Beijing’s reshuffle of officials in Xingjiang might herald a hardening of repression against Uighurs, an academic at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research said.
Since 2018, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has replaced a slew of top officials in Xinjiang’s communist party, researcher Shih Chien-yu (侍建宇) wrote in a Nov. 9 post on the institute’s blog.
Last month, the government reshuffled three top officials of the regions’ communist party, which marks a near-total turnover of its leadership since 2018, Shih said.
Photo: Reuters
The newcomers include He Zhongyou (何忠友), who is to become the deputy secretary of the Standing Committee for the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, a position of significant power, he said.
Local party secretary Chen Quanguo (陳全國), the only leader of the old guard remaining, would likely be dismissed at the CCP’s National Congress next year, he said.
The reshuffling meant that the CCP has removed virtually every regional official who was sanctioned by the US and its allies, he said.
The move is designed to test Western resolve in imposing new sanctions, as the newcomers would almost certainly continue to carry out repressive policies, Shih said.
Although China’s governance of Xinjiang has been widely criticized by the international community for human rights abuses, the CCP believes that it has made no mistakes, he said.
Instead, it blamed local officials for their failure to represent the party’s achievements in a positive light and their lack of local knowledge as outsiders who had been appointed to the region, he said.
He, an apparatchik trained in data analysis and management at the London School of Economics and University of Massachusetts Boston, has substantial experience in China’s mass surveillance program, Shih said.
He’s professional qualifications are a fit for Xinjiang — a region fast becoming a test bed for digital surveillance technologies — and he has experience in working with foreign officials and press from previous posts, he said.
Beijing increasingly considers Xinjiang a strategic launching pad to expand China’s sphere influence, while the rise of a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan further elevates the importance of security in the region, Shih said.
These factors suggest that Beijing would continue to utilize the “high-pressure” tactics it favored to tighten its grip on Xinjiang, while employing propaganda to conceal its actions, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by