade Uighur men not to grow long beards and
women not to wear the veil or other Islamic clothing. Those living in
neighbourhoods where all residents comply are given preferential access to
loans and government-sponsored job-training schemes. They can also obtain
government subsidies for funerals and weddings. Even the sale and manufacture
of the jilbab, a full-length outer garment worn by Muslim women, has
been banned.
Such measures are often ignored. In Khotan women can often
be seen with their heads or faces covered. Long beards are the norm for older
men. But a Uighur taxi driver says the authorities have been getting tougher in
recent weeks. He says employees at his company were told in May that they could
be fined 5,000 yuan ($815) for picking up passengers wearing face-coverings that
reveal only the eyes. If they do so a second time, they could lose their jobs.
He says his company does not employ men with long beards. Khotan residents say
a deadly eruption of violence in the city in July 2011 was prompted by anger
over restrictions on Islamic dress.
The authorities seem unmoved. In response to the violence,
200 staff at a hospital near Aksu met to criticise the attackers. The
facility’s Communist Party chief, a Uighur, called for increased security.
Those wearing Islamic clothing and long beards would be targeted, he said. The
Economist
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