http://uyghuramerican.org en-us http://uyghuramerican.org N/A zarapshan@gmail.com Sat, 17 May 2008 10:30:42 -0700 20 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1722/1/Chinas-Other-Forgotten-People/index.html Last week, the Olympics flame finally reached its destination: China, which is to host this year's version of the Summer Games. The flame's global journey provided numerous occasions for opponents of the Chinese regime to vent their anger and frustration. The focus of the protests was Tibet, an autonomous region in the Himalayas, long regarded as the last bastion of Buddhism. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1721/1/For-Talks-to-Succeed-China-Must-Admit-to-a-Tibet-Problem/index.html China’s hard-line policy towards Tibet creates more problems than it solves. Beijing’s recent crackdown on Tibetan protesters has attracted condemnation from around the world, but did nothing to address the underlying problems in Tibet itself. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1714/1/Broken-Rings/index.html Liu Qi, the former mayor of Beijing, stands at a modern podium in ancient Olympia before a crowd of international dignitaries, 1,000 armed police officers, a marching band and the eyes of the world. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1712/1/Tibet-Only-the-Tip-of-The-Iceberg/index.html Given the endless attention in the past few issues to China’s human rights abuses as the summer Olympics in Beijing approach, I thought this photograph found in a German archive could spark further discussion about possible parallels between China today and Nazi Germany. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1707/1/Broken-Promises/index.html As a candidate in 2000, George W. Bush didn't offer too many opinions on foreign policy. He could not name the leader of Pakistan, and his entire global experience consisted of a few trips south of the border and to Europe and Israel. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1702/1/Fanning-the-flames/index.html In its trek across the six continents, the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch has been engulfed by a series of political and ideological battles and subjected to criticism (and occasionally capture) from journalists, human-rights groups, Free Tibet advocates, and other parties dissatisfied with the Chinese government’s human rights record. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1701/1/Torch-Song-Olympic-Relay-Strikes-Varied-Chords/index.html Was China's Olympic-torch relay around the world a miserable failure or a surprising success? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1694/1/Pakistani-Article-Says-Europe-US-Supporting-Uprising-in-Chinas-Xinjiang/index.html Text of commentary by Retired Colonel Ghulam Sarwar: "Warning of Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan With Regard to Xinjiang" published by Pakistani newspaper Ausaf on 5 May zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1688/1/Beijing-Embraces-Classical-Fascism/index.html In 2002, I speculated that China may be something we have never seen before: a mature fascist state. Recent events there, especially the mass rage in response to Western criticism, seem to confirm that theory. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1687/1/Chinas-Fall-From-Grace-No-Surprise/index.html The Current Discussion: In his recent PostGlobal blog post, "The Ugly Chinese," commentator John Pomfret says the world's perception of China isn't as rosy as it used to be. Do you see China as a threat? Why? Why not? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1685/1/Chinas-next-generation-nationalists/index.html They're educated, richer and more aggressive toward the West. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1675/1/The-Ugly-Chinese/index.html Move over ugly American, make room for the ugly Chinese. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1673/1/The-Impact-of-Pakistan-China-defense-ties-on-the-War-on-Terrorism/index.html In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, both China and Pakistan expressed their support for the U.S. But they did so differently and with varying motives and reasons. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1666/1/Chinas-Troubled-Olympics/index.html China finds itself in a diplomatically and politically uncomfortable situation yet again with the Tibet unrest and needs to come out with a solution to its problems at least before the Beijing Olympics, but considering its political directions, that is most unlikely to happen. At the moment all solutions of the China-Tibet problem, can only be temporary. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1662/1/The-Right-Way-to-Pressure-Beijing-/index.html Human rights groups are rightly outraged about China’s abysmal record. But it is foolhardy to treat a rising superpower like a tin-pot dictatorship. Sometimes, a little pragmatism goes a long way. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1661/1/Beijing-Intensifies-quotPeoples-Warquot-Against-Splittism-as-Nationalism-Rears-its-Head/index.html While Beijing started last weekend to rein in nationalistic outbursts against Western media and governments, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has upped the ante in its “people’s war” against separatists who are allegedly in cahoots with “anti-China elements overseas” to undermine Chinese rule and disrupt the Beijing Olympics. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1646/1/In-Chinas-Wild-West/index.html "Silk road gem and jade shop," the sign proudly states. Centrally located just down the street from the main mosque in Khotan, a dusty oasis town located in the vast Taklamakan Desert in China's far southwest, the shop is a focal point for the Muslim Uighurs who make up the majority of the local population. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1645/1/Tibets-Territory-Claim-Reaches-Well-Into-China/index.html If Tibet were granted autonomy or independence, as thousands of protesters have demanded during the recent Olympic torch relays through Paris, London, and San Francisco, China's Communist regime could face an existential threat, according to a range of experts on the region. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1643/1/The-Other-Tibet-/index.html "Silk Road Gem and Jade Shop" the sign proudly reads. Centrally located just down the street from the main mosque in Khotan, a dusty oasis town in the vast Taklamakan desert in China's far southwest, the shop is a focal point for the Muslim Uighurs who make up the majority of the local population. But though it is mid-morning, its gates are secured with heavy steel padlocks. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1641/1/The-Olympics-Have-Enough-Problems-/index.html Back a couple of millenniums ago, the Greeks used to call a truce whenever the athletes were competing at Ancient Olympia. Nowadays we have a modern version of the Olympic truce. It is called the Beijing shutdown. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1640/1/Chinese-Claims-of-Olympic-Terrorist-Plots-Seem-Suspect/index.html Although the Western media has become preoccupied with the protests against Beijing's repression in Tibet, Chinese policymakers perceive a comparably serious threat from another minority: the Muslim Uighurs. Concerns about separatist agitation among the Uighurs have had a considerable impact on Chinese foreign policy. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1635/1/The-Conqueror-of-Chinas-Wild-West/index.html On April 11, dozens of top Chinese military officers, government and party officials gathered in the frontier city of Urumqi to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Wang Zhen, the man who conquered China’s vast western region for the Communists and in doing so created a unique institution.  zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1634/1/After-Tibet-its-Xinjiang/index.html Like the Tibetans, Uighurs too constitute a form of predominant ethnic group in Xinjiang and aspire political independence while holding profound umbrage vis-a-vis Chinese control. And the time is ideal to draw global attention. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1633/1/-China-is-Pakistans-most-steadfast-partner/index.html Pakistan's long-standing ties with China are set to receive a symbolic but important boost this week, when the Olympic torch arrives in the country on the last leg of its eventual journey to Beijing for this year's Olympic Games. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1619/1/Chinas-Ethnic-Tension-Isnt-Limited-to-Tibet/index.html This outpost of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps is home to nearly 20,000 ethnic Han Chinese, transplanted from China's eastern heartland to this arid border territory -- which is home to a large Turkic Muslim population. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1579/1/The-Great-Firewall-of-China/index.html There's a certain kind of news story out of China that never fails to make headlines in the West: government censors attempting to water down a Western film or book with seemingly little cause. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1571/1/China-Tibet-Olympics-Tension-bad-timing-and-competing-versions-of-what-it-means/index.html No, no, no, no, no. It wasn't supposed to be like this - the run-up to the opening of the Olympic games that China will host for the first time ever, the world's biggest sporting event that is due to open - cough, cough, choke - in the polluted Chinese capital in early August. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1570/1/Xinjiangs-melting-glaciers/index.html China's far northwest occupies a precarious position on the map of potential climate catastrophe. Josh Chin and Zachary Slobig report from Xinjiang, where water security is a key question for residents. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1568/1/Dont-boycott-Chinas-shame/index.html NO, don't. Let's not boycott the Beijing Olympics. Letting them go ahead is hurting China much, much more. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1562/1/Chinas-India-example-/index.html Tibet, Xinjiang May Not Be Assimilated Like Inner Mongolia And Manchuria zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1540/1/Terrible-Tepid-Terrorism/index.html China revealed that two Islamic terrorists who attempted to set off a gasoline bomb in a domestic airliner flight last month, were travelling on Pakistani passports, and one was from Pakistan. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1539/1/Tibet-and-the-other-national-threats-to-the-Chinese-regime/index.html As this is written, the Beijing Communist authorities are in the process of using brute force to stem a tide of frustration and violence from a downtrodden Tibetan population. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1538/1/Xinjiang-Chinas-other-Tibet/index.html While reports of unrest in Tibet frequently grab headlines around the world, little attention is given to what several human rights groups have dubbed China's "other Tibet". zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1531/1/Why-Beijing-Needs-the-Dalai-Lama/index.html Despite the intensity of the confrontation between the Chinese authorities and Tibetan protestors, Beijing and the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, appear to be subtly acknowledging the extent to which they need each other. But you have to read past the pungent rhetoric to see that. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1528/1/The-Uyghurs-and-the-Olympics-Will-Global-Focus-on-Beijing-Bring-Attention-to-the-Plight-of-the-Uyghurs-/index.html Taking advantage of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S., the Chinese government since 2001 has stepped up its repression of Uyghur dissent both inside and outside China’s borders, justifying its actions by branding Uyghur nationalists as terrorists. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1527/1/Chinas-True-Face---The-Host-of-the-Olympics-or-the-Thug-of-Tibet/index.html As what the Dalai Lama has called "cultural genocide" goes on in Tibet, it is wholly unacceptable that Jacques Rogge, the head of the International Olympic Committee, refuses to take a stand against the Beijing government's current crackdown on Tibetan protesters. In fact, this is completely at odds with the "spirit of the Olympics." zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1525/1/Xinjiang-Chinas-Other-Tibet-/index.html A land with an ancient culture that is remarkably different from its current masters. A desolate country, but with a striking beauty unseen anywhere else in this world. A place filled with spirituality, where people still make a living from the land and retain their ancient customs. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1524/1/Retaining-the-Loyalty-of-Xinjiangs-Hans/index.html In the boomtown of Korla, two hours south of Urumqi, groups of Han Chinese immigrants huddle outside the train station ticket office each night, waiting for the morning to return home, or travel elsewhere in Xinjiang looking for work. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1519/1/Chinese-model-of-integration-fails/index.html The embarrassment caused by the violence in Tibet, spilling over to Tibetan enclaves in mainland China, and global protests against China’s crackdown on protesters could not have come at a more inopportune time for the Chinese authorities. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1518/1/China-Faces-Crisis-Over-Tibetan-Unrest-/index.html China is witnessing the worst bout of political turmoil it has seen since the student-led democracy movement of 1989. The recurrence of unrest in Tibet poses major challenges to Beijing and raises serious questions about the political system in China. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1517/1/Tibetan-protests-fed-by-years-of-frustration-/index.html Chinese leaders have blamed "splittists" led by the exiled Dalai Lama for spurring violent protests in Tibet and orchestrating a public relations sneak attack on the Communist Party as it gears up to host the Olympics Games this summer. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1516/1/Years-of-grievances-erupt-into-rage/index.html Tibetans are weary of what they say is 'cultural genocide' and second-class status. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1515/1/God-and-Man-in-China/index.html The violent protests in Tibet that began last week and have since spread across (and beyond) China are frequently depicted as a secessionist threat to Beijing. But the regime's deeper problem in the current crisis is neither ethnic nor territorial. It's religious. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1512/1/The-wrong-side-of-history/index.html China is discovering that imperial rule is a tricky process, particularly when you claim to be anti-imperialist zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 18 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1523/1/Walkers-World-China-in-Tibet/index.html One sobering aspect of the tragedy of Tibet is to consider a list of the places in the world where abuses of human rights are most common. Darfur in Sudan, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Myanmar (or Burma), Uzbekistan and Tibet would come high on most peoples' lists. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1510/1/China-Its-Not-Just-Tibet/index.html China's overriding goal this year has been to showcase itself as a stable, unified country proudly ready to host this summer's 2008 Olympics. And that aim encompassed not just those who live in the well-off eastern coastal provinces that are overwhelmingly Chinese, but all of China's 1.3 billion people, including millions of Tibetans and Muslims who reside in the mainland's vast western regions. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1509/1/Spotlight-on-grievance/index.html Events in Tibet expose China's achilles heel: its inability to recognise and respect ethnic difference. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1494/1/The-new-coloniallist/index.html There is no exaggerating China's hunger for commodities. The country accounts for about a fifth of the world's population, yet it gobbles up more than half of the world's pork, half of its cement, a third of its steel and over a quarter of its aluminium. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1493/1/Chinas-Olympics-and-the-3-evils/index.html China's efforts to encash the forthcoming Olympics  games at Beijing  appear to have been facing severe hurdles even before the Games begin on August 8. However, major infrastructural efforts helped showcase several cities and venues. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1492/1/CHINESE-MIGRANTS-FACE-DISCRIMINATION-IN-KYRGYZSTAN/index.html The number of Chinese migrants traveling to Kyrgyzstan, mainly to Bishkek, the capital city, has been increasing over the past decade. China is one of the major exporters of goods to Kyrgyzstan, ranging from mass consumer products and home electronics to luxury commodities. In recent years China also turned into a major exporter of labor migrants to Kyrgyzstan. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1470/1/Dispatches-From-Chinas-Wild-West---5--Chinas-Nessie/index.html We were heading north, toward the Russian border. The flat, brown steppe we were driving through is considered to be a part of Siberia, ecologically speaking. The area is inhabited mainly by Tuvans, who are famous among world-music fans for their throat-singing prowess and who, according to legend, are the descendents of Genghis Khan, who used the place as a staging ground for his westward assault. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1469/1/Dispatches-From-Chinas-Wild-West---4--The-New-Silk-Road/index.html Walking into the Bian Jiang Hotel in Urumqi was a bit like stepping into a post-Soviet version of the Star Wars cantina scene. Every variety of Russian and Central Asian hustler was there: dark-skinned, mustached men in leather jackets; blond Russian women in track pants and midriff-baring T-shirts; Uzbek women with black eyes and flowing, multicolored dresses. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1468/1/Dispatches-From-Chinas-Wild-West---3-Chinas-Oil-Boom/index.html It was morning when I arrived in Korla, the capital of Xinjiang's oil boom, and the sky was dark, the sun obscured by a thick cloud of dust from the adjacent Taklamakan Desert. Many people on the street wore masks against the dust—the Chinese favored surgical-style versions, while many Uighur women wore delicate white cotton masks with lace trim. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1467/1/Dispatches-From-Chinas-Wild-West---2-Ramadan-in-China/index.html It was the first day of Ramadan, and although Ali, my translator, was fasting, I wasn't. He was a good sport about finding me a place to eat lunch, though. He took me to a couple of Muslim-owned restaurants, but both turned out to be closed for the holiday. I proposed Chinese food instead, but Ali refused even to consider the possibility. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1465/1/Dispatches-From-Chinas-Wild-West---1-China-Through-the-Back-Door/index.html Bundled into my sleeping bag against the high-altitude chill, unable to sleep, I peered through the bus window. But there was only darkness. I was on a 24-hour bus ride through the desolate borderlands between Kyrgyzstan and China. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1458/1/Factfile-Chinas-one-child-policy/index.html China's population went out of control after Mao Zedong's instruction to the nation in the 1950s and 1960s to go and have as many children as possible in order to bury the United States in a human wave. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1454/1/Opinion-Trampling-on-the-Olympics-Wounded-Ideals/index.html The ideals on which the modern Olympics were built have been betrayed, says DW's Nick Amies. Turning a blind eye to China's human rights abuses ahead of the Beijing Games is just adding insult to injury. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1452/1/Kosovo-independence-brings-new-uncertainties-in-Asia/index.html The unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo, with the support of the US and a number of European powers, has produced destabilising shockwaves beyond the Balkans. There is a widespread recognition in Asia and elsewhere that carving out a nation-state by recognising a small group of people on ethnic or religious lines could apply to any country. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1425/1/Defense-Focus-Chinas-weapons----Part-4/index.html The continuing weakness of China's armaments industry has profound implications for China's diplomacy, grand strategy and choice of conflicts it would be prepared to undertake for many years to come. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1424/1/Defense-Focus-Chinas-weapons----Part-3/index.html The weapons that China wants from Russia -- and that Moscow won't sell Beijing -- provide a remarkable insight into the current transitional state of the Chinese arms industry. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1422/1/Release-quotOlympic-prisonersquot-and-free-Chinese-media-Olympic-Watch-requests/index.html With six months to go until the Beijing 2008 Olympics, Olympic Watch is calling for an end to human rights abuses in China. Specifically calling for the release of "Olympic prisoners" Hu Jia, Yang Chunlin and Ye Guozhu, it also reminds the International Olympic Committee that full media freedom must be guaranteed in China as promised in 2001. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1421/1/Analysis-NATO-keeps-eye-on-China/index.html NATO is closely watching China's military expansion, with an attitude of rising concern and wariness. Led by the United States, NATO members are starting to view China as a possible emerging common adversary. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1417/1/Defense-Focus-Chinas-weapons/part1.html The Chinese domestic arms industry may one day be one of the biggest and most important in the world, but it is very far from that yet. Western experts believe China will need major outside suppliers for large amounts of equipment for years to come. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1412/1/Chinese-Curbs-Leave-Uyghur-Youth-in-Crisis/index.html Chinese curbs on the traditional Muslim culture of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are creating a social crisis among Uyghur youth, according to experts and Uyghurs at home and overseas. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1404/1/Hu-Jintao-Tightens-Grip-Over-Shanghai-Faction/index.html Since dumping former Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu in late 2006, President Hu Jintao has tightened his control over the East China metropolis—as well as the so-called Shanghai Faction in the tangled politics within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1403/1/Keeping-an-Eye-on-Chinas-Security/index.html Since Imperial times, Chinese governments have relied on neighbors to inform on each other as a way to preserve social control. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1400/1/Let-us-not-lose-faith-in-democracy/index.html President George W. Bush’s “freedom agenda” has run into the Middle Eastern sand. The president himself will be the last to recognise this. Speaking in the United Arab Emirates on January 13, he hailed a “great new era” of “the advance of freedom”. “My friends,” he proclaimed to the assembled sheikhs, “a future of liberty stands before you.” Then Mr Bush flew on to Egypt and lavished praise on President Hosni Mubarak, who threw into jail the last man to run against him for the presidency. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1387/1/Chinas-Genocide-Olympics-/index.html The Beijing Olympics this summer were supposed to be China’s coming-out party, celebrating the end of nearly two centuries of weakness, poverty and humiliation. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1385/1/Two-faces-of-China/index.html The Olympics will move China to the front of world attention, much as its rapid economic rise has already allowed it to surpass the United States in generating global economic growth. But the China the world will see this summer is one that is jampacked with contradictions. I visited China for the first time in December, and the two faces of this country jumped out at me every turn. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1384/1/Chinas-Human-Rights-No-Gold-Medal/index.html Recently, criticism of China's human rights situation has escalated. The European Parliament criticized the Chinese Government for not keeping its promise to improve human rights and freedom of the press. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1382/1/Interesting-times/index.html Yesterday, Richard Lea looked at China's exploding publishing scene. Today, he hears about the impact of rapid social change on writers, and their books zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1381/1/Chinas-leaders-change-tactics-toward-religion/index.html There was Hu Jintao, head of the Chinese Communist Party, warmly shaking hands at a party-sponsored New Year's tea party with one of the country's main Christian leaders. To make sure the message got through to China's 68 million party faithful, a large photograph of the moment was splashed across the front page of the official party newspaper, People's Daily. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1380/1/One-World-One-Dream/index.html Chinese misdirection on human rights reaches fever peak as the 2008 Olympic Games approach. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 22 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1373/1/Investing-in-China-Fools-gold/index.html Americans tend to disregard history. Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, famously declared bluntly, "History is bunk", while US novelist Gore Vidal calls the US "the United States of Amnesia". Usually, this disregard has few consequences, but sometimes not. That may be so with investing in China, where history suggests profits will be far belowcexpectations, possibly making those investments fool's gold. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1368/1/United-Nations---A-Human-Rights-Farce/index.html Americans are coming to realize the United Nations is not the organization we once trusted, even revered. The UN betrays the idealism expressed in the preamble to its charter, forged over sixty years ago in San Francisco, which states, "We the peoples of the United Nations determined…to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small…" Two recent events demonstrate why the American people and their elected officials should be scrutinizing our country's subsidization of the United Nations. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1363/1/-Why-should-we-trust-China--/index.html Bhaskar Roy, who retired recently as a senior government official with decades of national and international experience, is an expert on international relations and Indian strategic interests. In this exclusive column for Sify.com, he points out various instances where China has betrayed India's confidence and suggests methods for the government to deal with a country that plays underhand politics. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1361/1/In-Bhutan-China-and-India-collide/index.html As the world's newest democracy, the Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan has won praise around the world. Its recent transformation - from a century of monarchy to a multi-party democracy - has all the trappings of cinema: an enlightened king steps aside for his dashing, Oxford-educated son who represents a future of peace and prosperity. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1358/1/Illiberal-capitalism-Russia-and-China-chart-their-own-course/index.html During the cold war it was natural to lump Russia and China together. They were the two great communist powers – the leading ideological adversaries of the west. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1351/1/China-Flexes-Its-Muscles/index.html The U.S. Navy said it was "befuddled" by Beijing's last-minute November denial of a long-arranged port call for the Kitty Hawk carrier group in Hong Kong. This turndown was on top of China's refusal to provide shelter for two U.S. minesweepers seeking refuge from a storm, and its rejection of a routine visit for a frigate, the Reuben James. The Air Force also received a "no" for a regular C-17 flight to resupply the American consulate in Hong Kong. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1350/1/Democracy-denied/index.html TO DIM the impact of what it had to know would be unpopular news, China's government waited until the Saturday evening of the New Year's weekend to reveal its long-awaited reaction to Hong Kong's petition for a democratic government. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1344/1/A-critical-year-for-China-/index.html  If you want to understand how important — how unusually important — the coming year is to China, ask a historian. When was the last time that China was as confident, prosperous and engaged with the world as it is likely to be at the 2008 Beijing Olympics? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1334/1/Chinas-Asymmetrical-Strategy----The-battle-for-access-in-the-Western-Pacific-/index.html THE IMPRESSIVE CONVENTIONAL military strength post-industrial states have procured in the past half-century has helped to determine the shape and nature of modern warfare. In a geostrategic environment where conflict continues to persist between advanced militaries and their substandard adversaries--either rogue states or terror cells--the latter have been forced to develop asymmetric ways of challenging the superior with the inferior. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1333/1/Partners-in-Genocide---A-comprehensive-guide-to-Chinas-role-in-Darfur/index.html Two weeks ago, Britain introduced a toughly worded Presidential Statement at the U.N. Security Council, demanding that Khartoum's National Islamic Front regime turn over two génocidaires to the International Criminal Court. The first, Ahmed Haroun, who, in a grotesque bit of irony, now serves as Sudan's minister of humanitarian affairs, is accused of having directly orchestrated many of the vicious crimes documented by the U.N. and independent human rights organizations in Darfur. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1325/1/Clipping-the-dragons-wings/index.html  AMERICANS may well be delighted by new figures that show China's GDP is 40% smaller than previously thought. Has the devious Beijing government been massaging the numbers, as communist planners are wont to do? Hardly. China's GDP in yuan terms remains unchanged. What has happened is that the World Bank has changed the calculations it uses to make international comparisons of the size of economies. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1324/1/China-Vietnam-churn-diplomatic-waters/index.html Just as Hanoi prepared to enjoy the rewards of a diplomatic charm offensive, culminating in taking up for the first time a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council beginning next year, tensions have resurfaced with China over long-disputed and potentially oil-and-gas rich territories in the South China Sea. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1307/1/In-Shift-China-Greets-US-Empty-Handed/index.html If there's one thing the United States has come to expect before high-level diplomatic meetings with the Chinese, it is gifts. At the end of 2006, before the first strategic economic dialogue with Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., China let its currency rise in a nod to U.S. pressure. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1300/1/China-Saudi-Cooperation/index.html Despite the distinctly varied socio-political, cultural and economic systems as well as philosophy of life, Saudi Arabia and China have conducted a fairly smooth relationship in all domains of cooperation for the last two decades. There have been regular mutual visits and agreements between them and they have endeared shared interests in politics, security and economics. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1299/1/Beijing-Olympics-under-a-cloud/index.html On a recent trip to India, said to have cost around £750,000 of public money, the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone offered the Bollywood film industry a cheap deal for the use of some of the Olympic buildings in East London after the Games of 2012 are over. He is obviously keen to find ways of paying off the mountain of bills that appears to get higher by the day! zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1287/1/India-reveals-flawed-Tibet-policy/index.html The recent decision by India's ruling United Progressive Alliance government to bar ministers from attending a felicitation ceremony for the Dalai Lama is an indication not only of the blunders committed by the government in its foreign policy decision-making, but more perilously it exposes the flawed nature of India's policy towards Tibet. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1286/1/For-Paris-theres-no-China-la-rupture/index.html As President Nicolas Sarkozy completed his visit to China on November 26, Beijing discovered that its political, diplomatic and industrial relations with Paris won't suffer because of the end of the Jacques Chirac era. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 06 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1263/1/Chinas-Secret-War-Games-and-the-Kitty-Hawk-Affair-Flip-Flop/index.html Large-scale air and naval maneuvers off China’s southeast coast last week demonstrated the post-17th Party Congress leadership’s determination to project hard power in view of escalating tension in the Taiwan Strait. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1260/1/Will-China-quotLosequot-the-2008-Olympics/index.html When the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the 2008 Summer Games in July 2001, the announcement ignited wild celebrations across the country. The Chinese Communist Party hoped to use the Games to showcase the country's emergence as a dynamic, modern nation. But as China's leaders begin final preparations for the Games next August, they may be wondering if hosting the event was such a good idea after all. They have significant reasons for doubt. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1258/1/The-world-does-not-shake-China/index.html "LET China sleep, for when she wakes the world will shake." So, purportedly, said Napoleon some 200 years ago. In Beijing this week European leaders have been telling their Chinese counterparts that such unease is at risk of spreading. Once content to let the Americans do the worrying, the EU is joining in. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1256/1/-EU-dances-around-China/index.html Issues ranging from food safety to German contact with the Dalai Lama created tension ahead of Wednesday's summit between the European Union and China in Beijing. Yet, these political "hot potatoes" do not diminish the attractiveness of the Chinese market for Western firms. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1243/1/Just-as-ignorant-of-Hus-China-as-of-Stalins-Russia/index.html Ethnic settlements of Uyghurs (ethnics of Turkic origin) exist in many countries, including the United States. But the dictatorship of China wants its population to be homogeneous ethnically as well. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1238/1/Chinas-Uighurs-fight-for-rights/index.html China's eight million Muslim Turkic Uighurs hit the global stage with the fight for their rights after Beijing uses the war on terror to legitimize a crackdown on the minority and stave off its worst nightmare. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1222/1/China-issues-blueprint-for-communist-led-political-system/index.html China on Thursday issued a blueprint for the expansion of its 'multi-party cooperation system' under the leadership of the ruling Communist Party, saying consultation with eight state-approved minor parties would 'play a more and more important role.' zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1219/1/Premier-Wens-Eurasia-Tour-Beijing-and-Moscows-Divergent-Views-on-Central-Asia/index.html On November 2, the sixth annual meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Government began in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The six member states include Kazakhastan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan [1]. India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan attended as observers and Afghanistan as a guest of the host country Uzbekistan. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1217/1/17th-Chinese-Communist-Party-Congress-Policy-Implications-on-Taiwan/index.html As expected, no major “policy” surprise came from the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress, particularly towards Taiwan. President Hu Jintao’s political report on Taiwan from now until 2012 will be more of the same. The Anti-Secession Law (fan fenlie guojia fa) provided the legal foundation, and Hu's "four-point” guidelines are directing the policy zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 15 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1211/1/Democracy-with-one-party-characteristics/index.html In the wake of last month's 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the leadership has stepped up its campaign to convince the world of the legitimacy of what might be called "democracy with Chinese characteristics". zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1206/1/KAZAKHSTAN-MOVES-FURTHER-AWAY-FROM-RUSSIAN-DOMINATION-/index.html Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao recently concluded a whirlwind tour of Central Asia following the sixth Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, held in Tashkent on November 2. While there, Wen met with Kazakhstan’s Prime Minister Karim Masimov. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1199/1/-China-Keep-your-Olympic-promise/index.html China sees the 2008 Olympics as an opportunity to present a positive and smiling image to the outside world. (It actually has launched an international photo competition for children with smiling faces, but typically declines to indicate how these are to be used.) zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1195/1/Dont-Say-a-Word-Nov-2-is-Speak-Silence-Day/index.html Today, Canadians all over the globe are observing Speak Silence, an event designed to recognize the victims of human rights abuses. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1194/1/Anti-Terrorism-with-Chinese-Characteristics-Peace-Mission-2007-in-Context/index.html In mid-August, approximately 6,500 soldiers from six countries wrapped up the largest joint military exercises held by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). With roughly 1,600 troops participating, Chinese forces made up the second-largest contingent, just behind the 2,000-man Russian contribution. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1193/1/Balancing-Chinas-Budgetary-Priorities-Defense-Spending-and-Domestic-Challenges/index.html The true level of China’s current defense budget is difficult to calculate, but projecting future trends in Beijing’s military spending entails struggling with even greater uncertainties and complexities. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1192/1/Post-Congress-Appointments-Motivated-by-Factional-and-Ideological-Biases-Not-Reform-/index.html With the just-ended 17th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress marking the mid-point of his ten-year tenure, General Secretary and President Hu Jintao is a man in a hurry. There is little wonder why after consolidating his grip over the party, state and army, the “new helmsman” has moved quickly to fulfill the goals enunciated at the five-yearly conclave. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1181/1/Sharpening-the-dragons-claws/index.html The People's Republic of China continues to send worrisome signals about its security strategy. As the tone of cross-straits relations grows increasingly strident, China's latest military reshuffle and ongoing lack of transparency about its military budget are creating new tensions with both the United States and its neighbors in East Asia. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1180/1/Assessing-Chinas-economic-and-military-power/index.html The Chinese Communist Party holds its Seventeenth National Congress this month. That congress and the session of China’s national legislature next March mark the midway point and the reconfirmation in power of the Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao leadership and provide occasions for assessing China’s recent rise and its road ahead. In anticipation of these two congresses, FPRI convened a group of experts to consider the extent and implications of China’s rise as a military and economic power. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1179/1/China-and-Russia-unite-against-US-military-expansionism-in-Asia/index.html What American leaders and officials called the “New World Order” is what the Chinese and Russians consider a “Unipolar World.” This concern for U.S. superpower status as a context for enforcing a U.S. Bush administration neo-fascist agenda has bridged the Chinese (Sino)-Russian divide between Beijing and Moscow. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1178/1/China-angered-by-German-accusations-of-Internet-espionage/index.html The People's Republic of China has rejected as "baseless" the latest German accusations according to which Chinese state agencies are behind attacks on computers in Germany. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1177/1/Who-Rules-China/index.html The big question everyone in the know was asking going into this week's 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was who would emerge as the anointed next leader of China. But there remains the other big question, one that too often goes unasked: How much does it matter? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1176/1/Will-Olympic-torch-light-way-to-changes-in-China/index.html When Toronto was bidding to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the mayor of Rome gave the bid team some advice, having just lost Rome's bid to host in 2004 to a sentimentally attractive campaign by Athens. According to Francesco Rutelli, the IOC veers between safe "technical" bids and "political" bids representing a more daring "idea."  zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1175/1/China-Ushers-Into-Position-Its-Next-Era-Of-Leaders/index.html Xi Jinping, the son of a Chinese guerrilla leader who rose through the ranks to become Communist Party chief in business-friendly Shanghai, was designated Monday as the most likely successor to President Hu Jintao as leader of the world's most populous nation. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1174/1/A-Political-Win-for-Chinas-Hu/index.html Who says China's Communist leaders have no sense of humor? When President Hu Jintao introduced the nation's new lineup of top leaders at the grand finale of the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, he stuck mostly to the near-robotic demeanor that has become his trademark. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1173/1/Putins-Power-Play/index.html Russian tyrant-in-waiting Vladimir Putin's plan to restore a one-man dictatorship in Moscow has caused anxiety in the thin ranks of Russian liberals as well as among partisans of secure independence in the former Soviet republics. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1171/1/Enforced-loyalty-in-distant-lands-/index.html At dusk in the city of Kasghar, you can shoot your enemies one-by-one at one of the arcade games set up in the main square. The sun has gone down. Dozens of old men walk towards the Id Kah mosque just off the square. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1168/1/-Beijings-Demonstration-Sports/index.html Our president has announced that he will attend the Beijing Olympics next year as an honored guest of China’s Communist government. The president is keen to go because, said a spokesman, “he loves sports.” zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1166/1/China-Burma-and-the-Saffron-Revolution/index.html The violent crackdown against anti-government protesters in Rangoon at the end of September shone a spotlight on China’s interests, influence, and objectives in Burma, Beijing’s closest ally in Southeast Asia. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1165/1/Hus-Impasse-at-the-17th-Party-Congress/index.html The selection of the new Beijing leadership, which will be endorsed by the ongoing 17th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress, has revealed disturbing schisms among the major factions and, in particular, President Hu Jintao’s failure to establish overriding authority five years after acceding to the country’s top job. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1164/1/Chinas-Most-Powerful-Princelings-How-Many-Will-Enter-the-New-Politburo/index.html High on the list of conceivable outcomes of the 17th Party Congress that will cause strong social resentment in China is the possibility that the newly established Politburo will be filled with many “princelings,” leaders who come from families of former high-ranking officials. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1162/1/Retired-Cadre-Criticize-CCP-for-Stifling-Debate-and-Ignoring-the-Poor/index.html In an open letter to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Politburo Standing Committee, 170 retired senior cadre denounced the current government's economic policies as unfair toward the working class and harmful to the environment, adding that they had departed drastically from the original socialist values of Mao Zedong. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1159/1/Tibetans-dream-of-autonomy/index.html In China, prosperity grows, most people breathe more freely than for decades and the urban coast responds to a modernising world. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1157/1/Chinas-voices-of-dissent-/index.html Although China's Communist Party exerts huge power and influence over the everyday lives of its citizens, there are several activists who continue to pose major problems for the authorities. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1154/1/Central-Asia-pulled-between-East-and-West/index.html The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has recently raised its profile by expanding its traditional emphasis on anti-terrorism to include potential peacekeeping activities within the former Soviet region. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1140/1/Could-Nobel-Win-Push-Gore-Into-08-Race-/index.html Thousands of activists are hoping to convince Al Gore to run for president. Could a Nobel Peace Prize give the reluctant candidate a push? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1135/1/India-falters-as-China-races-ahead-in-the-new-Great-Game---Feature-/index.html India's plans to be the main player in Central Asia have been thwarted by China, which has emerged as the dominant force in the "New Great Game" with soaring trade and multi-billion-dollar investments in energy and infrastructure. Having long considered the Central Asian Republics (CARs) as its backyard, New Delhi expected to play a lead role in the region after the 1991 collapse of its traditional ally the Soviet Union. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1132/1/Reorienting-the-17th-Party-Congress-Boosting-Unity-and-Thwarting-Taiwan/index.html Nearly overnight, the focus of the 17th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Congress has shifted from the debate regarding Chinese political and economic reform to the promotion of internal party unity and the combating of Taiwan’s proposed referendum. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1130/1/XINJIANG-CHINA-ETHNIC-KAZAKHS-TO-PONDER-FUTURE-AMID-TOURISM-BOOM-/index.html The Chinese province of Xinjiang is often in the news, with most media reports examining the independence aspirations of its Uighur population, as well as the Go West policy of populating the region with Han Chinese. There is another, less reported story in Xinjiang -- the erosion of ethnic Kazakh culture. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1129/1/Gore-eyed-for-Nobel-Peace-Prize-/index.html Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and/or another climate campaigner are likely to be awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize next week, according to a seasoned award watcher. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1113/1/In-the-playground-of-the-superpowers/index.html The Caucasus/Central Asian region has historically been an important area at the crossroads of the European and Asian continents. Its cities were important stopover points along the famous Silk Road trading route and they were centers of education and knowledge. It has always been an area of interest to invaders, conquerors, and superpowers. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s left a power vacuum in the region, and once again drew the attention of the world's superpowers. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 20 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1108/1/Genocide-Games/index.html An international outcry over Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games has grown steadily louder in recent months. How, it is being asked, can the premier event in international sports be hosted by a nation complicit in the most heinous international crimes? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1101/1/Ten-Things-You-Should-Know-About-China/index.html Beijing was selected to host the summer Olympics in 2008 despite its dismal human rights record. Although China is a rising global economic power, the government continues to restrict even the most basic political rights and civil liberties of Chinese citizens.  Chinese citizens have no say in their leadership, the judiciary is not independent, and freedom of speech, association, and religion are all severely restricted. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1096/1/Beijings-silly-season-begins-/index.html Now that the date of the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has finally been set for October 15, the paranoid desire to ensure that it comes off without an unscripted hitch is spreading like one of those viruses Chinese leaders have come to dread. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1089/1/War-games-in-the-Urals-/index.html Is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) turning into a defence alliance? The big-scale war games the regional group held in August led many analysts to this conclusion. They may have jumped the gun.  “Peace Mission-2007” was the largest military exercise the SCO ever staged. It began in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where the operation planning was done, and moved on to the Ural Mountains in Russia for action on the ground. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1086/1/An-Opportunity-for-Wall-St-in-Chinas-Surveillance-Boom-/index.html Li Runsen, the powerful technology director of China’s ministry of public security, is best known for leading Project Golden Shield, China’s intensive effort to strengthen police control over the Internet. But last month Mr. Li took an additional title: director for China Security and Surveillance Technology, a fast-growing company that installs and sometimes operates surveillance systems for Chinese police agencies, jails and banks, among other customers. The company has just been approved for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1085/1/For-Chinas-Censors-Electronic-Offenders-Are-the-New-Frontier/index.html Li Hua was outraged. The public high school where he had been teaching civics for six years was about to be swallowed up by a fancy private institution. The merger had been ordered by local officials, Li suspected, because they had a financial stake in the big new school and wanted to see it flourish. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1077/1/Balancing-act-at-the-party-congress/index.html The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will open its 17th National Congress on October 15, according to a decision made by the Politburo at a meeting on August 28. But except for the date, no information about the leadership reshuffle has been revealed. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 06 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1051/1/The-new-NATO-of-the-East-takes-shape/index.html If optimism is a force multiplier, as former US secretary of state Colin Powell once said, it has worked well so far for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. There were times in the past seven years when it seemed doubtful that the SCO would pull through, beating back the all-out US assault on its credibility. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1048/1/Peace-Mission-2007---Chinese-Military-Political-Venture-in-Central-Asia/index.html While the World has been engaged in other parts of Asia; West, South and South East, Central Asia has been relatively in the background over the past few years. Yet China in concert with Russia is slowly making inroads into the region. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was founded in Shanghai on 15 June 2001 by six nations, Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 24 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1044/1/IS-SCO-UNITY-AN-ILLUSION-/index.html The recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit held in Bishkek fostered an image of unity among Central Asian states. The reality of the region’s political and economic conditions, however, belies such solidarity. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1043/1/SCO-energy-ties/index.html For the past several days, Western analysts have been fixated on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization`s massive Peace Mission 2007 anti-terrorist drill. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1041/1/CHINESE-GROWTH-PLANS-STOKE-FEARS-OF-CENTRAL-ASIAN-ECOLOGICAL-CATASTROPHE-/index.html Located a two-hour drive from the Kazakh border, the area around the Chinese city of Yining hardly seems beset by water difficulties. The land, well watered by the Ili River and its tributaries, remains lush and green despite the brutal summer heat. Seasoned local farmers are unable to recall a time when their irrigation channels dried up. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1040/1/The-Shanghai-Cooperation-Organization-guards-Chinas-back/index.html The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), whose six member countries just concluded a summit meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, as well as a joint war game started in China's Urumqi and ended in the Urals of Russia, is gradually gaining momentum in Central Asia. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1039/1/SCO-summit-military-exercises-pose-challenge-to-US/index.html Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Hu Jintao of China, as well as the heads of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan met in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, last week. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1029/1/The-China-syndrome/index.html In the 1970s, U.S. Senator Dick Clark said his country couldn't meddle in South African policy. "But," he added, "I think we ought to meddle in our own." The same could be said of Canada and China today. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1027/1/SCO-Summit-Crackdown-Highlights-Failings-on-Human-Rights/index.html Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization missed a key opportunity to implement the organization's human rights principles when they met on August 16 at the SCO summit in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, Human Rights Watch said today. Moreover, the Kyrgyz government adopted security measures that restricted human rights as it prepared to host the annual summit. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1026/1/The-Peace-Mission/index.html The world will understandably have some questions Thursday when Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Vladimir Putin meet at Garrison Chebarkul, located in the Chelyabinsk region near the Ural mountains, to review troops from both their countries, as well as four Central Asian states. The event will commemorate the end of maneuvers called Peace Mission 2007, and it raises some important questions. Does this exercise signal a stepping up of already substantial military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing? And if it does, cooperation against what or whom? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1021/1/Mistaken-Identities-Focus-on-Cultural-Heritage-Protection-in-Xinjiang/index.html In October 2005, China celebrates the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and in this the third issue of China Heritage Newsletter we examine aspects of the cultural heritage of Xinjiang, a region that covers 1.66 million square kilometers in China's far north-west, or roughly one sixth of the country. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1020/1/quotSCO-Summit-Demonstrates-its-Growing-Cohesionquot-/index.html In July 2007, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (S.C.O.) -- consisting of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan -- founded a so-called "Energy Club" to coordinate energy strategies. On August 16, the heads of state will hold their annual summit, this time in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. After the summit, they will travel to Chebarkul, a city in Russia's Urals, to attend the closure of the S.C.O. military exercises. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1017/1/With-US-in-mind-China-heads-to-Central-Asia-summit/index.html Chinese President Hu Jintao goes to Central Asia on Tuesday for a summit and war games officially focused on fighting terrorism, but which Beijing hopes will also boost its presence in an energy-rich region. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/1009/1/Arms-Energy-and-Commerce-in-Sino-Russian-Relations/index.html Having moved beyond their antagonistic Cold War relationship, Russia and China are now seeking to develop a strategic partnership. In addition to Russia's substantial arms sales to China and the joint military exercises conducted under the umbrella of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the two countries have also sought to cement their bilateral relationship through energy ties. