China To Restore Xinjiang Access

As Chinese Internet users are complaining about increased curbs, Chinese authorities announced they would be restoring online access and lift a ban on text messages and international calls in Xinjiang.

The move comes  months after deadly ethnic unrest prompted a communications shutdown.

AFP quoted the official Xinhua news agency, which cited the regional government saying it had restored access to part of the wire’s Web site as well as parts of the Web site of the state-run People’s Daily newspaper.

“And according to relevant circumstances, (the government) will gradually restore access to other Web sites and Internet services, and open up mobile text messages and international long-distance phone services,” the report said.

Uyghurs Can’t Phone Home

WASHINGTON—Six Uyghur ex-detainees from Guantanamo Bay and now living on a  remote Pacific island are upset they cannot phone their families in China.

In an interview with RFA the men said the Chinese Government has cut off most communication with their home in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang. It has been the site of recent unrest.

“We haven’t been able to talk to our family members yet,” Anwar Hasan said in a telephone interview from the Pacific island nation of Palau, where he was transferred with five other Uyghur men after spending nearly eight years behind bars.

The men who were released form US custody without charge said they were fleeing religious persecution in China when they were mistaken for extremists and picked up in Afghanistan.

Demolition Plan for Kashgar, on the silk road

Are demolition plans destined to improve safety or to eliminate a minority?

Should the Uyghur Guantanamo Detainees be allowed in the United States

A discussion on the New York Times.

Uyghurs: Police raid Uyghur houses in Gulja

Qiao Long reports today (translation by Chen Ping):

Police of Xinjiang’s Yining City recently conducted two raids in Alamutuya Village of Yengiyer Township, and found locations where the Uyghurs were allegedly hiding their guns. Seven people were detained.

An employee at the Village Committee in Alamutuya: The detained people belong to the fifth production brigade.

RFA: How many people were detained?

Villager: One from each family.

RFA: Han Chinese or Uyghur?

Villager: Uyghur.

China’s ‘other Tibetans,’ the Uyghurs, stage protests

Several hundred ethnic Uyghurs have staged protests in China’s remote and restive Xinjiang region following the death in custody of a prominent Uyghur businessman and philanthropist. Witnesses report protests at two locations in Khotan prefecture—in Khotan city March 23-24 and Qaraqash county March 23, RFA’s Uyghur service reports. Several hundred protesters were taken into custody, numerous sources said, and security remains tight.

Numerous sources said the demonstrations followed the death in custody of a wealthy Uyghur jade trader and philanthropist, Mutallip Hajim, 38. Police returned his body to relatives March 3 after two months in custody, saying he had died in hospital of heart trouble. According to an authoritative source, police instructed the family to bury him immediately and inform no one of his death.

Uyghurs: China’s anti-porn campaign in Xinjiang

UYGHUR: 100-Day Campaign against “Pornographic Publications” (03/17/08)
Reporter: Kurban Wali

RFA: Dear radio listeners, according to the Tangritagh News Web site of China, Mr. Li Yi, head of the propaganda committee of the Chinese Communist Party’s Xinjiang branch, held a teleconference in Urumqi today, March 17, to organize a 100-day campaign against pornography.

李屹在会议上作了重要讲话，他肯定了过去一年“扫黄打非”取得的成绩，并提出了2008年自治区“扫黄打非”工作总的要求是：高举中国特色社会主义伟大旗 帜，以邓小平理论和“三个代表”重要思想为指导，全面贯彻党的十七大精神，深入落实科学发展观，以打击政治性、宗教类非法出版物为重点，加强日常监管，开 展专项行动，打击侵权盗版行为，开展网上“扫黄打非”斗争，查处非法报刊制售活动，扫除淫秽色情等文化垃圾，全力维护国家安定、社会稳定和文化安全，为新 疆改革、发展、稳定营造良好的文化舆论环境。More here…

During the meeting, Li Yi recognized the achievements of last year’s anti-pornography campaign in Xinjiang, saying that the challenges for 2008 were to hold high the glorious banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and taking Deng Xiaoping thought and the “Three Represents” as a guide, to fully implement the spirit of the 17th Party Congress, to put fully into practice the principles of scientific development, and to concentrate efforts towards cracking down on illegal publications containing religious and political material.

Bao Tong: Talk to the Dalai Lama

Here is Bao Tong’s essay translated in full. Original Chinese as broadcast on RFA’s Mandarin service here.

Take harmony seriously; talk to the Dalai Lama
by Bao Tong

The Lhasa incident has caused massive grief for all the Tibetan people and all of China. Anyone who has ever been through a great historical tragedy will understand its significance. The Chinese government spokesman said the whole thing was orchestrated by the Dalai Lama — a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — from behind the scenes. However, as a reader from Europe put it: “Nobody here believes what the Chinese government says.”

Newsdesk: Uyghurs support Tibetan cause

Many remote areas of the Sichuan, Gansu, and Qinghai plateau are home to large Tibetan populations, many of whom are nomads. Tibet also has an internal border with China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, who also deeply resent Beijing’s rule. Here, their most prominent opponent of the Chinese regime, speaks out on Tibet for the first time:

The World Uyghur Congress condemns China’s use of military force against the peaceful Tibetan protesters in Lhasa and other provinces, and calls upon Chinese leaders to start constructive negotiations with His Holiness the Dalai Lama to seek a peaceful political solution to the problem.

China: Petitioner belief prompts pre-Olympic rush on capital

There is a saying among petitioners that if your problem cannot be solved before the Olympics, it will be even harder after the Games.

– Petitioner Liu Feiyue

The strength of this belief reminds me of the mythologies and stories told by other groups in a state of severe disempowerment, like street children. These stories are used like maps in a hostile terrain in which recognisable, ‘normal’ human meaning systems  (eg: children will be cared for; the judicial system will mostly apply the law) have completely broken down. I suppose I think this because from where I’m sitting, petitioners look equally unlikely to get what they are looking for on either side of the Olympics. The following is a digest of recent reporting on petitioners and blogger activists by RFA’s Mandarin service, translated by Chen Ping: