A Chinese policeman was killed in an “anti-terrorism” operation in the restive region of Xinjiang, Chinese state media reported yesterday — an incident last week in which overseas reports said that 22 Uighurs were shot dead.
The Global Times said the policeman “died in action against a violent terrorist group.”
The Kashgar Daily named the policeman as Yan Xiaofei, 32, and said his funeral was held at the weekend in Kashgar, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, after he “heroically gave his life” on Aug. 20.
No other casualties have been officially confirmed, the Global Times said.
However, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA), which is funded by the US government, 22 Uighurs were killed in the raid at the edge of a desert area in Yilkiqi.
RFA cited the deputy chief of Yilkiqi Township, Alim Hamid, as saying he had been at the scene of the shootout, following which “22 bodies in black bags were carried out by police to an unknown destination.”
“Police informed us that those who were killed were terrorists, but they didn’t specify what wrong they did,” RFA quoted him as saying.
The Munich-based World Uyghur Congress condemned what it called “extra-judicial killings” and said it was “deeply concerned” about the incident that left “a dark shadow over the actions of the Chinese authorities.”
“Police surrounded a group of Uighurs who were peacefully praying in the desert, following which they began to fire upon the Uighurs and swiftly burying the deceased in a hole dug up by a bulldozer,” it said.
Chinese media and government Web sites have largely only carried reports about the policeman’s death.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing