Zhao Xinwei was removed from the state-run Xinjiang Daily for \u2018improperly\u2019 discussing government policy in China\u2019s violence-stricken western region <\/p>\n
Tom Phillips in Beijing
\u200bMonday 2 November 2015 00.26 EST<\/p>\n
A Chinese newspaper editor has been sacked for criticising Beijing\u2019s controversial war on terror following the introduction of draconian new rules that outlaw any criticism of Communist party policy.<\/p>\n
Zhao Xinwei, the editor of the state-run Xinjiang Daily newspaper, was removed from his job and expelled from the party after an investigation found him guilty of \u201cimproperly\u201d discussing, and publicly opposing, government policy in China\u2019s violence-stricken west.<\/p>\n
The former editor\u2019s \u201cwords and deeds\u201d had gone against government attempts to rein in religious extremism and terrorism, the official China News Service agency reported on Monday.<\/a><\/p>\n In Xinjiang, a sprawling region of west China<\/a> where Beijing is grappling with what some describe as a low-level insurgency against Communist party rule, the crackdown on dissent has been particularly intense.<\/p>\n Zhao, who joined the party in 1984 and became the newspaper\u2019s editor in 2011, had also been caught accepting bribes, wasting public money and \u201cturning a deaf ear to wrongdoing\u201d in his organisation, the report added.<\/p>\n Zhao\u2019s removal from the job and the Communist party comes just over a week after Beijing unveiled harsh new rules banning party members from \u201cmaking groundless comments on national policies\u201d.<\/p>\n Those who \u201cirresponsibly make comments about national policies\u201d or who \u201cdefame the nation, the Party and State leaders or distort the history of the nation and the Party\u201d will be punished, the state-controlled Global Times tabloid newspaper reported.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cParty members who take the liberty to decide or publicly comment on issues that they have no place to, such as issues that should be decided by the CPC [Communist Party of China] Central Committee, will also be subject to punishment,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n Beijing has shown an increasing intolerance for dissent since Xi Jinping<\/a> \u2013 a man some call China\u2019s most powerful leader since Mao – became Communist party chief in November 2012.<\/p>\n In the three years since Xi took power, activists, lawyers, academics, bloggers, journalists, religious leaders and party members have all been targeted as part of a sweeping assault on party opponents.<\/a><\/p>\n In May last year Beijing launched a \u201cpeople\u2019s war on terror\u201d in Xinjiang<\/a>following a series of deadly attacks on civilians. <\/p>\n In September, Ilham Tohti, a respected academic who dared to speak out against Beijing\u2019s treatment of Xinjiang\u2019s Uighur ethnic minority, was jailed for life for <\/a>\u201cinciting separatism\u201d.<\/p>\n In a recent interview, Nicholas Bequelin, Amnesty International\u2019s director for East Asia, said the Communist party had sought to completely shut down any critical discussion of its policies in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n