China will maintain “heavy pressure” to defeat militants in its far western region of Xinjiang, China’s fourth-most senior leader said during a visit to its ethnic Uighur heartland, urging religious figures to take the lead in opposing extremism.
The government said it faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists in Xinjiang, which sits strategically on the borders of Central Asia and where hundreds have died in violence in recent years.
However, exiles and rights groups said China has never presented convincing evidence of the existence of a cohesive militant group fighting the government, and that much of the unrest can be traced back to frustration at controls over the culture and religion of the Uighur people who live in Xinjiang.
Visiting the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, deep in southern Xinjiang, National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Yu Zhengsheng (俞正聲) said long-term stability must be the main goal for the region, the Xinjiang government said on its official news Web site yesterday.
“From beginning to end [we will] maintain heavy-handed pressure, and resolutely safeguard the people’s peaceful life,” Yu, who is in charge of religious groups and ethnic minorities and number four in the Chinese Communist Party, told officials on his one-day visit on Saturday.
Speaking later with soldiers, Yu said southern Xinjiang was the “main battleground in the anti- separatist struggle,” urging them to be a “staunch force” in protecting stability in the region.
Yu also visited the Id Kah Mosque, China’s biggest mosque.
Last year three suspected Islamist militants armed with knives and axes killed the mosque’s imam, Juma Tayir, a well-known pro-government Uighur.
Yu met with “patriotic religious figures” and told them they had an important role to play defeating extremism in southern Xinjiang, the government said.
“Religious figures should be brave enough to declare their stand at critical moments and continue taking a leading role in opposing extremism and promoting unity of various ethnic groups,” Yu said.
The Web site showed a picture of a smiling Yu chatting to Uighurs in the mosque.
“The religious representatives one after another said that they ... would love and protect ethnic unity as much as they love and protect their eyes,” the government said.
China is preparing to mark 60 years since it established what it calls the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
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