The International Herald Tribune spotted a Chinese language press release in which Chinese authorities fascinatingly attribute the protests in Khotan as well as various forms of unrest and troublemaking in Kashgar, Urumqi, and Kizilsu Prefecture to the international Islamic political organization Hizb ut-Tahrir, or the “Party of Liberation.” Hizb ut-Tahrir, or HUT (kind of like Jabba) has garnered quite the reputation in Central Asian nations as a rallying point for Muslims bearing religious grievances against oppressive, secularist governments. HUT has an elaborate set of written guiding principles, and allegedly one of these embraces non-violent means as the only proper means to attain the group’s goal of restoring the Caliphate, thus, their main methods remain limited, on the surface, at least, to the propagation of the “right ideas” through lectures, sermons, booklets, and pamphlets. There have been several instances where violent activities were attributed by governmental authorities to HUT, but as usual the facts surrounding the case always get sucked into the abyss of propaganda and ulterior motives so the extent of the actual involvement on the part of the accused in the incidents remains nebulous at best – a situation quite familiar to anyone who has been following unrest in the West of China over the past month.

I managed to find the article mentioned by the Herald Tribune here at Tianshan net. It’s quite brief, so here’s a quick translation under the break.

Illegal Demonstrations in Khotan, lawfully dispersed by authorities, were planned by Hizb ut-Tahrir

From the evening of March 22nd to March 23rd, Hizb ut-Tahrir distributed and posted reactionary leaflets in an integrated operation occurring in Khotan, Kashgar, Urumqi, Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture, and other areas, with the goal of inciting the masses into demonstrating on the streets. The three successive, illegal demonstrations which occurred in Khotan from 2:50 to 4:15 on the afternoon of the 23rd were planned by Hizb ut-Tahrir and were swiftly halted by authorities within the scope of the law.

The relevant governmental departments are presently investigating the splittest elements who masterminded the incident.

The guiding principles of Hizb ut-Tahrir include the elimination of secular regimes, and the establishment of a unified, religious governmental structure, and the restoration of the Islamic Caliphate under sharia law. The world publicly recognizes Hizb ut-Tahrir as an extremist organization, a significant number of countries have designated it as a terrorist organization, and countries across the globe have adopted active measures to combat their activities. Hizb ut-Tahrir’s efforts to instigate and bewitch the masses into establishing a sharia-law Caliphate are against Chinese law.

Nice and to the point, eh?

This is the first attempt by the Chinese government to link unrest to Hizb ut-Tahrir that I’m aware of. It represents a significant and curious clarification of previous allegations of international involvement in Xinjiang incidents, the vast majority of which have involved a hazy specter of “international terrorism” or exile Uyghur organizations whose goals and aspirations remain quite distant from those of religious organizations. Authorities in China may be coming to the realization that in order to lend a greater air of credibility to their place in the global war on terror, they need a more well-defined enemy to point to, and as EurasiaNet’s archives amply demonstrate, HUT is an organization that leaves enough of a paper trail to be accused of seditious activities and also has a set of religious guiding principles extremist enough to convincingly sell them as a threat to national security – which is what practically every Central Asian country has done and what China appears to be doing right now.

By pointing a finger at distinctly Central Asian Islamic extremist group (HUT didn’t start in Central Asia, but it has received the most traction there), China also is framing its local War on Terror as a phenomenon belonging quite clearly to the realm of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a mutual-security organization a la NATO whose two big players are Russia and China and whose remaining members are located cozily in between the two behemoths in Central Asia. Accusing HUT, legitimately or otherwise, of stability threatening activity is an exercise that has already been practiced several times in the ‘stans, and by participating in that discussion China is not only lending credibility to the former claims of Central Asia’s despots but also is energizing the core message of SCO joint military operations such as the annual “Peace Missions”, which have all been conducted quite unambiguously against a fictional “terrorist/separatist” enemy.

I think this represents a significant change of course in the way China talks to the world about its “Islam” problem. Let’s keep an eye on whether or not this shiny, new bad guy will reorient China away from Western forces, engaged with Middle Eastern, “Al Qaeda” style extremism, towards Russia and Central Asia, who are dealing with Central Asian “flavored” extremism.

