Fearing terror, China transforms Uighur heartland into security state

A string of new police posts, frequent ID checks in Xinjiang as Beijing fears disruption of key summit

LIFE IN AN AREA TRANSFORMED INTO A FORTRESS

THREE TIMES a day, alarms ring out through the streets of China’s ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, and shopkeepers rush out of their stores swinging government-issued clubs.

In mandatory anti-terror drills conducted under police supervision and witnessed by Reuters on a recent visit, they fight off imaginary knife-wielding assailants. Armoured paramilitary and police vehicles circle with sirens blaring. China says it faces a serious threat from Islamist extremists in this far Western Xinjiang region. Beijing accuses separatists among the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority there of stirring up tensions with the ethnic Han Chinese majority and plotting attacks elsewhere in China.

A historic trading post, Kashgar is also central to China’s “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) Initiative, President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign and economic policy involving massive infrastructure spending linking China to Asia, the Middle East and beyond.

China’s worst fears are that a large-scale attack would blight this year’s diplomatic setpiece, an OBOR summit attended by world leaders planned for Beijing in May.

State media say the drills, and other measures such as a network of thousands of new street-corner police posts, are aimed making everyone feel safer. But many residents say the drills are just part of an oppressive security operation that has been ramped up in Kashgar and other cities in Xinjiang’s Uighur heartland in recent months.

As well as taking part in drills, shopkeepers must, at their own expense, install password-activated security doors, “panic buttons” and cameras that film not just the street outside but also inside their stores, sending a direct video feed to police.

Foruighursliketheownerofanonlinemultimediacompanyfacingoneofkashgar’smain streetsitisnotaboutsecurity,butmasssurveillance. “We have no privacy,” said the business owner who, like almost everyone Reuters spoke to in Kashgar, did not want to give his name. “They want to see what you’re up to.”

A Chinese security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters the new security measures in Xinjiang were not politically motivated, but based on fresh developments and intelligence.

Religious re-education

Since ethnic riots in the regional capital Urumqi in 2009, Xinjiang has been plagued by bouts of deadly violence.

But Chinese state media say the threat remains high and the Communist Party has vowed to continue what it terms a “war on terror” against spreading Islamist extremism.

In Xinjiang, this can also be seen at weekly flag-raising ceremonies that Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people who formed the majority in Xinjiang, are required to attend to denounce religious extremism and pledge fealty under the Chinese flag.

At one such event witnessed by Reuters in Hotan, a former Silk Road oasis town 500 km southeast of Kashgar, more than 1,000 people filed onto an open-air basketball court where Party officials checked their names against an attendance list and inspected their dress and appearance. “Best you take this off or I’ll send you to re-education,” said one female official, pulling back the black hijab worn by a middle-aged Uighur woman to expose her forehead and hair.

Hotan authorities offer 2,000 yuan ($290) rewards for those who report “face coverings and robes, youth with long beards, or other popular religious customs that have been radicalised”.

Xinjiang lawmakers this week approved legislation extending a prohibition on “abnormal” beards and the wearing of veils in public in the region. The new rules come into force on Saturday. REUTERS

Reuters Locals say the new security measures are part of an ‘oppressive operation’.