Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

What is unusual, however, is a Uyghur being among the petitioners bearing complaints. Not that the Uyghurs have no complaints; rather, my guess is that many rural Uyghurs who have such complaints are intimidated by the long trip, deterred by the language barrier, and most importantly are far more alienated from the central government then say, Han farmers who still retain some sense that the authorities in Beijing are “for” them. I have no statistics regarding the number of Uyghurs among the complainants in the capital but at least when Hakim Siyit went to Beijing, the number was around one in seven hundred:

“There were eleven people from Xinjiang out of nearly 700 people in total. I was the only Uyghur there. I did not know what to do. I only speak a little Chinese. I was worried that they might take me somewhere and no one would know about it,” Siyit, a member of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, said.

It hardly need be said that two officials from the Kashgar Public Affairs Office came and coerced Siyit into returning home before he could accomplish anything – and this happened, of course, after Siyit was apprehended and interrogated by Beijing authorities who inevitably complained they couldn’t understand his Mandarin. Despite these little idiosyncrasies caused by Siyit’s Uyghur-ness, however, this petitioner’s saga to Beijing regrettably ends in a pretty textbook manner.

What is significant, however, is that as a part of his petitioning journey, Siyit created media content, specifically a documentary-style video and a recorded poem, as a more poignant way to make his point. And so, despite the failure of his petition when using official channels, Siyit’s fairly unprecedented decision to film Uyghurs about a pressing social problem created a powerful alternative to the petitioning process, allowing Uyghurs to speak directly to any willing audiences about the problems they were facing. And so rather than going into detail at this blog about what grievance Siyit was putting forward, I must, in deference to Siyit’s courage and insightfulness in making this documentary, point you straight to the video and allow Siyit and his farmer compatriots speak to you directly. Here’s the video I’ve embedded from its source at Radio Free Asia. Based on a picture of Siyit included in the RFA article I’m pretty certain Siyit himself is the guy that starts talking at 2:09.

The story told here can be rounded out by reading the RFA article itself, where Siyit goes into more detail about the local party’s extremely unintelligent decisions regarding which crops the Uyghur farmers in the region were to plant. And I must encourage Uyghur language learners to listen to the poem Siyit has recordered regarding the situation, “Just a Plain Farmer.” RFA has already translated it into English which can be read alongside the recording here.

I have to admit, I’m pretty stoked about what Siyit has done.

Learning about “what’s happening” in Xinjiang is, a majority of the time, an exercise inweeding out overt and covert biases in secondhand reports from a variety of sources, usually media organizations, from Xinhua to the New York Times to, yes, Radio Free Asia (and snarky blogs too, heh heh). Readers who bother to trudge through my posts are I’m sure, by this point, tired of me consistently putting forward the theme of studies of modern Xinjiang as a “meta”-scholarship which discusses discussions rather than facts, that we are dealing with filtered, censored, and re-filtered information that indeed has its own inherent value but nonetheless clouds the “facts on the ground” which remain vital in piecing together a coherent and actionable image of the state of affairs in Xinjiang.

What excites me about Siyit’s work is that I perceive it as an extraordinarily rare ray of sunlight that pierces through the thick fog and connects the information consumers–including us, of course–almost directly to the scene of the action. Incompetent local officials are forcing Uyghur farmers to plant long beans, against the logic of the farmers themselves, and as a consequence are grounding them into poverty. Siyit’s telling me, and so are his buddies. There they are, standing right there in the fields of totally worthless long beans in question and telling it to me, almost straight from their mouth to my ear. No, they didn’t tell Edward Wong of the New York Times who took his interview notes, sculpted it to fit the editors’ and readers’ standards and expectations, and then produce an article. No, they didn’t tell it to the local Xinhua reporters who then posted an article about how Uyghur farmers are prospering like never before under the wisdom of the local party leadership. They told it to us.

Now I know there are a dozen of potential objections to this interpretation I’m putting forward. I know, for example, that Siyit himself is a mediator of the information, he’s the one holding the camcorder and asking the questions. I know, for example, that Siyit and his fellow villagers have a specific agenda to accomplish by making this video, just like the New York Times and the Xinhua New Network have their agendas. I know, also, that I got this video through Radio Free Asia which is media organization whose content, I freely admit, I also try to hold to close scrutiny in light of its agenda and its sources of funding.

