The Chinese Communist Party has sent its corruption inspectors deep into the heart of the violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang, the party said yesterday, a part of the nation which had been largely left out of the graft fight.
The party’s corruption-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said that the teams had “recently” taken up their positions in 10 cities or counties, including Hotan, in southern Xinjiang’s Uighur heartland.
ETHNIC VIOLENCE
Hundreds of people have been killed in the region in the past few years, most in violence between the Muslim Uighur people who call Xinjiang home and ethnic majority Han Chinese.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has vowed to combat deep-seated corruption since assuming power in late 2012, though parts of China with big minority populations such as Xinjiang and Tibet have largely escaped the campaign so far.
However, the ethnic Uighur mayor of Hotan was put under investigation for graft last year, a fate that befell another senior Uighur, a secretary general of the regional government.
The inspection teams are looking for corrupt practices such as bribery and extravagance, as well as those who are “seriously disunited,” likely a reference to people who display a lack of enthusiasm about unity between Xinjiang’s difference races.
WHISTLE-BLOWERS
The graft watchdog also provided a list of telephone numbers and postal address for people to get in touch and report corrupt practices.
Other areas targeted for inspection include counties along the remote border with Kazakhstan.
The Chinese Communist Party has striven to appoint and promote more minority officials, but, in Xinjiang especially, the Han Chinese-dominated party faces deep suspicion.
UIGHURS TARGETED
Some attacks have targeted Uighurs aligned with the government, including the killing of a state-backed Uighur imam last year.
A deputy head of the graft watchdog visited Interpol as part of a trip to France to push for greater international cooperation in the fight against corruption, state media said yesterday.
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