China has mounted an extraordinary set of attacks against Communist Party members in the troubled western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, with accusations of disloyalty, secret participation in religious activity, sympathy with the Dalai Lama and even support for terrorism.<\/p>\n
BEIJING \u2014 China has mounted an extraordinary set of attacks against Communist Party members in the troubled western regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, with accusations of disloyalty, secret participation in religious activity, sympathy with the Dalai Lama and even support for terrorism.<\/p>\n
The accusations reflect a hardening of the party\u2019s stance in Buddhist Tibet and in Muslim-majority Xinjiang, experts said, as well as President Xi Jinping\u2019s determination to push for ideological purity within the party nationwide, quashing debate and dissent.<\/p>\n
But critics say the accusations also reflect the fact that the party\u2019s hard-line approach toward crushing \u201cthe three evils of separatism, terrorism and religious extremism\u201d in both regions has not only alienated many ordinary ethnic Tibetan and Uighur people but also provoked significant disquiet in its own ranks.<\/p>\n
Some party officials openly criticize policies handed down from above, complained Xu Hairong, secretary of Xinjiang\u2019s Commission for Discipline Inspection, making the unusual admission in a commentary published last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSome waver on clear-cut issues of opposing ethnic division and safeguarding ethnic and national unity, and even support participating in violent terrorist attacks,\u201d Xu wrote in his agency\u2019s official newspaper.<\/p>\n \u201cThis does not mean the cadres participated in attacks,\u201d said Nicholas Bequelin, East Asia director for Amnesty International, \u201cbut rather is the equivalent of local officials saying: \u2018The central authorities are sending leaders who are so ham-fisted they have driven people to the edge, and understandably they have started blowing up things.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n With Xi taking the lead in formulating policy toward Xinjiang, \u201ceverybody has to march to the same drumbeat,\u201d Bequelin said.<\/p>\n An article published Friday on China Tibet Online<\/a>, a party Web site, said 355 party members had been punished in Xinjiang last year for violating \u201cpolitical discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n The article said that one had joined a social media chat group titled Uighur Muslim that was meant to undermine ethnic unity, while another had reposted an interview given by prominent Uighur intellectual Ilham Tohti, who was sentenced last year to life in prison on charges of advocating separatism.<\/p>\n Written by Zhao Zhao, the article said that some officials blame social problems on ethnic discrimination, thereby inciting ethnic hatred. \u201cThere is also a lack of faith in Marxism. Some grass-roots party members even participate in religious activities,\u201d he wrote, adding that this would never be allowed.<\/p>\n Critics say there is widespread economic, cultural and religious discrimination against Uighurs and Tibetans.<\/p>\n After 2009 riots in Xinjiang\u2019s capital, Urumqi, left at least 192 people dead, the party acknowledged that it needed to address Uighur grievances, Bequelin said.<\/p>\n But later, with an increase in violent attacks by Uighurs, the party changed course, asserting at a major meeting on the region in 2014 that the priorities were stability and unity rather than economic development and combating discrimination.<\/p>\n The imprisonment of Tohti, a moderate economist whose work had detailed the problems Uighurs face, sent a strong signal to academics and party officials that the debate about discrimination had been closed, Bequelin said. The party now vehemently asserts that Uighur terrorism is directed by Islamist militants based abroad and is increasingly rooted in extremist ideas picked up on the Internet.<\/p>\n