Not China’s best week in the news

As if there weren’t enough negative articles about China this week, Human Rights Watch has released a devastating report on China’s organized persecution of the Uygurs in Xinjiang province.

China has stepped up a campaign of religious persecution against its minority Uighur population in the western region of Xinjiang even though the government has already eliminated any organized resistance to Beijing’s rule there, two leading human rights groups said in a joint report to be released Tuesday.

The groups, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China, quoted secret Communist Party and government documents as detailing a range of new policies that tighten controls on religious worship, assembly and artistic expression among Xinjiang’s eight million Turkic-speaking Muslims, including strict rules on teaching religion to minors.

China adopted some of the measures, the groups said, after it persuaded the Bush administration that a little known Uighur exile group, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, was responsible for terrorist acts and belonged on America’s list of leading terrorist threats. The groups said China has used isolated terrorist acts to justify a wholesale crackdown on its Uighur Muslim population.

“China is using the suppression of religion as a whip over Uighurs who challenge or even chafe at Chinese rule of Xinjiang,” Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “In other parts of China, individuals have a little more space to worship as they choose. But Uighur Muslims are facing state-ordered discrimination and crackdowns.”

What a shame. There was some important news out about China’s groundbreaking outreach to India, but it’s been totally eclipsed by the steady stream of negative stories.

The Discussion: 5 Comments

Just found these great photo galleries in ESWN.
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm

The several photo galleries about the demonstrations in different Chinese cities provide us with a fair and balanced views of what’s really going on about the protests. There was peace, there was chaos. Most of them seem to be in orderly, peaceful and non-violent fashion. Sadly, the MSM is more interested in showing the violent side of these protests.

April 11, 2005 @ 10:35 pm | Comment

it’s true, of course. yet, interesting to see how china and the US (or let’s rather say: the current chinese and american administrations respectively) join forces to cut back human rights not of religious but of muslim people in particular. as a non-religious, anti-ideologic humanist person one feels utterly helpless looking at all of this. and yes, probably it doesn’t even do the current social or political development in china any justice. mmh. sorry about all that, really.

April 12, 2005 @ 1:18 pm | Comment

It’s tragic. Bush’s so-called war on terrah has given China license to kill Moselms while the US sits silent. And Bush rants and raves about Freedom and Liberty. What a joke.

April 12, 2005 @ 1:51 pm | Comment

Kind of like when Roosevelt talked about defending freedom and went intoan alliance with Stalin, disgusting hypocrisy, except that it worked out in the end. What is that idiot supposed to do, say nothing because he can’t control what the Chinese government does in its own territory?

April 14, 2005 @ 11:25 am | Comment

Very nice site!

September 16, 2005 @ 2:02 pm | Comment

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