In 2008 the Xinjiang Rule of Law Leading Small Group published a policy document examining a number of challenges faced by prison authorities in managing the region\u2019s prisoners serving sentences for endangering state security (ESS). <\/p>\n
Tuesday, August 25, 2015<\/p>\n
In 2008 the Xinjiang Rule of Law Leading Small Group published a policy document<\/a> examining a number of challenges faced by prison authorities in managing the region\u2019s prisoners serving sentences for endangering state security (ESS). The first two sections of the document are translated below. They discuss the climate surrounding Xinjiang prison work and the psychological profiles of ESS prisoners. The last two sections of the document, focusing on how to better reform ESS prisoners, will be translated in an upcoming post.<\/p>\n The document focuses on external factors, like increasing US attention to the \u201cXinjiang question\u201d and the \u201cthree forces\u201d of ethnic separatism, Islamic extremism, and terrorism. Also mentioned are internal factors, such as an insufficient number of prison police, a shortage of funds, and outdated facilities. <\/p>\n Over the years, Dui Hua has drawn on evidence from a variety of open-source documents to conclude that Xinjiang accounts for a considerable proportion of the nation\u2019s ESS arrests, indictments, and trials. In 2008, Xinjiang accounted for more than 75 percent of ESS arrests and 82 percent of ESS indictments nationwide. In the first 11 months of that year, Xinjiang\u2019s procuratorate reported<\/a> that 1,295 individuals were arrested and 1,154 were indicted for ESS crimes in the region. Between 2008 and 2010, Xinjiang, which accounts for less than two percent of China\u2019s population, accounted for 50 percent of the nation\u2019s first-instance ESS trials. In 2013 and 2014, Xinjiang conducted about 300 ESS trials<\/a> of first instance each year.<\/p>\n The large number of ESS cases in Xinjiang is connected to the region\u2019s complex history; diverse population; and geo-strategic importance, bordering Russia and Central Asia on China\u2019s northwest. The emergence of independent Central Asian states after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the spread of Islamic ideologies have heightened Chinese authorities\u2019 concerns about stability in the region. Authorities in Xinjiang see themselves as engaging in an ongoing battle against the \u201cthree forces.\u201d In their view, what hangs in the balance is the stability of Xinjiang and the allegiance of the region\u2019s 10 million Uyghurs\u2014an ethnically Turkic, culturally distinct, and predominantly Muslim people who have been the main inhabitants of the region for more than 1,000 years. <\/p>\n The document describes the \u201cAmerican Factor\u201d as a \u201cconstant threat\u201d to Xinjiang\u2019s social and political stability. It mentions US support for nonviolent resistance movements, or color revolutions, in Central Asia and notes that religious extremism has flourished in countries where color revolutions occurred. US interest in human rights in Xinjiang, particularly its criticism of controversial ESS cases like that of Ilham Tohti, remains a point of contention in US-China relations. China continues to see such attention as interference in its domestic affairs, and accuses the United States of a \u201cdouble standard\u201d in combatting terrorism for its penchant to draw attention to Chinese policies that marginalize and criminalize Uyghur culture in its response to ethnic clashes in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n