A weekend of violence in China’s far western Xinjiang region has left at least 18 people dead in the ancient city of Kashgar, state-controlled media reported Sunday. It was the second major episode of violence in the last several weeks in an area racked by ethnic tensions ….

Details of the latest bloodshed, limited to conflicting reports from the state media, were sketchy and could not be independently confirmed. Xinhua said that the violence in Kashgar broke out shortly before midnight on Saturday, about an hour after residents heard two explosions, one inside a minivan and the other along a popular street lined with food stalls. The reports quoted police officials as saying that two men later hijacked a truck, stabbed its driver to death and drove the vehicle to the street of food stalls, where they attacked people with knives.

According to local residents, “the city appeared calm and that traffic was flowing normally” on Sunday evening. The Washington Post, however, reported that a curfew was enforced later on:

Residents in telephone interviews and in postings on popular microblogging sites — which have become an alternative news source in China — reported Kashgar was under a strict curfew Sunday night. One resident posted on a microblog that armored vehicles had been dispatched to the area and people were remaining indoors. Some posted photos on their microblogging Weibo accounts.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the German-based World Uigher Congress, said that from his information, “a curfew was imposed on the whole city of Kashgar, and more than 100 Uighers were detained. The incident is unbelievable, but we have to face it.”

Local authorities claim that the attacks originate from training camps in Pakistan, according to Xinhua:

The initial probe found that the group’s leaders had learned how to make explosives and firearms in overseas camps of the terrorist group “East Turkistan Islamic Movement” (ETIM) in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang to organize terrorist activities, the government of Kashgar City said in an online statement ….

Pan Zhiping, a researcher with the Central Asia Studies Institute under the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, called the ETIM “the most violent and dangerous” among the “East Turkistan” separatist forces. He said the organization is based somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The ETIM traditionally trains its members for suicide bombings and car bombings before sending them to Xinjiang. But today more are using the Internet to penetrate the border to spread bomb-making techniques, Pan and other long-time Xinjiang observers said.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: explosions, kashgar, Pakistan, terrorism, Uighers, violence, Xinjiang, Xinjiang violence
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The following is a list of terms that are prohibited for use in Xinhua News Agency news reports. The list was first published in 2008.

Terms prohibited in news reports (first group)

1. Prohibited societal and daily life terms

A. Terms prohibited for people with disabilities include “lame,” “cyclops,” “a blind,” “a deaf,” “idiot,” “fool,” “retarded,” and other derogatory titles. Instead use “disabled person,” “blind person,” “deaf person,” “intellectually challenged person,” and other such terms.

B. When reporting the fact, especially when reporting on products and commercial products, don’t use “optimum,” “the best,” “the most famous,” or other strongly judgmental or colorful terms.

C. Reports on medicine cannot contain “the most effective treatment,” “complete cure,” “safe prevention,” “safe and without side effects,” and other such terms. Reports on medical products cannot contain “thoroughly eliminate the illness,” “money back guarantee,” “insurance company insured,” “the latest technology,” “the best technology,” “the most advanced method,” “the king of medicine,” “the country’s newest medicine,” and other such terms.

D. For artistic personalities, do not use “king of the screen,” “movie queen,” “super star,” “king,” or other such terms.

E. For reports on the activities of leaders and cadres of any level, do not use “personally” or other such adjectives.

F. As the national news agency, Xinhua News Agency reports should not use “wow,” “damn,” and other such slang, jargon or dirty language. If using this language in a quote is unavoidable, use bracketed annotation to express the intended meaning. The abbreviations of dirty language that have been used online in recent years, such as “SB,” TMD,” and “NB,” cannot be used in news reports.

2. Prohibited legal terms

A. The true identity of those involved in the following situations are not suitable to be revealed in news reports: (1) the family members of those suspected of a crime; (2) minors involved in cases; (3) the wives and children of those involved in a case, (4) those who have used artificial insemination and other forms of assisted childbirth; (5) those suffering from severe contagious diseases; (6) those suffering from mental illness; (7) those who have been violently forced to work in the sex trade; (8) those suffering from AIDS; (9) those with drug-use history or those who were forced to quit using drugs. When these people are involved in these situations, the news report can use a surname but add “mou” (so-and-so) in place of the person’s given name. For example “Zhang Mou” or “Li Mou.” It is not suitable to use a fake name.

B. For parties involved in criminal cases, before the court has read a guilty verdict, do not use “criminal.” Instead use “criminal suspect.”

C. In civil and administrative cases, the plaintiff’s and defendant’s legal standings are the same. The plaintiff can sue the defendant and the defendant can counter-sue the plaintiff. Do not use colorful sentences such as “So-and-so has been placed in the dock.”

D. Do not use sentences such as “Party committee so-and-so has decided to dismiss or expel Cadre so-and-so from the government.” Use “Party committee so-and-so has recommended the dismissal or expulsion of Cadre so-and-so from the government.”

E. Do not abbreviate “National People’s Congress Standing Committee Vice-Chairman” as “National People’s Congress Vice-Chairman.” Do not abbreviate “Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee Vice-Director” as “Provincial People’s Congress Vice-Chairman.” Do not refer to any level of People’s Congress Standing Committee members as the “People’s Congress Standing Committee.”

F. Abbreviate “Village Committee Director” as “village director.” Do not refer to them as “village head.” Do not refer to village cadres as “village officials.”

G. When referring to a “thief” or a “rapist” in a news report, do not use societal standing to embellish the reference. For example: “A thief who was once a worker.” Do not write “worker thief.” For a professor involved in a case, do not write “a criminal professor.”

H. The head deputy executive of the Audit Department in the State Council should be referred to as the “audit chief” or “vice-audit chief.” Do not refer to the position as “department chief” or “vice-department chief.”

3. Prohibited terms relating to ethnicity and religion

A. For all ethnicities, do not use any out-dated names that have offensive connotations. Do not use “Huihui” [an offensive term for the Hui ethnicity], “Manzi” [an offensive term for southern Chinese meaning barbarian], or other such terms. Do not make wanton abbreviations. For example, the “Menggu Ethnicity” [Mongolian Ethnicity] should not be abbreviated as the “Meng Ethnicity.” The “Weiwuer Ethnicity” [Uighurs] should not be abbreviated as the “Wei Ethnicity.” The “Hasaike Ethnicity” [Kazakh] should not be abbreviated as the “Hasai Ethnicity,” and so on.

B. Colloquial and specialized terms that offensively reference ethnicity are prohibited. Do not use “Mongolian doctor” in reference to a “quack doctor.” Do not use “Mongolian person” in reference to “persons with Down Syndrome,” and so on.

C. Do not refer to minority ethnicity branches and tribes as ethnic groups. Refer to them only as peoples of a branch or tribe. For example, the “Moso People, the “Sani People,” the “Chuanqing People, the “Cheng People.” Do not refer to them as the “Moso Ethnicity,” the “Sani Ethnicity,” the “Chuanqing Ethnicity,” the “Cheng Ethnicity,” and so on.

D. Do not convolute modern ethnic titles with those from ancient times. For example, do not refer to “Goguryeo” [an ancient Korean kingdom that included much of northeastern China] as “Korea.” Do not refer to the “Kazakh Ethnicity” or the “Uzbek Ethnicity” as the “Turkic Ethnicity” or the “Turkic People.”

E. Muslim is a general term for followers of Islam. Do not lump ethnicity and religion together as one. Do not say “The Hui Ethnicity is Islam,” or “Islam is the Hui Ethnicity.” When the term “Arab” is used in a news report, it cannot be replaced with “Muslim.”

F. In a story concerning ethnicities of the Islamic faith, do not mention “Pork.”

G. The Muslim slaughter of cattle, sheep and poultry can only be called “slaughter.” Do not write “kill.”

4. Prohibited terms concerning our territory, sovereignty, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau

A. Hong Kong and Macau are China’s Special Administrative Regions. Taiwan is one of China’s provinces. In any written word, on any map or chart, careful attention must be paid to not refer to it as a “country.” This is especially the case when many countries or regions are listed consecutively. Extreme attention must be given to slipping any semblance of the words “country or region” here.

B. When it is impossible to avoid referring to Taiwan’s political system and other organizations, quotations should be used. For example, Taiwan’s “Legislative Yuan,” “Executive Yuan,” “Control Yuan,” “Elections Committee,” “Executive Yuan’s Comptroller,” and so on. The appearance of “Central Government,” “National,” “Chinese Taipei,” in written word is prohibited, but in unavoidable instances, add quotations, such as in Taiwan’s “Central Bank,” and so on. Taiwan’s “Legislative Yuan Chief,” “Legislative Committee members,” and so on, must all be in quotation marks. Taiwan’s “Qinghua University” and “Imperial Palace Museum” must be in quotations. The use of “Republic of China President (Vice-President)” and other titles for Taiwanese officials are strictly forbidden, even with the use of quotation marks.

C. For the so-called laws administered by Taiwan, these should be called the “regulations concerning the region of Taiwan.” For Taiwanese legal affairs, never use “official validation,” “judiciary assistance,” “extradition,” or any other international legal terms.

D. The two shores of the Taiwan Straits and Hong Kong cannot be referred to as “two shores, three regions.”

E. Do not say “tourists from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan come to China for travel.” Instead say “tourists from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan come to the mainland (or inland) for travel.”