Nonetheless, I feel the value, significance, and uniqueness of what Siyit has done can be acknowledged if we admit that Siyit’s video is far closer to the topic of scrutiny than an RFA broadcast or a Xinhua Article or a New York Times piece. Would I, for example, completely trust Siyit to give me totally accurate data about long bean crop yields and market prices? Perhaps not, because he has an agenda to fix his situation just like Xinhua has to defend the status quo and NYT has to sell papers. However, if you’re like me and this “topic of scrutiny” is not the price of long beans in Yengisar but, rather, how Uyghurs live in Xinjiang, then the buck stops with Siyit. He’s a Uyghur. In Xinjiang. Which can’t be said of a Han Xinhua reporter, an NYT writer based in China, or even a Uyghur correspondent working for RFA in DC.

Anyways, Siyit, I salute you. You took advantage of a unique combination of factors – your camcorder, your fellow villagers, a sympathetic audience, and the Internet – and you did what few Uyghurs are able to do: reach out past the figurative fog that lounges over Xinjiang and told people directly – from the Uyghur teenager in Urumqi with a proxy server to the Dutch human rights activist who reads RFA – whats’ going on in your neck of the woods. I can only hope that by posting your video on TND we can spread your message a little further – if only to another two or three people – and that you and your friends won’t bear the wrath of the local authorities for getting your word out. Hopefully many other Uyghurs down the road will follow suit.

This winter’s uncommonly cold temperatures have affected rural production all over Northern Xinjiang. According to the XUAR Forestry Office, the XUAR will have to collect at least 30 million RMB to make up for losses in fruit production and provide for better protection from low temperatures in the future. Losses from the worst winter storms in fifty years, which have affected 54% of Xinjiang’s fruit-growing land, are estimated at 293.6 million RMB. Luckily, the Forestry Office’s goal seems to have been exceeded by 2 million RMB. Fruits and nuts are not the only agricultural products affected by the weather, however. The death of 41.8% of the bees in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture’s apiaries has caused a financial loss of 1.14 million RMB.

So, why is Ürümchi unseasonably warm? Word on the street is, the short-sleeve weather that fell upon the city earlier this month, blamed on global warming, has been contributing to the outbreak of measles, which we have
reported on previously. On the other hand, people have turned off their coal stoves, making Ürümchi’s skies clear and the air positively pleasant. (But don’t leave your windows open all day, or you’ll come home to a dust-encrusted apartment.)

The City of Ürümchi is taking steps to control the rise of prices. Note that, in Xinjiang, a consistent rise in commodity prices over time is not inflation, but a natural effect of market forces. Well, anyway, those market forces are clearly getting out of line, as food commodity prices increased 5.4% in 2007 alone, about as much as they had in the previous three years. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s affected a clear increase in everyday foodstuffs, one bemoaned by Ürümchiliks of all stripes. Example: restaurant menus have been changing all over the city since December. One plate of polo was 5-7 RMB not long ago; now it’s 8-12 RMB. (Suyuq ash prices have increased from 3-4 RMB to a typical 5 RMB. I love suyuq ash.) The city has set aside 20 million RMB, double last year’s amount, for agricultural development, including the building of greenhouses. The city will provide loans to agriculture businesses to increase production. Businesses providing foodstuffs will be temporarily prohibited from altering their prices without first applying to the government for approval. Aid to school cafeterias and low-income families has also been increased. (That’s right, fight those “natural market forces” with cold, hard socialism!) The XUAR’s grain reserves are also meant to be sufficient for the task of maintaining the stability of market prices. The XUAR has also achieved a goal, set in 2003, of storing up 20 000 metric tons of beet sugar in China’s only white crystal sugar storage area. Where is this place, and may I bring a spoon? The stores are meant to help control sugar prices, which have likewise increased and are predicted to rise further.

There is news for domestic and international trade and travel. First, the PRC’s only land port with Tajikistan, Qarasuw, has been approved for use during all weather conditions. Starting this year, it will be open constantly from 1 May to 30 November. Last year, 12 500 tourists, 56 300 metric tons of goods, and 250 million USD of trade passed through the port. Over the past five years, Chinese and foreign financial organizations, including the Asia Development Bank and Development Bank of China, have lent Xinjiang a total of 24.6 billion RMB for road construction and maintenance. This has contributed to the construction of over 60 000 kilometers of new roads, including Southern Xinjiang’s second express highway, Route 314 from Korla to Kucha, currently under construction. Australia’s Arrow Energy has signed a contract with the XUAR Geology and Ore Office to develop coal seams in the South Jungharia and East Jungharia coal fields.

The economic news has also paid some service to an Ürümchi landmark, the Shuangxing Old Goods Market, where I got my bookshelves. Trade at the market has already hit a high point, as at other used goods markets, with sales volume up 30-40% from this time last year. About 20% of customers are students, 20% are unmarried workers living on their own, 10% are families in poor financial circumstances, and 40% are migrant workers. The jump in sales probably has something to do with the natural increase in prices caused by market forces.

Xinjiang, like the rest of China, just never stops building. In the next year, over 20 000 earthquake-resistant housing buildings are planned for construction in Ürümchi. In addition, 9000 current structures are planned for quake-proofing. This may have something to do with the recent earthquakes on the Xinjiang/Tibet border. If you have recently been to Ürümchi, you may have noticed a gigantic pit between Hongshan Park and the Bogeda Hotel, near Edo no Sakura Japanese Restaurant, where the city government used to be until 2004. This is one of two areas adjacent to Hongshan Park slated for redevelopment, and work is finally beginning. High-class apartments on the site are already being sold for 8300-8800 RMB/m². (A typical nice, new apartment in the city goes for around 3500 RMB/ m².) These will be located right next to a greener Hongshan, part of a larger project to connect People’s Park and Hongshan via a “Hetan Green Corridor” along the current Hetan Express Highway. Property values in the area are already rising. It is hoped that filling in the pit will bring some life back to the area, which has been quiet since the government moved. (The Bingtuan headquarters just down the road doesn’t really have the same “community” feeling.) However, it is hoped even more that a great deal of business will go on just outside the gates of the new Hongshan Park.

If you live in Ürümchi, you’ll have noticed that North Youhao Lu (友好北路) is being torn to pieces. The street, lined with two to three rows of trees (inconveniently placed both to the sides of and in the middle of the bus lanes), is being deforested, the trees ripped apart and uprooted. Chaos rules in the bus lanes, which are now great gashes in the ground. Cyclopean concrete pipes await internment. This road work, which actually began ahead of schedule, is meant to continue until 20 May, according to Xinhua. It is in preparation for an unnamed event of great magnitude to be held at the international exhibition center in June. The pipes will also provide better drainage, preventing North Youhao Lu from becoming a “waterway” when it rains. Admittedly, traffic on Youhao Lu is pretty rough during Ürümchi’s seven hours of rush hour (7-10 AM, 3-7 PM Xinjiang Time), but I am myself very fond of the trees, and would wish to see them preserved. This is one of the charms of Ürümchi: its persistently wooded sidewalks. Now, it seems, Youhao Lu will look just like its parallel neighbor, Xibei Lu (西北路).

I am in no way joking, by the way, when I report that Ürümchi’s rush “hour” lasts from 7-10 AM and 3-7 PM Xinjiang Time. I have been told as much by several locals. Luckily, the Ürümchi bus system is remarkably accessible.

A recent famine among wild animals in Tashkurgan has been eased by an influx of donations. Early snowfall, which normally only occurs in March and April, has put wildlife populations there in danger. Over 40 000 RMB of donations from Xinjiang and elsewhere have provided 20 metric tons of food for the animals, who seem to be taking to it.

In contrast, we can see how swiftly the government acts on environmental protection. The Agricultural and Rural Working Committee of the XUAR Standing Committee will request that the Standing Committee discuss a law on the protection of natural woodlands. Various local laws on agricultural practices are already in place, though they are mostly concerned with “development” and consumer protection more than environmental protection for its own sake.

Finally, for the first time, Ürümchiliks have engaged in the worship of the Daoist god Wenchang, protectors of women and students. On 10 March (Lunar 二月初三), Wenchang’s “birthday”, worshipers gathered at his infrequently-visited shrine in Beimen, which was erected last year. The celebration is being touted as a celebration of “Zhonghua” culture.

Housing prices in Ürümchi shot up 25% year-on-year in January, leading an overall 11.3% increase in housing prices across China for the same period, as several sources have reported. (There seems to be some confusion in these articles over what, exactly, “year-on-year” means. It means that housing prices were 25% higher than they were the previous January. It was news to me, too.)