It’s my prediction that if and when Neweurasia’s 2009 and 2010 yearly roundups occur, we’ll see an even bigger role for China in Central Asia affairs. Should this occur, Xinjiang’s geographical position alone inevitably means it, too, will play a more prominent role in the happenings of Central Asia.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 25 November 2007: Twenty-one culture officials from four Central Asian countries arrived in Xinjiang representing the “SCO Member States Culture Officials High-level Research Team.” Before coming to China, the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and Krygyz who make up the team studied the cultural and economic history of Xinjiang. After arriving the officials conducted research related to cultural and economic spheres, doing things such as holding informal talks with notable cultural figures of Xinjiang (such as tightrope worker Adili Wushouer and dancer Dilnaer), visiting cultural sites such as the Xinjiang Cultural Art Museum and the Great Bazaar in Urumqi, and swapping observations about cultural and economic affairs in their own respective countries with Chinese counterparts.
• 26 November 2007: For the first time, AIDS prevention information will be inserted into the curriculum of migrant worker after-hours schools. Based on statistics on attendance at these special after-hours schools, this information will reach over 200 thousand people. At the opening ceremony, Regional Health Department Vice-Director Zhang Yongzhong underscored the potential effectiveness of this curriculum by recognizing migrant workers, due to the nature of their work and lives in Xinjiang, as one of the primary vectors for the disease. There are over 20 thousand HIV-positive individuals in Xinjiang, ranking the province 4th in the country.
• 27 November 2007: Delegates from the Xinjiang Science and Technology Department presented at the “Arabic Software Technology Exchange and Product Introduction” meeting held at the Egypt Information Technology Institute in Cairo on the 26th. The institute’s president expressed hopes that further technological exchanges could be carried out between China and Egypt. The Xinjiang delegates discussed developing trends in operating system software and office software and presented an Arabic Linux system, Arabic office software, Arabic multi-lingual dictionaries, telecom platforms, and small “knowledge-increasing” games.
• 28 November 2007: Two members of the Regional Standing Committee, Fu Qiang and Bai Zhijie, toured various destinations in Xinjiang to inspect the ongoing implementation of an electronic-classroom program funded by the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The program equips educational institutions throughout Xinjiang with computers and other multimedia equipment with the hopes that they will help raise educational standards in Xinjiang. Fu and Bai encouraged the continuing use and care of the equipment at their respective destinations.
• 28 November 2007: A new price-monitoring system has been setup in Urumqi to detect abnormal fluctuations in the prices of daily-use goods and alert the property government organizations should prices rise past a certain threshold within a certain period of time. The wholesale prices of grains, cooking oil, meat, vegetables, eggs, sugar, and other assorted daily use good will be monitored. Should any alarming abnormalities appear, the Urumqi Commercial Affairs Bureau will be alerted within one hour, and in turn will inform the relevant emergency response teams who will then carry out the necessary measures to rectify the situation.
• 28 November 2007: Urumqi’s City Council met recently and decided to invest 3.6 billion yuan in 86 construction projects over the next year, as a part of the “Charge South, Expand North, Extend East, Advance West” campaign. A large portion of these funds will be used to renovate and expand the transportation infrastructure; funds will also be allocated to Urumqi’s railway system, airport, and sewage system.
• 28 November 2007: An intensive training program has begun for Xinjiang athletes as the final winter before the 2008 Olympics approaches. The program will focus on 6 sports which apparently are the strongest candidates in Xinjiang’s athletic community; these sports are boxing, women’s volleyball, men’s archery, men’s middle/long distance running, equestrian, and taekwondo. Training is escalating, and more trainers (including 4 foreigners) are being hired to increase the intensity of the training regimens.
• 28 November 2007: Starting from the 27th of November, the number 4 will no longer appear on the license plates of newly registered vehicles with less than 9 seats. Private car ownership in Xinjiang has followed the national trend and has increased rapidly in the past several years; many owners of these private family cars desire auspicious plate numbers and try to avoid unlucky numbers, especially the number 4, which in Mandarin is pronounced similarly to the word for death, and the combination 47, which sounds similar to the phrase “die from anger (road rage, perhaps?)” and “go and die.” The removal of 4 from possible license plate combinations began in June of this year at the Qaramay Prefecture and quickly spread throughout the region, only now reaching the capital. Authorities made it a point to tell Xinhua that this was not wasting resources to indulge superstition but rather a wise measure to handle a cultural issue (I really can’t tell the difference). Personally, the 9 seats and under distinction puzzles me given the recent spate of large vehicle accidents on Xinjiang highways.
• 28 November 2007: Experts warn that lead poisoning leading to irreversible neurological and developmental damage is a high risk among children in Xinjiang. The article notably framed the effects of lead poisoning in terms of education, warning that children with high blood-lead levels will become inattentive and have eroded long-term memory and reasoning skills, leading to difficulties in the education system. An expert at the Xinjiang Chinese Medicine Institute identified highly-leaded living environments as the culprit, saying that children who like to bite things, such as pencils, toys, crayons, and household objects decorated with leaded paint, are likely to get lead poisoning due to the high lead content of these items. Interestingly, the recommended course of action contained nothing about parental or corporate responsibility, and instead recommended that children be fed lead-detox diets to counter what may be perceived as the inevitable influence of lead in Chinese households.
• 29 November 2007: The Regional Construction Department has teamed up with Disabled and Elderly Committee of the Civil Affairs Department to begin discussing the implementation of the National “100 Disability-Friendly Cities” notice, which in Xinjiang will include the cities of Urumqi, Shihezi, and Qaramay. Newly roads, apartments, tenements, and dormitories must comply with disability standards; at least 50% of public places such as theaters, schools, libraries, and museums are to be renovated to fulfill disability standards; and at least 30% of the commercial centers in these cities, like shopping malls, will also be required to meet disability standards. Construction for the disabled-friendly project will begin in 2008; a “midterm checkup” to check the project’s progress will be held on 2010.
• 29 November 2007: Three consecutive days of high levels of pollution in Urumqi, from the 26th to the 28th, have prompted the city’s Environmental Protection Department to issue a “blue” air pollution warning for the first time. The blue warning is issued after a “level-three” pollution index is maintained for three consecutive days, while the yellow warning is issued for three consecutive days of “level-four” pollution and the red warning is saved for two consecutive days of level-five pollution. The main cause of the high pollution currently plaguing Urumqi is the arrival of cold weather which has triggered an expected spike in heat-supplying measures which naturally brings about a corresponding rise in air pollution.
• 29 November 2007: The 47th meeting of the 10th Regional People’s Government standing committee began on the afternoon of the 28th. The four topics of discussion were “Regional Emergency Management Work Regulations,” the draft of “Regional Implementation of Botanical Epidemic Ordinances,” the draft proposal of “Regional Cotton Fire Safety and Management Methods,” and the draft of “Regional Atmospheric Damage Early-Warning Signal Distribution and Desemination Methods.”
• 29 November 2007: XUAR Chairman Ismail Tiliwaldi underscored the role the oil and natural gas industry plays in Xinjiang’s economic landscape while inspecting the Northwest Oil Fields branch of Sinopec. Tiliwaldi acknowledged the contribution oil and gas has given to the development of Xinjiang, dubbing them the “mainstay” and the “army” of Xinjiang’s continuing economic growth (perhaps the XPCC was slighted at such an analogy? Who knows.). Tiliwaldi also claimed that in order to broaden this socioeconomic contribution, the oil companies must quicken the pace of oil and gas exploration and exploitation.
• 29 November 2007: The Drug Prohibition Task Force of the Xinjiang PSB and the Guangzhou PSB busted a heroin-smuggling ring in Guangzhou on the 21st, arresting 5 individuals, including one Pakistani citizen, and confiscating 4380 pounds of heroin. This drug smuggling operation had trafficked and sold “Gold Crescent Moon” drugs in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai, Yunnan, Xinjiang, and other locations under the guise of a legitimate business. Xinjiang’s continuing development of international trade with neighboring countries played a pivotal role in providing the supply lines that maintained the drug trafficking ring.
