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Monthly Archives March 2009

Some Xinjiang News Updates

Posted by Porfiriy on March 25, 2009 under Xinjiang in the News

I’m just going to have to run through this since I’ve been pretty busy recently. Uighurbiz, an online forum and community for Uyghurs based in China, whose observations on racism in China figured prominently in [...]

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Sebastian Veg’s Review of "My Far West, Your East Turkistan"

Posted by Porfiriy on March 20, 2009 under Links

Unfortunately, the academic discussion of Uyghur issues inside of China is fettered by a closed environment which follows very narrow avenues of discussion and for the most part accepts only those conclusions which are in [...]

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Alright then, Xinjiang *is* that bad: A Place of Exile

Posted by Porfiriy on March 13, 2009 under History of Xinjiang , Xinjiang in the News

Alright then, so in the last post I talked about what I perceived to be a media blitz by Xinhua and its ilk to sort of compensate for Nur Bekri’s gloomy forecasting last Friday. Xinjiang, [...]

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“Hey, Xinjiang actually isn’t that bad!” Media Blitz

Posted by Porfiriy on March 12, 2009 under Xinjiang in the News

Last Friday, Nur Bekri delivered some grim words to reporters regarding security in Xinjiang, stating that the overall situation would be more “severe” in the coming months. His gloomy outlook got considerable international coverage, and [...]

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Man and Nature at Lake Aibi

Posted by Porfiriy on March 11, 2009 under Nature in Xinjiang

Tony Whitten, a wildlife biologist working with the World Bank, has produced two videos documenting some of the efforts a team of scientists and officials are taking to increase the size of Lake Aibi, a [...]

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A Rare Moment of Clarity at Xinjiang’s Department of Justice

Posted by Porfiriy on March 10, 2009 under Humor

The governmental organs responsible for dispensing justice in Xinjiang are not really known for their clarity – oftentimes, suspects are arrested and sentences passed without an even oblique public mention of either evidence or legal [...]

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Nur Bekri Again Identifies “Western Hostile Forces” as Enemy to Xinjiang Stability

Posted by Porfiriy on March 09, 2009 under Xinjiang in the News

Nur Bekri, Chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, while speaking with reporters this Friday again identified amorphous “Western hostile forces” as the immediate and most pressing threat to stability in Xinjiang. As I’ve observed [...]

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International Trade Plaza in Urumqi on Fire

Posted by Porfiriy on March 06, 2009 under Xinjiang in the News

So just one day after I claim, tongue firmly in cheek, that there is some sort of “fire” theme going on in Xinjiang – first, self-immolating Uyghurs in Beijing, then, a suicidal arsonist in Beitun, [...]

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Heartbroken Beitun Man Continues Fire Theme

Posted by Porfiriy on March 03, 2009 under Xinjiang in the News

We cover a region that seems to have a disproportionate amount stories involving fire or explosions (here, here, and here), including, most prominently, the Beijing self-immolators who appear to be Uyghurs (and thus have a [...]

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