Police in southern China shot dead two Uighurs trying to cross the border into Vietnam, state media reported yesterday, with rights groups saying repression at home causes members of the ethnic minority to flee.
Officers discovered a group of Uighurs near a highway toll gate on Sunday evening and two who “assaulted” the officers with knives were shot dead, government-run China News Service said.
Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking and mostly Muslim ethnic minority, whose resource-rich homeland Xinjiang has seen intensifying and increasingly sophisticated attacks, sometimes spreading beyond it.
Two more people were detained while police were still searching for a fifth in Pingxiang city in the southern region of Guangxi, Xinhua news agency reported. Calls to the Pingxiang municipal public security bureau by reporters went unanswered.
At least 200 people have been killed in a series of clashes over the past year linked to Xinjiang, with authorities blaming religious extremists and separatists in the far northwest region.
Rights groups argue that harsh police treatment of the Uighur minority, as well as government campaigns and bans against religious practices such as the wearing of veils have led to violence.
“China is using extreme means like shooting and killing these people in order to intimidate other Uighurs who wish to escape,” Munich-based World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit said.
“There is a direct relationship between China’s repressive policies and the increase in those trying to escape,” Raxit said.
Hundreds of people believed to be Uighurs were detained in Thailand last year, claiming they were Turkish citizens in order to avoid being sent back to China. Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on illegal emigration in the wake of their case.
Police have seized 352 alleged human smugglers and detained 852 suspects who tried to cross China’s southwestern border since moves to stamp out illegal immigration were launched in April last year, Xinhua said.
A knife rampage in March last year at a train station in Kunming, capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan, where 31 people were killed, was blamed on “Xinjiang separatists,” with some officials saying that the group launched their attack after failing to leave the country.
Uighurs are frequently denied passports for travel by officials and have sought to cross China’s southern border, where established human-smuggling networks operate. Xinjiang’s militarized frontiers and harsh mountain terrain also discourage illegal migration directly to Central Asia.
Beijing has responded to Xinjiang-related violence with a severe crackdown in recent months, with hundreds of arrests and around 50 executions and death sentences publicly announced since June.
‘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