China has sent an elite anti-terrorism unit to the restive far-western region of Xinjiang in the wake of recent violence there and ahead of an international trade convention, a state newspaper reported yesterday.
The Snow Leopard Commando Unit will be based in Aksu City, about halfway between Kashgar, where two violent attacks took place last month, and Urumqi, the China Daily quoted a spokesman for the Xinjiang People’s Armed Police as saying.
At least 20 people died late last month in the two attacks in Kashgar, in the western part of Xinjiang — turmoil the government blames on Muslim extremists.
The spokesman, whom the newspaper did not name, said the unit would patrol and carry out “anti-terrorist missions” in Kashgar and Hotan, a city in southern Xinjiang where violent protests took place last month.
Calls to the Xinjiang regional government and police offices were not answered yesterday.
The China Daily said the commando unit was also being used to boost security for the China-Eurasia Expo, a large trade convention to be held in Urumqi early next month.
The Snow Leopard unit was formed in 2002 and given security responsibilities for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the newspaper said. It is charged with combating terrorism, controlling riots, disposing of bombs, responding to hijackings and carrying out other special tasks, it said.
Security has been tight across Xinjiang since 2009, when almost 200 people were killed in Urumqi in fighting between majority Han Chinese and the Uighur ethnic group.
China blamed that violence on forces outside the country and says the latest attacks were carried out by militants trained in camps run by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Pakistan, which borders the southern part of Xinjiang. However, some experts say the government has produced little evidence of an organized terrorist threat, adding the violence stems more from long-standing local resentment.
Uighurs are culturally, linguistically and religiously distinct from China’s Han ethnic majority and share many links with the native populations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other parts of Central Asia. Many deeply resent the Han Chinese majority as interlopers and see mass migration to the region as dooming them to minority status in their own homeland.
China defends its treatment of minorities, saying all ethnic groups are treated equally and that tens of billions of dollars in investment and aid have raised their living standards.
Xinjiang is China’s Central Asian frontier, bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia and other countries. Eighty percent of Kashgar’s population of 600,000 is Uighur.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
CONCESSION: A Shin Kong official said that the firm was ‘willing to contribute’ to the nation, as the move would enable Nvidia Crop to build its headquarters in Taiwan Shin Kong Life Insurance Co (新光人壽) yesterday said it would relinquish land-use rights, or known as surface rights, for two plots in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), paving the way for Nvidia Corp to expand its office footprint in Taiwan. The insurer said it made the decision “in the interest of the nation’s greater good” and would not seek compensation from taxpayers for potential future losses, calling the move a gesture to resolve a months-long impasse among the insurer, the Taipei City Government and the US chip giant. “The decision was made on the condition that the Taipei City Government reimburses the related
RSS