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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 75 11 March 1998 In this issue (1) CHINA NET USE EXPLODING March 11, 1998, By Reuters China's Ministry of Public Security last December implemented sweeping controls on the Internet to check the dissemination of what it called "harmful information" and to stop the leaking of state secrets. The political dissidents and separatists movements in Tibet and the Moslem region of Xinjiang. (2) CHINESE PRESIDENT CALLS FOR ETHNIC UNITY March 7, 1998, Associated Press, by Greg Baker Chinese President Jiang Zemin said there remained a lot of hard work to do in maintaining stability in Xinjiang, and that it was still an arduous task to oppose ethnic separation, maintain ethnic unity and safeguard national unity. (3) CHINESE PRESIDENT CLAIMS SUCCESS IN TIBET POLICIES March 7, 1998, Associated Press Jiang Zemin acknowledged that maintaining stability and fighting separatism among the restive Muslim inhabitants of China's northwestern Xinjiang region was a challenge. (4) DESPITE CRACKDOWN, ETHNIC TENSIONS PERSIST IN CHINA'S NORTHWEST March 12, 1998, Associated Press, By Charles Hutzler "Even if we are economically developed and the people's livelihood improved, the separatists and those arguing for the independence of Xinjiang may not necessarily give up their activities,'' Abdulahat Abdurixit said. "They are not resigned to their past failures.'' (5) CHINA TO SIGN MAJOR U.N. TREATY ON CIVIL, POLITICAL RIGHTS March 13, 1998, Associated Press China plans to sign a major U.N. treaty that guarantees basic civil and political rights to its people, including free speech and assembly, the foreign minister said Thursday. (6) CHINA DENIES PROBLEMS IN RESETTLING RESIDENTS NEAR THREE GORGES DAM March 14, 1998, Associated Press The official China Daily newspaper said Saturday that plans to move people from the dam area to Heilongjiang province in the northeast and Xinjiang in China's far west was meeting popular resistance. "The scheme proceeded slowly because the immigrants are reluctant to move so far away from their home towns,'' the newspaper said. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) CHINA NET USE EXPLODING March 11, 1998, By Reuters China's Ministry of Public Security last December implemented sweeping controls on the Internet to check the dissemination of what it called "harmful information" and to stop the leaking of state secrets. The political dissidents and separatists movements in Tibet and the Moslem region of Xinjiang. BEIJING--China's ranks of Internet surfers have swollen to 620,000 from less than 20,000 five years ago, the official Xinhua news agency said today. About 300,000 computers are now wired to the global computer network, Xinhua said, quoting a report by the Data Communication Department of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. The numberof Internet subscribers is expected to more than triple to top 2 million by the end of the century, the agency said. Industry analysts have estimated the number of users will soar to 7 million by 2001. More than 60 percent of Internet surfers were 20 to 30 years old, Xinhua said. Most users sought material on the information industry, business, and finance, it said. "The expanding network and increasing Net users provide massive business opportunities for content providers, especially those who can provide Chinese-based information," Xinhua said. The report said although China had more than 100 Internet service providers, few carried political, economic, or social information on China. China's Ministry of Public Security last December implemented sweeping controls on the Internet to check the dissemination of what it called "harmful information" and to stop the leaking of state secrets. The curbs were seen as an effort to combat use of the computer network by political dissidents and separatists movements in Tibet and the Moslem region of Xinjiang. Personal computer sales in China were expected to top 700, 000 units this year, Xinhua said. (2) CHINESE PRESIDENT CALLS FOR ETHNIC UNITY March 7, 1998, Associated Press, by Greg Baker Chinese President Jiang Zemin said there remained a lot of hard work to do in maintaining stability in Xinjiang, and that it was still an arduous task to oppose ethnic separation, maintain ethnic unity and safeguard national unity. BEIJING. Chinese President Jiang Zemin said on Saturday success had been achieved in fighting separatism in Tibet, but there was still much to do in the northwestern Moslem region of Xinjiang. The Communist Party chief called for greater efforts to improve life in areaspopulated by ethnic minorities, saying this was the way to combat separatism, the Xinhua news agency said. Xinhua said that during separate meetings with parliamentary delegations from Xinjiang and Tibet, Jiang appealed for national unity and greater efforts to safeguard social stability. He also urged quicker economic development and social progress in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. Western human rights groups have accused China of seeking to destroy Tibetan religion and culture. They say hundreds of Tibetan monks have been jailed and tortured for supporting the Himalayan region's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Chinese leaders have rejected the criticism, saying Tibet had prospered under Chinese rule and comparing Chinese actions to stamp out feudal serfdom in Tibet to Abraham Lincoln's emancipation of black slaves during the U.S. Civil War. "If we compare the old Tibet with the new, anyone who respects facts can make a fair judgment which is dark, backward, autocratic and trampling on human rights and which is bright, progressive, democratic and respecting human rights," Jiang said. He said there remained a lot of hard work to do in maintaining stability in Xinjiang, and that it was still an arduous task to oppose ethnic separation, maintain ethnic unity and safeguard national unity. "The tree may prefer calm, but the wind will not subside. It will be a long-term task to fight splittism," Jiang was quoted as saying. Xinjiang, home to Turkish-speaking Uighurs, has been rocked by rioting and bombings since last year. Uighur militants have agitated for an independent state in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and three former Soviet Central Asian republics. Jiang