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Thread: China's Far West provinces (inc. Tibet)

  1. #101
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Deploy the 'mass line'

    Thanks to a "lurker" for recommending this long explanation by the Jamestown Foundation on internal Chinese Communist Party policies and personalities in Xinjiang:http://slink.eu/vX

    What is the mass line?
    Official statements describe the mass line as a symbiosis between the party and the people in which local cadres ostensibly are better attuned to public needs and expectations.
    Which concludes:
    The appointment of Yu Zhengsheng as head of China’s Xinjiang Leading Small Group indicates a willingness to explore alternative solutions to the problem in Xinjiang. The fact that both of the party’s new initiatives in Xinjiang—the mass line and accelerated economic development— are drawn from existing Party orthodoxy raises doubts over how the far the center ultimately is willing to go. One Uyghur dissident recently dismissed Yu’s appointment in Xinjiang as “old wine in a new bottle” (Voice of America, May 31). The extent of the shift from a top-down focus on security to one rooted in the mass line will be become clearer as Yu’s tenure progresses.
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  2. #102
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Change is dangerous, so is staying still

    A broad, short review and clearly China has some issues:
    In fact, given that it increasingly seems as though incidents in Xinjiang are not the product of external direction, but rather internal anger, one could say that the problems are getting more intense..... reconnecting Xinjiang and opening up the province in every way to enable it to prosper once again.....If Beijing really wants this policy to work, then it will need greater nuance and focus to transform it from a money-driven theory to one that better reflects local realities.
    Link:http://thediplomat.com/china-power/t...ilk-road-belt/
    davidbfpo

  3. #103
    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
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    One of China's creepier policies in the Tibetan Autonomous Region is a 2011 initiative known as the "nine haves." Some of the nine are about development ("to have roads, to have water, to have electricity"), but one is less about helping Tibetans and more about entrenching Beijing's control in a region that doesn't seem to want it: "to have a national flag." Every house and monastery building would be required to fly the crimson, five-starred flag of China. (Monasteries are also required to display portraits of Chinese leaders.) It was to be a show of submission to Chinese rule and a continuation of Tibet's slow cultural dilution.

    The rural Tibetan county of Driru, though, has defied the rule, with villagers refusing to fly the flag. On Sept. 27, Chinese authorities responded by sending in "thousands" of Chinese troops to force up the flags, according to Tibetan exile outlets and Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government-backed outlet that's among the few foreign media organizations regularly reporting on Tibet. Now, a week later, Chinese flags are still not flying.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...-chinese-flag/
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


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  4. #104
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Beijing: a terrorist attack

    It now appears the jeep on fire beneath Mao's picture in Tiananmen Square, on Monday, is being blamed on Uighurs from Xinjiang - a man, a woman and his mother:http://news.yahoo.com/uighur-group-f...031852215.html

    There is now a thread '10/28 Tiananmen Square: China's 9/11?' to discuss the incidemt.
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 10-30-2013 at 03:35 PM.
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  5. #105
    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
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    BEIJING (AP) — Chinese state media say 16 people were killed when assailants attacked a police station in the restive western region of Xinjiang.

    The region's official news portal Tianshan Net reported Monday that knife-wielding assailants hurled explosive devices at a police station in Shufu county of Kashgar prefecture.

    Tianshan Net says two police officers died in the attack while 14 attackers were shot and killed. Another two assailants were arrested.
    http://hosted2.ap.org/SCCHA/fda55d29...6a231de7c1992b
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


    http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg

  6. #106
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    A short overview of events by Raffaello Pantucci:http://raffaellopantucci.com/2014/01...inese-protest/
    davidbfpo

  7. #107
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    Default Dead in the mountains

    Strange incident in a rather remote setting:
    A violent encounter on January 23 between Kyrgyz border troops and alleged intruders from China’s Xinjiang province about 40 kilometers inside Kyrgyz Republic territory from the Chinese border left twelve dead, including one Kyrgyz citizen who had originally confronted the group.
    Two reports:http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67972 and http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/xinji...in-kyrgyzstan/
    davidbfpo

  8. #108
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    A powerful earthquake struck a sparsely populated area of China's far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday, damaging some houses, though no casualties were reported.

    The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.9 quake was centered 268 kilometers (167 miles) east-southeast of Hotan at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the quake at magnitude 7.3 and said at least 20 smaller aftershocks ensued over the following two hours.
    http://abcnews.go.com/International/...clear-22475243
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


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  9. #109
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default This time within Xinjiang

    Another incident today in Xinjiang, with eleven "terrorists" shot dead by the police and three killed by their own IEDs:
    The terrorists, riding motorbikes and cars, attacked a team of police who were gathering before the gate of a park for routine patrol at around 4 p.m. in Wushi County in the Aksu Prefecture," Xinhua said in an English-language report.

    "Police said the terrorists had (an) unknown number of LNG cylinders in their car which they had attempted to use as suicide bombs. Several terrorists were shot dead at the scene," it added.

    Eight were killed by police and three died "by their own suicide bomb", Xinhua said.

    Wushi lies close to China's border with Kyrgyzstan. Last month the Kyrgyz government said its border guards had killed 11 people believed to be members of a militant group of Uighurs.
    Link:http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A1D0IE20140214
    davidbfpo

  10. #110
    Council Member Firn's Avatar
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    I think the core issues have already been mentioned in the first two pages in this thread by tequila and ja6345a. The Chinese leadership has employed massive amounts of investments to ease access to the regions population and ressources and settle Han Chinese in it's cities to assimilate and control the locals. Armed violence against such rather overt policies should not be surprising.

    Let's just look at the public investement per capita and it's relative share compared to the private sector. We have no good numbers but all what I have read indicates that public pie dwarfes even the Chinese national one. Practically almost all the economy is controlled by the state and to a lesser degree private Han Chinese. It should be no surprise as the locals will have a very low chance to get a credit or work. Almost all the public jobs seem to be occupied by Han Chinese. I would not surprise me if both regions had one of the highest amount of security forces per capita, needless to say mostly Han.

    Altstadtgassen weichen geraden Straen die lassen sich besser berwachen

    Die Beamten eilen durch die Altstadt, Grtel auf Bauchnabelhhe, Lederschuhe im Staub. Sie sind gekommen, den Abriss zu besichtigen. Einer der Beamten hebt, zwischen Ruinen stehend, zu einer Rede an: "Das Abrisstempo ist hoch, doch es muss noch hher werden. Je schneller wir abreien, desto besser." Der Beamte betet Zahlen herunter: abgerissene Huser, im Abriss befindliche Huser, abzureiende Huser. "Unser Tempo und unsere Begeisterung sind gewachsen. Wir werden den Plan erfllen!"
    If you read such an other stuff you can only get the impression that the Chinese are vastly overinvesting to create work for Han. Some of it might even have some sense in it's own sake, but it mostly points one way.

    The Han inflow is especially large if we take into account that the huge migration flow of the last decades went to the coastal regions, for obvious reason. There is hardly any private sector with attractive jobs in the far West, as the labour-intensive industries are far from any cluster and face large transport costs compared to their competitors in the East. With the often razor-thin margins in that sort of business they are just priced out of the market. Knowledge-intensive industries are obviously completely out of question. Only the big subventions or threats it is possible to get big companies to invest there. I'm a shareholder of VW and followed it's strategy in China:

    "Wenn man irgendwo als erster produziert, muss man sich vielen Herausforderungen stellen", sagte der Sprecher. Bislang seien das Presswerk und die Lackiererei noch nicht fertig. Die Provinzregierung kmmere sich um die Logistik. VW habe auch in anderen Regionen Chinas eine Vorreiterrolle bernommen, und in wenigen Jahren werde auch niemand mehr an dem Werk in Westchina zweifeln.

    Die "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" hatte berichtet, VW habe Schwierigkeiten in Xinjiang offenbar unterschtzt und auf Probleme bei Lieferanten, Personal und Logistik verwiesen.

    Chinas Regierung ruft seit einigen Jahren chinesische und auslndische Firmen auf, sich strker im Westen des Landes zu engagieren. Das von der muslimischen Minderheit der Uiguren bewohnte Xinjiang gilt seit Langem als Unruhegebiet. In den vergangenen Monaten gab es wieder blutige Zwischenflle. Die chinesische Regierung wirft uigurischen Gruppen separatistische Bestrebungen und Terrorakte vor. Das Turkvolk fhlt sich durch die chinesische Fremdherrschaft politisch, religis und auch wirtschaftlich unterdrckt.
    Clearly the company man does his job and talks how attractive it is but it is pretty much a small plant to show good will. I would love to see the flow of parts, I'm sure most comes in a highly efficient manner from high-quality regional suppliers.
    Last edited by Firn; 02-15-2014 at 06:47 PM.
    ... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

    General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
    Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935

  11. #111
    Council Member Firn's Avatar
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    Just 15 minutes in Google Earth show the sheer pace and scale of construction in Xinjiang. Follow the G3012 from Urumqui south to Bayingol and you will be amazed. In this isolated part of the world quarters after quarters get built, some in old DDR style, some in pseudo-native fashion. In many cases you can see the whole process in one picture as forty or so buildings are at the various stages. The difference in size between the historic quarters with one-two store houses and the modern ones with multi-store buildings is sometimes huge.

    Of course there vast windfarms and new coal powerplants getting build. Lots of road building and some plants as well as activities I do not understand. Little traffic on the broad G3012 which is also ver well protected against the harsh environment east of Hoxud. Look at all the cement which went into those protective triangles of walls. It gets even better, there seems to be a second autobahn getting build nearby. It starts from Hoxud, runs towards the east alongside the G3012 and then turns north-east with two big tunnel projects cutting through considerable hills.

    I will measure them later. It was a fun ride.
    ... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

    General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
    Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935

  12. #112
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    The attack @ Kunming train station is on the thread

    This short Open Democracy article provides some context:
    The recent attacks on Kunming train station represent a watershed moment in China-Uyghur relations, as Uyghurs across China face widespread recriminations.
    The author, who appears to have been in China, is:
    Liam Powers received his PhD in Chinese studies, his research focuses on Uyghur youth identities.
    Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...kunming-attack
    davidbfpo

  13. #113
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    Default Islam and instability in China’s Xinjiang

    A Norwegian Peacekeeping Research Centre has published a short analysis:
    ....a number of accounts from academic and non-Chinese media sources, as well as human rights organisations, have questioned the official explanation of many such incidents. Critics accuse the government of lacking transparency and failing to offer reliable evidence, and claim that it is failing to acknowledge the widespread and diverse grievances of people in Xinjiang. This report aims to reconcile these different narratives of dissent in a region of growing significance for China’s economy and energy security.
    Link:http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezfl...93a481eb96.pdf
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  14. #114
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    Default Knives and bombs @ Urumqi's south railway station

    A thin BBC report:
    A bomb and knife attack at a railway station in China's western Xinjiang region has killed three and injured 79 others, officials and state media say.The attackers used explosives and knives at Urumqi's south railway station on Wednesday, officials said.
    Note the attack was a day before a public event:
    The station was scheduled to launch three new intercity railway lines linking Urumqi with three other cities in Xinjiang on Thursday, Xinhua said.
    Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-27225308
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  15. #115
    Council Member AdamG's Avatar
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    The Diplomat aggregates some news reports
    http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/explo...iangs-capital/
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


    http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg

  16. #116
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    (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry has reacted angrily to U.S. criticism of the level of cooperation from Beijing on fighting terrorism, after an apparent suicide bombing in the country's far west pointed to a possible escalation of unrest there.

    The Chinese government has blamed religious extremists for carrying out a bomb and knife attack at a train station in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, on Wednesday evening that killed one bystander and wounded 79.

    Security was heavy on Friday in Urumqi, scene of deadly riots five years ago between Muslim Uighurs and ethnic Han Chinese in which almost 200 were killed.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A4102L20140502
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


    http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg

  17. #117
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    The assailants set off more fiery blasts, and all together 43 people were killed and more than 90 wounded in Thursday's attack, the latest — and bloodiest — violence in China's far northwestern Xinjiang region in recent months.

    A day after the attack in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi, survivors told of their terror and said they no longer feel insulated from a long-simmering insurgency against Chinese rule, which has struck their city twice in recent weeks.
    Local authorities said police have identified five suspects — four people who died in the attack and another who was caught Thursday — the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said all five had "long been influenced by the religious extremism."

    Chinese authorities have blamed most recent attacks on radical separatists from the country's Muslim Uighur minority.
    http://news.yahoo.com/survivors-tell...050242096.html
    A scrimmage in a Border Station
    A canter down some dark defile
    Two thousand pounds of education
    Drops to a ten-rupee jezail


    http://i.imgur.com/IPT1uLH.jpg

  18. #118
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Crackdown requires 'unconventional measures' after deadly attacks

    Police in China's troubled north-west region of Xinjiang have broken up 23 terror or extremist groups and detained more than 200 suspected militants in the last month, state media have reported. The news came as authorities said a year-long anti-terrorism crackdown would require "unconventional measures", and the region's party chief, Zhang Chunxian, announced a "people's war" against terrorism, following one of the most deadly attacks in years.
    Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...rism-crackdown

    Some indication of the problems faced:
    Those seized in this month's raids were captured in Hotan, Kashgar and Aksu – all in southern Xinjiang – according to state news agency Xinhua. The state-run Global Times newspaper said most were apprehended on Sunday.

    "Many of the suspects were in their 20s and 30s, who watched terror video and audio through the internet and electric storages and learned how to make explosives. They exchanged their experiences of making explosives and propagating jihad through chatting tools, text messages and illegal preaching sites, according to the department," said Xinhua, adding that more than 200 explosive devices were found.
    davidbfpo

  19. #119
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default What a Tashkurgan?

    A first-hand report from the Chinese county near to the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan:http://chinaincentralasia.com/2014/0...of-potentials/
    davidbfpo

  20. #120
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    Default How do 1.4bn people live with a 10m minority?

    A reflective BBC report from Kunming, where in march 2014 a knife-wielding group of Uighurs attacked the central railway station, which left 29 people dead and more than 100 others wounded:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-28305109

    Not much sign of the state response being POP centric. As one observer asks:
    How do you, within a country of 1.4bn people, accommodate a minority community of 10 million people?
    davidbfpo

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