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 10 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/998/1/If-the-War-on-Terror-is-Serious-Look-to-China-/index.html The communist/capitalist chimera that is China fascinates us with its challenge to our understanding of communism as mutually exclusive from significant economic growth, much less market domination. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/994/1/SCO-is-primed-and-ready-to-fire/index.html It may seem improbable that a regional cooperation organization commences its annual summit against the backdrop of military exercises. The European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the African Union, the Organization of Latin American States - none of them has ever done that. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/990/1/SCO-TO-HOST-quotPEACE-MISSION-2007-ANTI-TERRORIST-DRILL-IN-AUGUST/index.html Military analysts will be closely watching next month’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization anti-terrorist exercise, "Peace Mission 2007.” The drill will be the SCO’s largest joint exercise in its six-year history. Contingents from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan will take part, along with their country’s defense ministers. About 6,500 troops and 80 aircraft will participate. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/988/1/ECONOMIC-CHANGE-PUTS-SOCIAL-PRESSURE-ON-UIGHURS-IN-CHINAS-XINJIANG-PROVINCE/index.html The intersection of Ba Ying and Siao Tong streets in the western Chinese oil city of Korla could pass for suburban California. Shopping malls jostle for the attention of the well-heeled passersby, while the nearby river is lined with pristine walkways, parks, and sculptures. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/986/1/Beijings-war-on-terror-hides-brutal-crackdown-on-Muslims/index.html The Chinese executioners came for Ismail Semed before 9am. They led him out of his cell as the sun climbed over the Tien Shan mountains in the land he called East Turkestan. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Sun, 22 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/983/1/Beijing-keeps-Islamabad-honest/index.html China's relations with Pakistan, which are close and warm as never before, have come under severe strain lately from the growing militancy in Pakistan. The Pakistani military's storming last week of the Red Mosque (Lal Masjid) has been an important indicator of the tenor of the relationship. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/977/1/Spy-catching-Kyrgyz-style/index.html Accusations of espionage against Dzhyparkul Arykova, a consultant to the Kyrgyz parliamentary press service arrested on June 19, has thrown the national intelligence community into crisis. In recent days the authorities have tried to distance themselves from media reports that the case centers on Arykova’s involvement with Chinese intelligence. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/971/1/Resistance-is-fiscal/index.html The last time I wrote from here was 1999. I filed my column from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Now there isn’t enough left of that somewhat fictional official autonomy to justify the dateline. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/968/1/Expressing-the-sense-of-the-House-of-Representatives-that-the-Government-of-the-Peoples-Republic/index.html Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Government of the People's Republic of China should immediately release from custody the children of Rebiya Kadeer and Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil and should refrain from further engaging in acts of cultural, linguistic, and religious suppression directed against the Uyghur people, and for other purposes. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 27 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/964/1/Unintended-Uighurs/index.html Although it is easy to forget in the strange first decade of the 21st century, warning against the unintended consequences of rash government action was once a favorite theme of conservatives. Prudence was what traditional conservatives counseled. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/963/1/Sino-Canadian-Relations-Enter-Uncharted-Waters/index.html Only eighteen months ago, China’s relations with Canada seemed to be at their best in history. President Hu Jintao had visited Prime Minister Paul Martin in Ottawa, declaring that a bilateral strategic partnership was established and the two countries would cooperate in a range of areas from energy security to environment to trade and investment. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 14 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/961/1/An-Olympic-Reprieve-for-Chinas-Convicts/index.html For those facing time on China's death row, it must have come as a rare piece of good news: late last week, the Chinese government said it has reduced the number of prisoners it will execute this year. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/959/1/Group-calls-on-China-to-define-state-secret/index.html What do mailing newspaper clippings to your husband, defending displaced tenants and writing a doctoral thesis using 50-year-old library records have in common? zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/943/1/China-Media-Freedom-Under-Assault-Ahead-of-2008-Olympics/index.html The Chinese government is backtracking on new rules that allow much greater freedom to foreign journalists, and is continuing to deny comparable freedoms to Chinese journalists, Human Rights Watch said today. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 31 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/937/1/China-The-2008-Olympics-as-a-Major-Activist-Inroad/index.html Fidelity Investments has sold off more than 90 percent of its holdings in Chinese state-owned oil giant PetroChina, Fidelity announced May 16. Although the company declined to explain the sale, it almost certainly is related to pressure from human rights and religious activists. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/936/1/Listening-to-historys-creaking-bones/index.html Beside their obvious antiquity, why should heaps of cattle shoulder-blades and turtle shells dating from the 13th and 14th centuries B.C. be of such immense importance to today's archaeologists? The answer, as we discover in Peter Hessler's eponymously named "Oracle Bones," is that the prophecies incised onto their surfaces represent examples of East Asia's earliest writing forms. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/932/1/WP-Tainted-Chinese-imports-common/index.html For years, U.S. inspection records show, China has flooded the United States with foods unfit for human consumption. And for years, FDA inspectors have simply returned to Chinese importers the small portion of those products they caught -- many of which turned up at U.S. borders again, making a second or third attempt at entry. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Sun, 20 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/930/1/Guarding-the-West-Chinas-New-Mechanized-Infantry-Division/index.html The role of Xinjiang and Tibet as both suppliers and conduits of resources necessary for China’s continued economic growth has resulted in a reevaluation of both regions’ importance. Xinjiang, with its domestic oil fields in the Tarin Basin and its role as a hub for oil and gas pipelines arriving from Central Asia, has become China’s main source of non-seaborne petroleum zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/929/1/Flowing-Downstream-The-Sino-Kazakh-Water-Dispute/index.html Within the current Sino-Central Asian rapprochement, the issue over water rights and management has become an important factor in regional cooperation, but also a source of increasing contention. Kazakhstan and China share some 20 transboundary rivers. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/928/1/Hu-Jintao-Battles-the-CCPs-Crisis-of-Confidence/index.html The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is undergoing its worst crisis of confidence since the Tiananmen Square crackdown 18 years ago. While President and CCP General Secretary Hu Jintao is currently preoccupied with the means by which to consolidate the power of his faction at the upcoming 17th Party Congress, a loss of faith in the party as well as a dramatic decline in probity and old-style "combat-readiness" has hit the nation's 71 million party members. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/924/1/China-Security-Public-Relations-and-the-2008-Olympics/index.html The portrait of Mao Zedong overlooking Tiananmen Square was replaced May 13, a day after a 35-year-old migrant from Xinjiang threw a flaming object at the iconic portrait. The incident raises numerous issues regarding security and public relations for China ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 15 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/921/1/The-Illusions-of-Progress-in-China/index.html As China adopts the facade of a modern, legal state, it remains tethered to the omnipresent Chinese Communist Party – cruel, corrupt, and fully in control zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 10 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/918/1/Review-of-State-Departments-2006-Country-Reports/index.html Barry F. Lowenkron, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Written Submission for the Record to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 09 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/916/1/China-Human-Rights-Briefing/index.html China has explicitly vowed to take measures to control incidents of social unrest and crime in the run-up to the 17th Communist Party Congress in the fall and the Summer 2008 Olympics in Beijing. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 08 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/912/1/Will-Europe-Help-the-Uighurs/index.html A year ago, the EU called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay. On July 1, Portugal takes over the EU’s rotating presidency and, together with its EU partners, Lisbon must insist the United States either prosecute, in accordance with internationally recognised due process standards, or release the remaining 385 detainees. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/909/1/Beijing-spring-Democracy-is-in-the-air/index.html Spring has not proved to be a hopeful season in the politics of China's past, but that could be changing. These days, there is democracy as well as pollen in the air. All this seems to pave the way for the introduction of a more democratic election system in the all-important 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) this autumn. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 04 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/908/1/Lessons-from-Kashmir-and-Xinjiang/index.html Over the past few years, first China and then India quietly celebrated the success of their efforts to improve the socio-political environment of their restive Islamic regions, namely Xinjiang and Kashmir. Neither country can feel proud about the record of human rights on this count, but it is possible that credit for the success will be assigned to the wrong sources. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 04 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/901/1/Nazarbayev-promises-economic-assistance-urges-political-stability-in-Kyrgyzstan/index.html During his April 26 visit to Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev promised greater economic integration with Kyrgyzstan. The president, however, slammed his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev for the continuous political turmoil in that country. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 03 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/896/1/Chinas-Development-Strategy-Fails-to-Benefit-Critical-Ethnic-Minorities-and-Masks-Repression/index.html China's massive economic development strategy, touted to benefit rural ethnic groups in its western regions, in practice excludes, marginalizes, and masks the increased repression of ethnic minority groups such as Mongols, Tibetans, and Uyghurs, according to a new report by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and Human Rights in China (HRIC). zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/892/1/quotEU-arms-embargo-must-continue-to-protect-Taiwan--New-report-warns-of-danger-of-war-in-East-Asia/index.html China’s rearmament is increasing the danger of war in East Asia, warns the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfBV) in its human rights report "EU arms embargo must continue to protect Taiwan . In it the GfbV calls on the EU not to ignore the growing fears among China’s neighbours of the gain in military strength of the People’s Republic. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 27 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/891/1/Repression-Of-Chinese-Minorities/index.html In its annual human rights report on China, the U.S. State Department expressed great concern over continued violations of the political, religious, and cultural rights of China’s Uighur Muslims. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/887/1/Activists-Turn-Up-Heat-on-Beijing-Olympics/index.html Today, the host of the 2008 Summer Games plans to reveal the route of the torch relay that will carry the Olympic flame into Beijing. But in what may be a prelude of things to come, four people were detained on Mount Everest yesterday for protesting a proposal to carry the flame up the world's tallest mountain, on the border with politically sensitive Tibet. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/882/1/Columbia-Faculty-Hire-Faces-Human-Rights-Questions/index.html Columbia Law School has offered a faculty appointment to an official at the State Department, Matthew Waxman. Despite credentials as a Fulbright Scholar, Yale Law School graduate, and former clerk for Justice Souter, Mr. Waxman may face opposition from faculty members at some law schools because of his former role as the Pentagon's deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, in which he oversaw and defended the detention facility for war prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Mon, 23 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/877/1/Uighur-Cases-Highlight-Legal-Wrangling-Over-Guantanamo-Detentions/index.html The recent conviction of Australian kangaroo-skinner turned globetrotting jihadist David Hicks may, at least temporarily, bring an end to years of judicial power struggles that have surrounded the creation of a special war crimes tribunal here. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 19 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/871/1/Beijing-tries-to-rein-in-Muslims/index.html Although it rarely reaches the outside world, news from Xinjiang province in northwestern China near the border with Kazakhstan is sel-dom good and never happy. Xinjiang is part of Muslim China, and the news from Beijing is that a number of separatist rebels have been arrested and detained. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Fri, 13 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/870/1/China-is-a-20th-century-idea/index.html The nation of China evolved as an idea not more than 100 years ago. Then how could Tibet have always existed as a part of China? A conversation with the Dalai Lama in the 1980s has remained in my memory. The conversation included the future of Tibet and China. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/867/1/In-Fear-Of-Chinese-Democracy/index.html Listen to the apostles of free trade, and you'll learn that once consumer choice comes to authoritarian regimes, democracy is sure to follow. Call it the Starbucks rule: Situate enough Starbucks around Shanghai, and the Communist Party's control will crumble like dunked biscotti. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/865/1/Public-Diplomacy-in-Sino-Egyptian-Relations/index.html China’s pursuit of stable sources of energy and access to burgeoning consumer markets largely dictates its diplomacy in resource-rich Africa and the Middle East. An oft overlooked objective of this strategy, however, is Beijing’s aim of enhancing its position as a rising global power, which would require the ability to project influence outside of its immediate regional periphery. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/864/1/Arms-Sales-to-Africa-Beijings-Reputation-at-Risk/index.html China’s involvement in Africa has attracted increasing criticism from Western and African observers. Particular concern is voiced over China’s willingness to support the continent’s authoritarian regimes—many of which have heinous human rights and governance records—with a no-strings-attached attitude. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/863/1/Chinas-Darfur-Policy/index.html As the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan continue, Beijing has become the subject of much international criticism for its failure to utilize its leverage over Khartoum to halt the violence and persuade President Omar al-Bashir to permit UN peacekeepers to enter into the region. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/853/1/THE-IRAQ-ENERGY-FACTOR-IN-SINO-JAPANESE-RELATIONS/index.html Iraq could soon emerge as an important new focal point of intensifying Chinese and Japanese commercial diplomacy and energy rivalry, in spite of their extensive overlapping interests and mutually beneficial economic ties. It is difficult to determine whether friction over energy-related matters is a symptom or an additional cause of the strained relationship between China and Japan. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/852/1/CHINAS-EMERGING-DOMESTIC-DEBT-MARKETS/index.html That China’s financial system—even in the midst of reform and development—has acquired significant international influence is evident. The 8.9 percent drop of the Shanghai Composite Index on February 27, compounding certain remarks on the U.S. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/851/1/ROTC-WITH-CHINESE-CHARACTERISTICS-TRAINING-THE-PLA-IN-CIVILIAN-UNIVERSITIES/index.html China is nearly a decade into a program to commission up to half of the new People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officers from its finest universities. In the near-term, this initiative will take advantage of civilian institutions of higher education to train large numbers of technologically proficient military leaders better able to function on the high-tech battlefields of the 21st century. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/848/1/-US-Japan-in-security-overdrive/index.html A rat that gnaws at a cat's tail invites destruction, says the classic Chinese proverb on the importance of knowing one's physical limits. Yet the United States and its regional allies appear blissfully content that China, Asia's economic and political tiger, will not swat back as they pursue their crude security containment strategy. zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://uyghuramerican.org/articles/847/1/The-third-way-for-China/index.html Children are raised to believe that no one likes a tattle-tale. As adults, this ingrained lesson subconsciously morphs into frustration with people who point out the difficulties and disconnects with ideas we find useful. As the stakes get greater, it becomes increasingly awkward for an outside observer to suggest problems with commonly accepted tactics and strategies. Nowhere is this more complicated than in geopolitical zarapshan@gmail.com (UAA Administrator) Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://