The New Dominion

Welcome to the inaugural post of the New Dominion’s Xinjiang Roundup feature. This (hopefully) weekly post will aggregate news stories, blog posts, and other Xinjiang-related websites that appeared in the preceding seven days. This week, Xinjiang saw an exciting start to the basketball season, provincial participation in China’s exciting new Chang’E Lunar Orbiter project, cheating on college entrance exams, and much more, under the break.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 28 October 2007: Sayram Lake (location in Google Earth) of the Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture is to be designated as a National Wetlands Park. Bortala Prefecture has allocated 12 million yuan to set up a new Wetland Park Authority for Sayram Lake, which is Xinjiang’s highest and largest alpine lake. This move comes a few weeks after plans were announced to increase the size of Kanas Geological Park to 9000 square kilometers, and seems to reflect a growing publicity drive to demonstrate conservation efforts in Northern Xinjiang.
• 28 October 2007: Xinjiang’s contribution to China’s latest space endeavor comes to pass as an Urumqi-based Astronomical Station synchronizes with 3 other stations across China in tracking the recently launched Chang’e 1 Moon Orbiter.
• 29 October 2007: Basketball season starts for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers. Grab yourself a Wusu Beer (the Flying Tiger’s corporate sponsor) and enjoy the games.
• 29 October 2007: Urumqi hospitals report the number of hospitalized influenza cases increased by 30% in the previous week. Winter weather’s rapid arrival to the city along with hospital overcrowding are the alleged culprits for this increase. Efforts are being taken to control the spread of the flu.
• 29 October 2007: The Flying Tigers beat Shaanxi’s Divine Force team (any better suggestions for 天力) 115 - 101 at home, bringing their season record to 1 - 0.
• 31 October 2007: International non-profit charity organization “The Smile Train” comes to Xinjiang and provides 4000 free cleft-lip removal operations for children. Cleft lips often arise from complications during pregnancy and occur often in low-income areas with poor sanitation. The Xinhua article notes that The Smile Train was cofounded by a Chinese American, Charles Wang. (Ironically, it appears that The Smile Train’s website is blocked in China)
• 31 October 2007: Winter has clearly arrived in Xinjiang as northern cities like Altay City begin their yearly ritual of battling the snow in the mountain passes to avoid being cut off from the rest of the mainland.
• 31 October 2007: To mark the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Germany and the PRC, a “Xinjiang Silk Road Cultural Artifacts Exhibit” has been opened at Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum.
• 1 November 2007: The State Administration for Industry and Commerce has approved Xinjiang University’s™ bid to register the phrase “Xinjiang University™ (新疆大学™)” in Chinese, English, Uyghur, and Pinyin, as its trademark. This move apparently comes in a response to a number of computer companies, private schools, hospitals, and even canteens using the phrase Xinjiang University™ to boost their image.
• 1 November 2007: The Flying Tigers beat the Jilin Siberian Tigers 108-95 at home, bringing their season record to 2 - 0.
• 2 November 2007: The recently concluded “Autonomous Region Science and Technology Workers Situation and Needs Survey” reveals that although Xinjiang has far more science and technology workers than the national average, there is a lack of highly skilled and highly educated workers; in essence, a quantity over quality situation. The rather vague term “Science and Technology Personnel” encompasses scientific researchers, engineers, personnel dealing with the natural sciences, health and sanitation researchers, and agricultural technologists. This unique situation was explained primarily through the relative youth of most of the workers, 70% of which were under 40.
• 3 November 2007: XUAR’s student enrollment office is investigating 76 cases of fraud for this year’s college entrance exam. 34 students have been cited for violating testing regulations and the remaining 42 have been accused of cheating. Modern technology apparently reveals one of its more innovative uses during these tests, as 32 of these cases involve attempted cell phone cheating via text messages. On the bright side: these numbers are lower than last year’s.
• 3 November 2007: The Flying Tigers beat the Liaoning Panpans 103 - 97 at home, bringing their season record to 3 - 0. Under the leadership of former NBA player Mengke Bateer, the Flying Tigers are currently ranked 3rd in the CBA. ·飞虎加油¡

Other News

• 1 November 2007, China Daily English Edition: The second highway across the Taklamakan Desert from Aral in the north to Khotan in the south was opened to the public last Thursday.
• 3 November 2007, China View (Xinhua English Edition): Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Uzbek President Islam Karimov met in Tashkent on November 2. The leaders expressed gratitude over cooperation on economic, trade, energy, and security issues.

Blogs

• 2 November 2007: MC Master Chef at American Footprints discusses a paper by the Joint Forces Quarterly on the CCP’s policies in Xinjiang.
• 3 November 2007: Michael Manning of The Opposite End of China unearths more 30s-era Xinjiang history from the New York Times archives, paving the way for his upcoming special feature on the man who would be king of Islamistan.