Well, housing prices may be skyrocketing, but seafood prices are dropping as supply outstrips demand. Ürümchi, being famously the city in the world furthest from the ocean, is dependent on regular shipments of live or frozen fish from places like Guangdong, Fujian, and Jiangsu. During the recent snowstorms that swept southern China, that supply was cut off, and now the city’s fish markets are seeing a flood of seafood from fishermen eager to make up their losses. Note that this is mostly a problem of supply — overall, seafood sales are up 10% from last year.

Seafood prices aren’t the only ones rising, however. As is known by any native of the XUAR, food prices in Xinjiang have been increasing pretty rapidly since this past autumn. The issue has now received attention from the government, including proclamations from Wen Jiabao. The East, they say, must support the West, and the economies of the cities and the countryside, of the farms and the factories, should not be treated separately. (That is so Marx.) Only slightly more concretely speaking, the central and regional governments are going to take action to keep the rate of the rise of the consumer price index at 4.8%. Representative Äskär Tursun assures the public that the price increase is just a matter of the imbalance of supply and demand, suggesting that “market methods” may be used to control the rise. Legal action may also be taken against those who engage in practices such as hoarding consumer goods (including housing) in order to increase future profits.

The unusually cold winter has affected Xinjiang’s own agriculture, as well. Frost has touched 7.03 million mu (4921 square km) of land, causing direct economic losses of 2.94 billion RMB. In response, a reseller of agricultural chemicals at Ürümchi’s North Train Station’s agricultural goods market, Cui Feng, has donated thirty boxes of anti-freezing products, valued at over 10 000 RMB each, to farmers in the Kashgar area on behalf of a factory.

A new wild variety of lavender, meant to be more economically viable than others, has been discovered in the Tianshan Mountains. It will soon be exploited by a pair of chemical companies. Apparently in celebration, Xinjiang Xiangxiren Lavender, Ltd. will be holding a contest in December. In this contest, 30 selected contestants will test the company’s “spot-removal” skin products. The winner will receive 20 000 RMB worth of Xiangxiren lavender-based cosmetics. I strongly encourage The New Dominion readers to sign up by sending an e-mail to szwlmq@163.com by 31 March.

On to imports and exports. In January 2008, imports into Ürümchi totaled 32.75 million USD, up 75.3%, and exports totaled 305.06 million USD, a 106% increase from the previous month. Imports included mostly agricultural products, raw steel products, electronics, and machines. Exports included clothing, auto parts, machines, and household appliances.

But what about the quality of those products? The Ürümchi Industrial and Commerce Bureau reports that its consumer hotline received 243 500 complaints about products in 2007. A plurality of complaints dealt with cellular phones and clothing, followed closely by food and drink.

Oil news. The Xinjiang oil field company EPC is going to begin construction on China’s largest oil storage unit, to be based in Shanshan County. The facility, which is planned to have a capacity of eight million cubic meters, will store oil from both Xinjiang and from Kazakhstan, which will then be sent eastward on Shanshan-Lanzhou Pipeline.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 4 November 2007 : In the past three quarters, the per capita income of farmers and herdsmen have increased by 343 yuan.
• 4 November 2007 : The China Edition of Forbes magazine has published its annual top 400 billionaire list which includes 6 individuals from Xinjiang. Brothers Zhang Jiefu and Zhang Yanfu are new on the list and jointly occupy position 400 through their oil processing and refining industries. Kong Guangxi (real estate, construction materials) has risen 30 places this year to position 61, Mi Enhua (construction materials, trade, wholesale) has dropped to position 248, Chen Zhifeng (exports, real estate, tourism) has inched up to position 332, and Zheng Daqing (real estate, cell phones, minerals) now occupies position 360.
• 5 November 2007: Xinjiang’s Animal Husbandry Office has announced that 10 million yuan of government funds has been allocated to help make China’s most Muslim province become the Northwest’s Pig Industry Base within 10 years. Places slated to receive initial funds for the new pig breeding infrastructure include the eastern part of Changji Prefecture, the northern part of the Hami Region, the Tianshan Northern Foothills region, the Yili valley, the Ta’e basin, the Yanqi basin, Korla, Aksu, and Kashgar, etc. (the etc. was in the original article, I kid not)
• 5 November 2007: To better ensure food quality and to better monitor medicine production, 9 new Food and Drug Administration Bureaus have been established in 9 counties: Yumin, Qinghe, Wenquan, Mulei, Urumqi’s Toutun River district, Bohu, Wuqia, Khotan, and Qaramay.
• 5 November 2007: In accordance with the 11th 5-year plan, Xinjiang’s Office of Personnel Training has begun to implement a program to upgrade the knowledge and skills of 12,000 technological experts in the fields of petrochemistry, coal refining, hydroelectric power, cotton processing, food processing, environmental protection, orchard forestry, and tourism.
• 5 November 2007: Compared with the same period of time last year, the number of AIDS infections in Xinjiang is down by almost four tenths.
• 5 November 2007: A construction project undertaken by Xinjiang’s Transportation Office to lower the number of collisions with Przewalski’s horses on Xinjiang’s roads has been completed. In the past two months there have been 5 fatal accidents involving Przewalski’s horses, and in response the Transportation Office set up several signs, warnings, prohibited areas, decreased speed zones, and solar-powered warning lights.
• 6 November 2007: The State Council’s AIDS Prevention Working Committee has sent a joint working group to conduct survey research in Xinjiang and to evaluate current AIDS epidemic preventive efforts underway in the region.
• 6 November 2007: Controversy emerges over the expelling of a naughty 8 year old student from an Urumqi school. Although an alliance of school officials, teachers, and concerned parents have made the case that the child is intractable beyond resolution, a number of interested parties have also criticzed the moves as overly harsh for a child of his age. Currently, a compromise solution has been put forward of giving the child’s parents “a little more time” to help the child better adjust to school life.
• 6 November 2007: The Chairman of Xinjiang, Ismail Tiliwaldi, met with the visiting executive chairman of the European Federation of Overseas Chinese, Jiang Ping. Tiliwaldi gave the basic rundown of Xinjiang’s situation and then the two discussed greater investment cooperation on projects such as environmental protection, ecological agriculture, and mineral resources development.
• 6 November 2007: 16,579 babies were born over the last year, compared to 12,705 the year before, which signifies a .31% increase in the birth rate. According to the latest statistics, the sex ratio for the preceding year is 111 boys per 100 girls, which is much higher than the average of 103-107.
• 7 November 2007: Tarim Oil Company has established China’s largest natural gas field, with proven reserves of 840 billion cubic meters. By the end of the year, Tarim Oil Company’s natural gas fields are expected to have produced 15.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas, much higher than its output last year of 11 billion cubic meters, when it was only the 2nd largest known field in China. Natural gas extracted from Xinjiang is sent to the energy hungry eastern part of China through the Xiangxiqidongshu Pipeline.
• 7 November 2007: Delegates from the Siberia Branch of Russia’s National Academy of Sciences and scientific research institutes in Xinjiang signed 27 cooperation agreements on October 26. The Russians currently have plans to conduct 40 research experiments and to setup 14 research stations in Xinjiang. These international agreements have a distinctively economic tint to them, as the greater portion of these cooperative efforts involve the petrochemical and coal industries, along with agriculture, animal husbandry, construction, software, and biotechnology.
• 7 November 2007: The “Deliver Warmth and Compassion with One Day’s Wages” program has officially begun in Xinjiang. Donations will be used to help low-income people prepare for the difficulties of the coming winter. The program calls on individuals, companies, and governmental agencies alike to donate a day’s wages or a day’s profits to contribute to the welfare of the poor.
• 7 November 2007: China Council for International Investment Promotion has set up a branch office in Urumqi. The state purpose of this move is to help promote the social and economic development of Xinjiang. Noting interest by both overseas Chinese in Europe and by the Russians in this week’s roundup, I say the timing couldn’t be better.
• 7 November 2007: Anyone interested in using the bathing facilities or lodging at Urumqi’s bath houses must now go through a formal registration process where they must provide their real name. Lobbies of these facilities are to be equipped with CCTV cameras whose tapes will be retained for 30 days. This move apparently is in response to a recognition of the bath houses as centers for prostitution, gambling, and drugs.
• 7 November 2007: Four buildings are to be designated as national level protected cultural sites: the former offices of the Eight Route Army, the former Soviet Consulate, Xinjiang People’s Theater, and the Shaanxi Great Mosque and Palace, a Hui place of worship. All are located in Urumqi.
• 7 November 2007: Xinjiang’s economic value as a frontier region bordering 8 different countries becomes apparent in new statistics revealing Xinjiang’s total import-export volume for this year to be valued at over 10 billion US dollars, a rise of 39% since the preceding year and 15% higher than the national average.
• 8 November 2007: A discussion forum on e-government services was opened in Urumqi on November 7. Representatives from China Telecom and 170 city and county level delegates attended.
• 9 November 2007: After 5 days of touring and inspection, the State Council’s AIDS prevention working committee expressed its approval of AIDS prevention efforts in Xinjiang. Recommendations made by the working committee include increasing AIDS prevention education and awareness for grass-roots level cadres, enhancing communication between the departments involved in the efforts, increase local financial input along with tighter budgetary oversight, and intensify propaganda and public awareness efforts.
• 9 November 2007: For the first time in several years, there was a surplus of jobs at the Xinjiang Autumn Talent Exchange Job Fair, where over 8000 positions were available to 6000 job-seekers. Analysts ascribe this both to novel paths to getting jobs, such as the growing availability of jobs in China proper and online applications, and to the steadily growing small and mid-sized company sector of the Xinjiang economy.
• 9 November 2007: An international team of 6 scientists, including individuals from America, Germany, and the Netherlands, visited the Qaramay National Nature Reserve in the Jungaria Basin to make observations of newly released wild specimens of Przewalski’s horse. An American expert from the Smithsonian Institute said the purpose of their visit included investigating the measures taken to assist the horses’ survival through the winter, and to help find a volunteer Kazakh herdsmen to track and monitor the horses on behalf of the Horse Breeding Research Center, a program which, if successful, will be expanded in the future.
• 9 November 2007: According to an official statement from the Xinjiang Public Health Department, the number of AIDS cases in Xinjiang has exceeded 20,000, though according to a national estimate, the actual number of AIDS cases in the region is probably over 60,000.This report also noted that most of these infections are concentrated in the Yili Kazakh Prefecture, Urumqi, Kashgar, and Aksu.
• 9 November 2007 : The former Chairman of the Board and General Manager for the Xinjiang Construction Group Construction Engineering Company and Chairman of the Board and General Manager for the Xinjiang International Trade Company, Jiang Peng, was sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption. His company was allocated over 3 million yuan of public money for the construction of public works. Jiang was arrested in 2006 for suspicion of embezzlement of these funds, as far back as 2002.
• 9 November 2007: Six defendants in what has been dubbed the Kashgar “12-25″ Threat to National Security Case have been sentenced for attempting to split the country. Under the charges of splittist activities, organizing and leading a terrorist organization, and the illegal production of explosives, 4 death sentences and 2 life imprisonment sentences were passed down. The Xinhua article announcing this sentence also includes a detailed list of the alleged suspects’ activities, including running a terrorist training camp for two months with the Hollywood name of “Black Canyon,” conducting an explosives collecting operation dubbed “Operation Harvest Corn,” resisting PLA counterinsurgency efforts by sabatoging communications facilities, blowing up public buses, and occupying the Kusilafu village’s government building and declaring independence. Kusilafu is a village in Akto County (Location in Google Earth), a hotbed of resistance to Chinese rule.
• 10 November 2007: The Macao based charity Mingde will donate over 20,000 yuan to aid orphans with serious illnesses.

Other News

• 5 November 2007: Joei Villarama at the Filipino website Global Nation talks about her visit to Xinjiang.
• 7 November 2007 : Danwei runs front page of Xinjiang Metropolitan Daily, featuring SWAT members showing off their new equipment at Er Dao Qiao.
• 7 November 2007: Mongolia Web reports an outbreak of Horse Flu in Xinjiang near the border with Mongolia (as if things weren’t bad enough for the poor wild horses). Over 5,500 cases have been reported for what has been the first outbreak of equine flue for 13 years. Chinese officials have quarantined the horses and have issued assurances that the horse flu rarely fatal to the animals and does not transmit to humans.
• 8 November 2007: The English Edition of Xinhuanet runs an English language version of the article linked above discussing the international team investigating Przewalski’s horses near Qaramay.

Blogs

• 10 November 2007: Michael Manning at The Opposite End of China shares a Xinjiang-related piece of the PBS series China from the Inside.