F. “Taiwan” and “the fatherland/ the mainland” are corresponding concepts. “Hong Kong and Macau” and “inland” are corresponding concepts. Do not confuse them.

G. Do not reference Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau together with a reference to China. For example, “China-Hong Kong,” “China-Taiwan” or “China-Macau.” Use “Inland and Hong Kong,” “mainland and Taiwan,” or “Beijing-Hong Kong,” “Shanghai-Hong Kong,” “Fujian-Taiwan,” and so on.

H. “The independence of Taiwan” or “Taiwanese independence” must be used with quotation marks.

I. Some of Taiwan’s societal organizations such as “China Taoist Culture Alliance,” “China Promotional Committee for Cross-Straits Marriage,” and others using “China,” must be used with quotation marks.

J. Taiwan cannot be called Formosa. If it must be used in a quotation, quotation makes must be used.

K. The Nansha Archipelago cannot be called the “Spratly Islands.”

L. Diaoyu Island cannot be called the “Senkaku Islands.”

M. References to Xinjiang as “Eastern Turkestan” are strictly prohibited.

5. Prohibited terms concerning international relations

A. Do not use North Korea to refer to the Democratic People’s Republic of Choson. It can be abbreviated as “Choson.” English references should be “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” or the DPRK.

B. Membership of some international organizations includes some countries, as well as regions. In reference to this kind of organization, do not use “member country.” Instead use “member” or “member party.” For example, do not use “World Trade Organization member country” or “Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation member country.” Instead use “World Trade Organization member” or “Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation member party.”

C. Do not use “Muslim Country” or “Muslim World.” Instead use “Islamic Country” or “Islamic World.”

D. When reporting on Darfur, do not use “Arab militia.” Instead use “armed militia” or “tribal militia.”

E. When reporting on societal crimes and armed attacks, normally do not deliberately reveal the suspected assailant’s skin color, race or gender characteristics. For example, avoid references such as “black ruffian.” Simply use the term “ruffian.”

F. In public reports, do not use the terms “Islamic fundamentalism” or “Islamic fundamentalist.” “Religious radicalism (radical sect, radical group)” can be used as a replacement. When the use of such terms are unavoidable, use “Islamic radical group” but do not use “radical Islamic group.”

G. Do not use “crusader” or other such terms.

H. In hostage reports, do not use “behead.” Use neutral language such as “The hostage died of decapitation.”

I. In reports on casualties in international wars, do not use terms such as “shot dead.” “Kill” and other such terms can be used.

J. Do not refer to sub-Saharan Africa as “Black Africa.” Instead call it “sub-Saharan Africa.”

© Don Weinland for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diaoyu islands, Eastern Turkistan, Ministry of Truth, Taiwan, Uighers, Xinhua
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CHINA has begun sentencing 20 more ethnic Uighurs – some to death – for their part in riots which left 197 people dead in the remote western city of Urumqi on July 5, as the second batch of trials of more than 1200 people arrested as a result of the carnage began today, with at least one man sent for execution.

In early December five people were sentenced to death and a further eight given prison terms, bringing to 17 sent to be executed in trials of the first two groups of people from the bloody unrest. Nine have been executed so far.

The province of Xinjiang, of which Urumqi is the capital, remains locked down with internet, text messaging and international phone access cut off.

The Australian has learned that three new trials were held today with other accused expected to be given their final sentences in coming days.

© Liu Yong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Uighers, Xinjiang protests 2009
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When the local government in Xinjiang province dispatched more than 800 Uighur workers to a toy factory here in May, they couldn’t have predicted their fate would blow up into a national crisis. Today, police say two of the Uighur workers were killed and scores more injured in the June 26 events that ignited a firestorm of protest in restive Xinjiang. More mysteriously, some 700 of the original Uighur workers of Shaoguan’s massive electronic toy factory are being held out of sight behind locked gates roughly 10 miles away in an abandoned factory. Their plight, and the lack of quick police action on the initial murders, sparked mass protests and killings on July 5 in the Urumqi, adding the latest cracks in China’s façade of ethnic harmony.

“The Uighurs are like wild men,” said Li Xiaoming, a factory worker from Sichuan province. “They carry knives and steal things, they never do what the bosses tell them.” His comment is par for the course among Han Chinese factory workers and locals across the manufacturing region. Most Han migrant workers in these parts, with little exposure to the outside world themselves, appear to have deep-rooted bias about Uighurs and what they might do. They appreciate the Uighurs’ dancing and food, but don’t trust them. “I think it’s possible they raped a girl,” said one factory worker outside an Internet café. “They made people nervous. They didn’t speak Chinese.”

Read the full article on the Far Eastern Economics Review. 

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: shaoguan, Uighers, Xinjiang, Xinjiang violence
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Another tried-and-true technique follows the script used in Tibet: Beijing has blamed exiled businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer for the violence. Kadeer, who heads a Washington-based confederation of exile organizations scattered through the U.S., Germany, Britain, and Australia, denies involvement. The provincial government has said “violence … was instigated and directed from abroad, and carried out by outlaws in the country.” Similar florid language was applied to the Dalai Lama after the Lhasa riots; he was described as a “jackal in monk’s robes.” The official media “is very unified,” says Xiao. “They all point to Rebiya Kadeer, they all have the same narrative, there’s no independent reporting—it’s a very highly controlled version of the story.”

A final piece of spin targets the Uighur population directly and hints that the CCP feels it needs to address Uighur grievances. The Urumqi riot began when Uighur factory workers thousands of miles away in Guangdong province were falsely accused of raping Han women by a disgruntled former workmate. A fight broke out, killing two Uighurs and injuring more than 100. Since Urumqi’s protest erupted, the government’s Uighur-language TV channel has carried a statement from Xinjiang provincial government chairman Nur Bekri promising “strenuous efforts” to investigate the killings in Guangdong. On Tuesday, Xinhua also reported 13 arrests over the false allegations. This attempt at redress segments the message. Awareness of local grievances is aired on regional TV in the Uighur language, while the wider message of Uighur thuggery plays to a receptive national audience. Prejudice against Uighurs often portrays them as violent criminals. “There’s this stereotype of Uighurs, that they’re thieves or … involved in the drug trade,” says Prof. Barry Sautman, a specialist on China’s ethnic policies at Hong Kong’s Science and Technology University.

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: external propaganda, Uighers, Xiao Qiang, Xinjiang protests 2009
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As Muslim Uighurs rampaged through the streets of this western provincial capital on Sunday, Zhang Aiying rushed home and stashed her fruit cart away, safe from the mob. But there was no sign of her son, who ventured out amid the ruckus to retrieve another of the family’s carts.

“Call him on his cellphone,” Ms. Zhang, 46, recalled shouting to another relative. “Tell him we want him home. We don’t need him to go back.”

Her son, Lu Huakun, did not answer the call. Three hours later, after the screaming and pleading had died down, Ms. Zhang went in search of him. A dozen bodies were strewn about. She found her son, his head covered with blood, his left arm nearly severed into three pieces.

The killing of Mr. Lu, 25, was a ruinous end to the journey of a family that had fled their poor farming village in central China more than a decade ago to forge a new life here in China’s remote desert region.

Mr. Lu and his parents are typical of the many Han migrants who, at the encouragement of the Chinese government, have settled among the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking race that is the largest ethnic group in oil-rich Xinjiang Province. The influx of Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, has transformed Xinjiang: the percentage of Han in the population was 40 percent in 2000, up from 6 percent in 1949.

“We wanted to do business,” Lu Sifeng, 47, the father, said Tuesday, his eyes glistening with tears as he sat smoking on his bed. “There was a calling by the government to develop the west. This place would be nothing without the Han.”

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: muslim, Uighers, Xinjiang, Xinjiang protests 2009
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Born in the northwestern Chinese city of Lanzhou to a Uyghur father and an ethnic minority Hui Muslim mother, Babur later moved to Hotan in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), now China’s northwesternmost province.

He entered Sweden as a political refugee in the late 1990s and became a Swedish citizen in 2002.

The chief prosecutor in the case, Tomas Lindstrand, told local media Babur was suspected on reasonable grounds of unlawful espionage from January 2008-June 2009, with activities both in Sweden and overseas.

Swedish authorities allege that Mehsut was spying on the Uigher community in Sweden, and the Swedish government has expelled a Chinese diplomat in Sweden.  China has responded by expelling a Swedish diplomat from China.

See also past CDT posts on the Uighers.

© cschultz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Babur Mehsut, espionage, Sweden, Uighers
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The Muslims, members of the Uighur minority from China’s Xinjiang region, have been held without charge at Guantanamo Bay for more than seven years despite their military jailers’ concession years ago that they posed no threat to the United States.

[...]

“This is now President Obama’s Guantanamo. If he is truly committed to closing the detention center, these men should be on a plane to restart their lives in the United States,” said Emi MacLean, a staff attorney at the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

Obama in January ordered the review of all 240 prisoners still at Guantanamo, where nearly 800 have been brought since the Bush administration began detaining terrorist suspects abroad after the Sept. 11 attacks.

© Japhet Weeks for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Barack Obama, guantanamo bay, muslims, Uighers
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