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China-Japan-Koreas

When a problem shows its head, China is not PC-Correct!

2016-06-10

Xinjiang residents must give DNA, voice-print for passports Authorities in northwestern China’s troubled Xinjiang region are now requiring residents of one northern prefecture to provide DNA samples and other biometric data before they can be issued with travel documents, sparking concerns over the possible ethnic profiling of the country’s mostly Muslim Uyghur group. The announcement was made by police in Xinjiang’s Ili (in Chinese, Yili) prefecture, who ordered residents to hand in their passports last year, with officials saying no new ones would be issued. "The requirements for travel document applications have changed, with effect from June 1," the Ili Daily, the regional mouthpiece of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, reported. Applicants for passports, police-issued exit permits, and travel passes to Taiwan and Hong Kong will now have to supply a DNA sample, fingerprints, a voice-print sample, and a 3D body scan image to receive their documents, the paper said. Nobody will be issued with a travel document in Ili without the new biometrics, it said. While the new rules are ostensibly universal, restrictions on passports have targeted ethnic minority groups in the past, making it harder for Uyghurs to book overseas vacations or go on the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, travel agents in the region have told RFA. Sense of threat Ilshat Hassan, Washington-based president of the Uyghur American Association, said the new move appears to be aimed at making it harder for Uyghurs to obtain passports or other travel documents. "One of the aims of these measures is to put obstacles in the way of Uyghurs applying for passports, and another is to give Uyghurs a sense that they are under threat," Ilshat Hassan said. Citing the requirement for a voice-print, he said Uyghurs would be less likely to speak anonymously to overseas media once they had left China, because their unique voice pattern was on Beijing’s files. "They would still be able to identify you by your voice-print, and they would be able to deal with you in the same way," he said. Breach of privacy New York-based rights activist Liu Qing said the rules are a breach of citizens’ right to privacy, regardless of who they are aimed at. "So an administrative department has decreed that they can collect DNA samples from their citizens. What happened to a citizen’s right to privacy?" Liu said. "If they want to collect citizens’ DNA, then they should at least ask people for their opinions, and then pass legislation," he said. "This isn’t something that can just be ordered as part of administrative regulations." He rejected the idea that the move is part of a bid by Beijing to stave off possible terrorist attacks. "Collecting people’s DNA has nothing to do with fighting terror," Liu said. "The government is doing this to step up the sense of fear among the general public." Uyghurs make up 25.6 percent of Ili’s three-million-strong population, while 36 percent of local residents are Han Chinese.

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China-Japan-Koreas

Beijing bans head scarves, veils from Xinjiang buses

2014-08-07

[ARABNEWS] A city in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has banned people with head scarves, veils and long beards from boarding buses, as the government battles unrest with a policy that critics said discriminates against Mohammedans. Xinjiang, home to the Mohammedan Uighur people who speak a Turkic language, has been beset for years by violence that the government blames on Mohammedan separatists. Authorities will prohibit five types of passengers — those who wear veils, head scarves, a loose-fitting garment called a jilbab, clothing with the crescent moon and star, and those with long beards — from boarding buses in the northwestern city of Karamay, state media said. The crescent moon and star symbol features on many national flags, besides being used by groups China says want to set up an independent state called East Turkestan. The rules were intended to help strengthen security through August 20 during an athletics event and would be enforced by security teams, the ruling Communist Party-run Karamay Daily said on Monday. "Those who do not comply, especially those five types of passengers, will be reported to the police," the paper said. In July, authorities in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi banned bus passengers from carrying items ranging from cigarette lighters to yogurt and water, in a bid to prevent violent attacks. Exiled Uighur groups and human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... activists say the government's repressive policies in Xinjiang, including controls on Mohammedans, have provoked unrest, a claim Beijing denies. "Officials in Karamay city are endorsing an openly racist and discriminatory policy aimed at ordinary Uighur people," Alim Seytoff, the president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association, said in an e-mailed statement. While many Uighur women dress in much the same casual style as those elsewhere in China, some have begun to wear the full veil, a garment more common in Pakistain or Afghanistan than in Xinjiang. Police have offered money for tips on everything from "violent terrorism training" to individuals who grow long beards.

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China-Japan-Koreas

China Activist's Son Sentenced to Prison

2007-04-18

BEIJING (AP) - The son of a prominent U.S.-based Chinese Muslim activist was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison on subversion charges, state media reported. Ablikim Abdureyim was sentenced in Urumqi, capital of the Muslim Xinjiang region in China's far west, after confessing to charges of "instigating and engaging in secessionist activities," the Xinhua News Agency reported. Abdureyim's mother, Rebiya Kadeer, once was one of China's most prominent businesswomen but became a critic of the communist government's treatment of Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims in Xinjiang. She was detained in 1999 and sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of endangering state security but was allowed to leave for the United States in 2005. Kadeer said she had not been informed by the Chinese government or the court about the sentence and denounced the trial process and Abdureyim's conviction. She said her son was innocent. "They would not appoint a lawyer for him and didn't give him an opportunity to defend himself, and they held the hearing in secret," Kadeer said in a telephone interview from her home in Washington, D.C. "On what basis are they convicting my son?" "He was a good boy, always kind to his mother, always shared his ammo ..." The Urumqi court convicted Abdureyim of spreading secessionist articles over the Internet, instigating the public against the government and writing articles that distorted China's human rights and ethnic policies, the report said. He will also be denied political rights for three years, Xinhua said. Under Chinese law, political rights include free speech and the ability to gather or protest. Abdureyim's two brothers were convicted of tax evasion last year. Runs in the family, does it? Alim Abdureyim was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $62,500 while his older brother, Kahar, was fined $12,500 but not jailed. Kadeer has said the charges are all false and her sons are innocent. "Lies! All lies!" The Washington-based Uyghur American Association, of which Kadeer is president, said in November that during his detention, Abdureyim had been carried out of the Tianshan Detention Center in Urumqi on a stretcher, and that the group feared he may have been "beaten or tortured."

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China-Japan-Koreas

China detains Muslim Uighur

2006-06-06

An ethnic Uighur man held by Chinese authorities for more than two months on conspiracy charges has been tortured and denied food while in detention, a rights group said Tuesday. Tudahun Hoshun, a trader, has been held at a detention center in Shuiding, a town in China's northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang, since March 22 on suspicion of "conspiracy to split the state," the Washington-based Uyghur American Association said in a statement. It said Hoshun, 31, has been suspended from the ceiling, beaten and denied food for three days, as punishment for not memorizing the center's regulations in Chinese, a language he does not speak. Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims whose culture is distinct from the rest of China. Beijing blames Uighur separatists for sporadic bombings and other violence in Xinjiang, which the Uighurs refer to as "East Turkestan." An official at the Shuiding town government office, who refused to give his name, declined to confirm the detention Tuesday. No number was listed for Kosheriq Detention Center, where the group said Hoshun was being held. "We are extremely concerned about Tudahun," Alim Seytoff, a spokesman for the rights group, was quoted as saying in the statement. "We hope by going public with this information we can at least ensure the abuse stops." Last week, the group said China detained three adult children of U.S.-based Muslim activist Rediya Kadeer, who is also the association's newly elected president. The move was apparently to keep Kadeer's family from talking to a U.S. congressional team that was visiting Xinjiang, the group said.

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