Skip to content

500 Uighur Seized When Protesting in Xinjiang

Protests by nearly 1, 000 people broke out recently in the City of Khotan (Hetian), East Turkestan (Xinjiang), 500 seized and total information blackout in effect, reported Taiwan based China Times on March 30, 2008. 

World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilixiati told China Times that the protests occurred on March 23 and 24 and that 80% of the protesters were women.  He said that the protesters made several demands, including the cessation of the torture of the Uighur people, the release of political prisoners and the return of unmarried women that the authorities forcibly took away as cheap labor.

Source: China Times, March 30, 2008
http://news.chinatimes.com/2007Cti/2007Cti-Rtn/2007Cti-Rtn-Content/0,4526,110109+112008033000357,00.html

Xinhua: Stop the Irresponsible Uproar

Xinhua published a commentary article stating that the comments made by Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament, to boycott Beijing Olympic is sheer nonsense, extremely irresponsible and represent only a few western biased views which will have no effect. “This kind of unpopular statement will hurt the feelings of 1.3 billion Chinese people and place itself on the opposing side of a quarter of world’s population”, it said. “People who make this kind of statement are carrying cold-war mentality and ignoring the stability, development and prosperity China has made. They only want to smear and criticize China , which has reflected their own arrogance and ignorance.”

Source: Xinhua, March 30, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/30/content_7881720.htm

Xinhua: China Gained Wide Range of International Support On Measures Taken in Lhasa

On March 28, Xinhua posted an article titled: “Legal Measures Taken by The Administration of Tibet Autonomous Region in Handling Serious Criminal Act in Lhasa Gained Wide Range of Understanding and Support from the International Community.” It claimed that so far there have been 120 countries and international organizations showed support to the righteous actions China has taken. It listed Thailand, Burma, Timor-Leste, Qatar, Central African Republic, Algeria, Columbia, Chile, Peru, and Bosnia-Herzegovina as the ones that recently showed their support.

Source: Xinhua, March 28, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/28/content_7877593.htm

Beijing To Expand Cooperation with Arabic Countries

At a press conference at Damascus, a Chinese diplomat expressed Beijing’s desire to expand the cooperation with Arabic countries. Sun Bigan, the government’s Middle East special envoy, told journalists that China has a friendly strategic cooperative relationship with Arabic countries. On issues such as Taiwan, Tibet, and human rights, Arabs have given “precious” supports, while China reciprocates by backing their sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national rights. In 2007, the bilateral trade amounted to 86.4 billion USD. Sun added that Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will lead a delegation to the Second Ministerial Meeting of Sino-Arabic Cooperation Forum to be held in Bahrain in May.

Source: Xinhua, March 27, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/27/content_7871633.htm

China Faces Grim Agriculture and Grain Production

At a national agriculture and grain production telephone conference, the State Council announced ten “important” measures to step up the support of the sector. Increase of the agricultural output is believed to be the key to alleviating the galloping inflation, the “most outstanding” problem in the economy. According to Premier Wen Jiabao, 2008 is a “grim” year for China’s agriculture and grain production, due to natural disasters and adverse climate.

Source: Xinhua, March 27, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-03/27/content_7870258.htm

PLA’s Modernized R & D System In Place

At a joint meeting of several Ministries and Agencies overseeing science and education, a senior official claimed that a modernized national defense scientific research system has emerged. Sun Yanlai, Deputy Chief of Bureau of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense, depicted the national defense science and technology industry as a network composing of nearly 300 core military institutions, 90 plus key laboratories, and 7 research universities. He added that the number of defense technologies patents grows at an annual rate of over 46 percent over the past three years. The newly developed technologies include 1 million kilowatt-class nuclear power plant, large geostationary satellite platform, new regional jets, new generation of large-scale carrier rockets, super tanker, design and construction of liquefied natural gas ship.

Source: Xinhua, March 28, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/28/content_7872502.htm

Political or Apolitical: The 2008 Beijing Olympics

China has alleged that international human rights groups are politicizing the Olympics by pressing China to cease human rights abuses. The International Olympics Committee reiterates the Games is all about sports, not politics. A review of the regulations and practices that China has adopted in preparation for the Olympics, however, shows that China is treating the event as the most important political milestone since it came to power in 1949.
Continue reading

Government Think Tank: Patriotic Education of Tibetan Monks is Successful

China began patriotic education of Tibetan monks in 1996 and the education has been very successful, said Zheng Tui, Director of the Institute of Religious Studies under the China Tibetan Studies Center, in a press conference on March 26, 2008. Zheng stated, “to give monks this kind of education mainly is because of the long term interference from Dalai Lama with Tibetan’s construction. On one hand, it educates the monks. On the other, it helps resist the infiltration by handful foreign separatists into monks.” The patriotic education program not only improves the education level of monks but also increases their patriotic awareness, said Zheng. From his personal experience in the temples, he found such education “very successful.”

Source: Xinhua, March 26, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/26/content_7864207.htm