• 30 November 2007: The Regional AIDS Prevention Committee Office announced that this year 1043 AIDS patients have received free medical treatment as a part of growing regional efforts to combat the AIDS epidemic in Xinjiang. Also as a part of this effort, 29 national-level and 38 regional-level “monitoring stations” have been constructed, offering free AIDS diagnostic tests. The free AIDS treatment program began two years ago and not only increased availability of screening and treatment but also trained 1500 doctors and 1800 nurses to supply manpower to the effort.
• 30 November 2007: In what can only be called “a crippling blow to the progress of science worldwide,” the Regional Education Office has decided to cancel next year’s science competitions at the elementary school level. The official reasoning was that between schoolwork responsibilities and the cram classes （补习班）that most elementary school students must shoulder, the science competition represents an undue source of stress for the already busy students. Most parents and teachers expressed approval of the decision, but manufacturers of 3-panel cardboard displays have yet to chime in with their view on the decision.
• 30 November 2007: Starting from next semester, all rural students attending compulsory education will receive free textbooks and will not be required to pay school-related incidentals. The “two-free” policy began and autumn 2003 and, according to statistics, has resulted in a notable, positive impact on middle and elementary school student retention rates in agricultural and pastoral regions across Xinjiang.
• 1 December 2007: On November 30 Urumqi Environmental Protection Bureau announced that the National Environmental Protection Bureau has been selected as a pilot city for the National Motor Vehicle Pollution Management project. Because of Urumqi’s unique geographical position and growing car ownership, vehicle emissions have become a large enough problem for intervention on the national level. Around 20 million yuan of capital, along with the support of the central government, will be used to construct a high-level emissions testing center in Urumqi that will tag vehicles with unacceptably high emissions with yellow license plates, carrying out the first step of the pilot program, which is to identify the vehicles that should fall under closer scrutiny and management.
• 1 December 2007: The fishing industries of the most landlocked region of the world is expected to produce 880 thousand tons of products by the end of the year, and increase of 6% since last year. Xinjiang has a thriving “famous brands” industry that consists of selling products for their uniqueness to the region; Korla’s famous pears, Turpan’s famous grapes, and Hami’s famous melons are but three examples. The article states that the growth of the fishing industry can be partially attributed to successful campaigns to market fishing products as a regional specialty (特色). Along side pears, grapes, and melons, we may also expect to see “Sayram Lake White Salmon,” “Bayingholin Perch,” “Yili Sturgeon,” and other fine “famous brands” in stores throughout China.
• 1 December 2007: The Flying Tigers continue their rise to the top, defeating the Zhejiang Lions (103-88) on the 25th, the Zhejiang Wind Stallions (85-71) on the 28th, and the Yunnan Bulls (121-11) on the 30th. The Flying Tigers have risen to second place in the league after the Guangdong Tigers, previously a first place contender, suffered two losses. Now the Flying Tigers are competing only with the Jiangsu Dragons for the top position, both teams having a record of 13 victories to 2 losses.

Other News

• 29 November 2007: An article published by China.org.cn celebrates apparently successful efforts by the Tarim Oilfield Company, the Institute of Ecology and Geology, and the XPCC to combat and even reverse desertification in Xinjiang by planting new forests. Allegedly, a “green belt” in the Taklamakan has been expanding since 1994 when the Tarim Oilfield Company started planting trees adapted to the desert climate, while on the other side of the Tianshan , the XPCC has expanded sacsaoul forest coverage in the Gurbantunggut Desert to 15 million mu, starting an ecological chain reaction that results in fewer sandstorms, more precipitation, and greater plant growth.
• 30 November 2007: The Los Angeles Times ran a bare-bones-basics guide to traveling through Xinjiang on a motorcycle. The guide essentially summarizes conditions in Xinjiang categorized by topics relevant to motorcyclists: road conditions, gasoline, laws, etc. If your interested is piqued, be sure to check out the more personalized and detailed account of Michael Manning’s trans-Taklamakan adventure here.

Blogs

• 26 November 2007 and 30 November 2007: Michael Manning discusses teaching English in Xinjiang in a 26 November post, then shares some Xinjiang-related clips of a National Geographic Silk Road Documentary in a 30 November post.