Funding for public security in Xinjiang will rise nearly 90 percent this year, state media said yesterday, following ethnic unrest that left nearly 200 people dead last year.
A budget proposal placed before Xinjiang’s legislature on Tuesday called for 2.89 billion yuan (US$423 million) to be spent on public security, up 88 percent, the China Daily reported.
“The July 5 riot in Urumqi … had an enormous impact on the Xinjiang people. It has severely damaged social stability in the region,” the paper quoted regional chairman Nur Bekri as telling the Xinjiang People’s Congress.
Bekri said the priority for Xinjiang security forces this year would be to crack down on the “three forces” of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism, which the government blamed for the unrest, the paper said.
China’s Turkic-speaking Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities — which China denies.
Tensions in the vast and remote region bordering on central Asia have simmered for years.
In July, 197 people were killed and more than 1,700 people were injured in violence between mainly Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in the regional capital of Urumqi, government figures showed.
So far 22 people, mostly ethnic Uighurs, have been sentenced to death for the violence, drawing sharp criticism from the West and rights groups concerned that the accused were denied fair trials.
Nine executions have so far been reported by state media.
New rules publicized in Xinjiang last week stipulated that governments down to the village level must step up identity checks on suspicious persons and monitor all religious activities, state press reports said.
Local governments must step up the registration of migrant workers and help set up a region-wide information-sharing network, it said.
The newly amended rules — which will come into effect on Feb. 1 — also stipulate that promotions of government leaders will be subject to their efforts to stamp out the “three forces.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese