The New Dominion

This is The New Dominion’s (delayed) roundup of political news for 7-14 March 2007.

With the National People’s Congress in session, most of the news has been dominated by stories meant to reassure the people of Xinjiang that all is well: Xinjiang officials and academics have expressed their satisfaction with Premier Wen Jiabao’s plans to prevent inflation both in the goods and real estate markets.

More interesting is the transcription of a press conference held with “foreign” (largely Hong Kong) reporters by XUAR Party Secretary and Politburo Member Wang Lequan with XUAR Party Chairman Nur Bäkri at the Xinjiang Office in the Great Hall of the People on the afternoon of 10 March. Highlights: Wang Lequan, who does most of the talking, downplays separatist sentiment, referring to Rabiyä Qadir as a representative of the “Three (Evil) Forces”: terrorists, separatists, and extremists. Wang states that, in the course of the Ürümchi raid, the terrorists threw three grenades, injuring seven police. Wang states that the terrorist cell involved was funded by the supposed East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM, 东伊运). He also notes that, although arrests have been made in the bombing of a China Southern flight from Ürümchi to Lanzhou on 7 March, the motives and funding of the actors involved is not yet certain. The rest of the conference is rather uninteresting talk about the bold strides made in Xinjiang’s economic development, with regret for the slow exploitation of natural resources.

There has been some crime news. Two women, referred to in this (rather overdramatic) article as “Big and Little Guli”, were found to have cheated at least 10 individuals between April 2005 and September 2007, offering false university-entry credentials in exchange for money. Both “Gulis” were apprehended on 25 February and are awaiting trial; however, due to a lack of evidence, they may receive light penalties. (”Guli” (古丽) is the way many Uyghur women’s names are transliterated in Chinese: -gül “flower” is often attached to the end of younger women’s names, which are, thus, a bit too long to fit into the standard Han Chinese name paradigm. It seems a universal rule that such women are referred to in Chinese, not by the first parts of their names or even by their father’s names — or, lately, surnames — but simply as “Guli” for their entire lives. This leads many Han to believe that nearly every Uyghur woman is named “Guli”, and I’ve even heard minkaohan women introduce themselves as such. My point is, I think a reporter, or the “gumshoe” from whom she obtained her information, should have provided the suspects’ actual names.)

The Ürümchi city government has “taken the lead” in releasing a book of regulations regarding military personnel in the city. The regulations are meant to clarify and codify rules regarding the actions of military personnel and the system in which they work, as well as act as a reference for use in the resolution of conflicts involving the military.