said by balancing reform and development on the one hand and solidarity and stability on the other, the local government in Tibet had achieved remarkable economic growth and social progress. "We have won significant victory in the fight against splittism in Tibet. The region has maintained social and political stability and the people there are living a happy life," he said. Jiang said ethnic and religious policies of the Communist Party were "correct" and described China as a big family, comprising 56 ethnic groups. Xinjiang enjoyed social and political stability, economic prosperity, ethnic unity and a solid military defense in its frontier areas, Jiang said. He said it was important to resolutely maintain stability in Xinjiang, which he described as a region with great strategic significance. "Keeping social and political stability in this region has a bearing on the overall situation," Jiang said. He said Xinjiang had abundant resources and good prospects for development, noting that Beijing had decided to turn the region into a major petrochemical and cotton production base. Jiang said he believed economic growth in Xinjiang could catch up with other regions, and even overtake them, pushing itself to the forefront in China's modernization drive. (3) CHINESE PRESIDENT CLAIMS SUCCESS IN TIBET POLICIES March 7, 1998, Associated Press Jiang Zemin acknowledged that maintaining stability and fighting separatism among the restive Muslim inhabitants of China's northwestern Xinjiang region was a challenge. BEIJING (AP) Tibetans are living a "happy life'' thanks to Chinese policies fostering economic growth and social development, state-run media quoted President Jiang Zemin as saying Saturday. Jiang rejected criticism of China's often harsh rule in the remote Himalayan region, describing today's Tibet as "bright, progressive and democratic,'' the Xinhua News Agency said. In comments during meetings with Tibetan and other minority delegates to the annual session of the National People's Congress, also reported on state-run television, Jiang declared a "significant victory'' against those who favored independence for Tibet. "The region has maintained social and political stability and the people there are living a happy life,'' he said. China's critics contend that recent economic growth has mainly benefited Chinese migrants who have flooded into Tibet, and that the ruling communists have sought to destroy the indigenous culture. The government points to rising living standards in Tibet as proof of improved human rights, arguing that the region's fragile environment is well-protected and Tibetan Buddhism is thriving. Jiang, who heads the Communist Party, described China as a "big family'' of 56 ethnic groups who were united in working for the nation. But he acknowledged that maintaining stability and fighting separatism among the restive Muslim inhabitants of China's northwestern Xinjiang region was a challenge. Anti-Chinese sentiment has intensified in Xinjiang, fed by religious ferment from the Islamic world, nationalism in former Soviet republics in Central Asia and anger that Chinese migrants seem to be getting richer while native Turkic-speaking Muslims remain poor. Muslim separatists were executed for planting three bombs on buses in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, in February 1997 and were suspected of bombing a bus in Beijing a few weeks later. (4) DESPITE CRACKDOWN, ETHNIC TENSIONS PERSIST IN CHINA'S NORTHWEST March 12, 1998, Associated Press, By Charles Hutzler "Even if we are economically developed and the people's livelihood improved, the separatists and those arguing for the independence of Xinjiang may not necessarily give up their activities,'' Abdulahat Abdurixit said. "They are not resigned to their past failures.'' BEIJING (AP) Despite a two-year crackdown on separatist groups in northwest China, tensions between Chinese and Muslim minorities persist, fueled in part by uneven economic growth, regional leaders said Thursday. The campaign begun after political assassinations and bombings beset the province of Xinjiang tried to get residents to turn in suspected separatists, targeted Islamic study groups and purged local officials considered sympathizers. As a result, "separatist activities, illegal religious activities and terrorist activities have been dealt a very serious blow,'' the head of the regional government, Abdulahat Abdurixit, told a news conference Thursday. However, Abdurixit and his boss, Xinjiang Communist Party secretary Wang Lequan, could not provide figures on how many people were arrested or punished during the crackdown. And they acknowledged that separatism has deep roots among Xinjiang's Turkic-speaking Muslim minorities. Xinjiang was ruled by Chinese emperors for 200 years as a buffer state between China and the Muslim nations of Central Asia. The Uighurs, Xinjiang's main ethnic group, briefly ran an independent state before communist forces retook the region in 1949. Separatist sentiment, never fully quelled, has been reignited in recent years by the newly independent Central Asian nations created in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse and by Iran's Islamic revolution. China has tried to counter the effect by improving relations with Kazakstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and getting them to pledge not to support anti-Chinese separatists. The growth of separatism in Xinjiang also coincides with an economic boom in the region. Abdurixit said growth last year was the best in the region's history, citing everything from rising incomes to booming corn crops over the past five years. But the Uighurs complain the region's oil and other natural resources have mainly enriched Beijing and Chinese migrants. Abdurixit accused pro-independence forces of exploiting that sense of unfairness. "Separatists are making use of ... temporary problems in economic development to create conflicts, estranging relations among the various ethnic groups and fanning the sentiments of the people,'' Abdurixit said. Beijing's prescription is more economic growth, he said even as he admitted that probably will not end pro-independence sentiment. "Even if we are economically developed and the people's livelihood improved, the separatists and those arguing for the independence of Xinjiang may not necessarily give up their activities,'' Abdurixit said. "They are not resigned to their past failures.'' (5) CHINA TO SIGN MAJOR U.N. TREATY ON CIVIL, POLITICAL RIGHTS March 13, 1998, Associated Press China plans to sign a major U.N. treaty that guarantees basic civil and political rights to its people, including free speech and assembly, the foreign minister said Thursday. BEIJING (AP) China plans to sign a major U.N. treaty that guarantees basic civil and political rights to its people, including free speech and assembly, the foreign minister said Thursday. The government said earlier it was considering signing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, but also indicated it believed the accord could conflict with domestic laws. The treaty, which foreign governments have urged China to sign, is intended to provide broad, basic guarantees of civil liberties and legally support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It guarantees free speech, assembly and association. Countries that uphold it may restrict these rights by law only to protect national security. In Washington, White House press secretary Mike McCurry called the Chinese decision "a positive and constructive step forward." "This decision by China ... represents a formal commitment to the principles that are espoused in the covenant. It creates an international standard by which future Chinese actions can be evaluated,'' McCurry said. Just before Foreign Minister Qian Qichen spoke to reporters inside the Great Hall of the People, police guarding the building hustled away a man who apparently was trying to present a petition. Three uniformed officers quickly put him in a police car and drove off. The foreign minister's annual news conference takes place during the legislative session, which lasts about two weeks each March. Citizens often try to petition the legislature, and several people have been arrested this year attempting to approach the heavily guarded building on Tiananmen Square. China's constitution guarantees freedom of speech, assembly and religion and other civil liberties, but in reality those rights are severely curtailed by laws and regulations, some of them unpublished. The ruling communists have argued the right of China's 1.2 billion people to economic security supersedes other liberties. China also argues that every nation defines human rights differently. Under Chinese law, police may detain suspects for lengthy periods without charge and send detainees to labor camps for up to three years without trial. The punishment has been increasingly applied in recent years to political dissidents, who are often relentlessly harassed by police once released. China still prohibits Roman Catholics from recognizing the Vatican's authority and government campaigns are underway to tighten control over Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and Islamic study groups. Beijing maintains both groups inspire anti-Chinese separatists in Tibet and the Muslim region of Xinjiang. Qiao Xiaoyang, vice chairman of the congress' legislative affairs commission, said Friday the legislature should soon receive a related treaty from the State Council the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. and ratify it. "I believe it will be very quick,'' he said. He gave no date. ( 6 ) CHINA DENIES PROBLEMS IN RESETTLING RESIDENTS NEAR THREE GORGES DAM March 14, 1998, Associated Press The official China Daily newspaper said Saturday that plans to move people from the dam area to Heilongjiang province in the northeast and Xinjiang in China's far west was meeting popular resistance. "The scheme proceeded slowly because the immigrants are reluctant to move so far away from their home towns,'' the newspaper said. BEIJING (AP) A Chinese official denied Saturday there were serious problems in resettling the 1.2 million people who will be displaced by the Three Gorges Dam project. But an official newspaper acknowledged the program was meeting some resistance. A report released last week by the environmental lobbyist International Rivers Network and the New York-based Human Rights in China said the resettlement program was faltering due to widespread popular resistance, official deception and corruption. China is building the Three Gorges, the world's largest hydroelectric project, to control flooding along the Yangtze River and supply power needed for economic development. When completed in 2009, the dam's 350-mile-long reservoir will entirely or partly submerge two cities, 11 county seats and 114 towns. Gan Yuping, a vice mayor of Chongqing municipality, said the report of resettlement problems "has no basis in fact.'' Most of the people to be resettled come from Chongqing, in China's southwest. Gan, who handles resettlement issues for the municipality, said 80,000 people had been moved from the dam area so far, and that Chongqing aimed to move another 67,000 people this year. Generally, once resettled, people's "living standards are quite good, higher than before'' they moved, Gan said at a news conference during the national legislature's annual session. Gan said the area around the Three Gorges has much surplus labor, so some people were being sent to other parts of China where there are more jobs. But the official China Daily newspaper said Saturday that plans to move people from the dam area to Heilongjiang province in the northeast and Xinjiang in China's far west was meeting popular resistance. "The scheme proceeded slowly because the immigrants are reluctant to move so far away from their home towns,'' the newspaper said. Prepared by: *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= The World Uyghur Network News electronic newsletter is produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center (ETIC) in cooperation with the Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association (USA), and is devoted to the current political, cultural and economic developments in Eastern Turkistan and to the Uyghur people related issues. Eastern Turkistan (Sherqiy Turkistan in Uyghur) is a name used by the indigenous people of the region for their motherland located in what is at present the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic China. The World Uyghur Network News brings information on situation in Eastern Turkistan from the Uyghur and other sources to the attention of the international community. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER |