Comments on: Wild frontier

Wild frontier

Abiezer — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:55:01 -0800

China's partnership of stability in Xinjiang As news breaks that Wang Lequan has been replaced as Party secretary in Xinjiang (a fall for the long-serving hard man some expected last last year, though only last month Wang was bullish in interviews about major new central investment in the western border region), Tom Cliff has a timely and informative short background piece up at the East Asia Forum that gives some of the context behind the move.

By: oneswellfoop

oneswellfoop — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:57:01 -0800

Inevitably, someone is going to post a comment about China "cutting off its Wang", so I thought I'd get it over with.

By: msbrauer

msbrauer — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 02:59:32 -0800

Little mention of the Uighurs, who have been stuck in the middle of all of this for some time.

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:08:02 -0800

Just noticed the typo; should have read 'late last year'. msbrauer, I think that's as much because in such political musical chairs, the Uyghur people feature only as the problematised other; as I'm sure you know, the only input they get in the process is rioting in the streets and they've done that bit.

By: vapidave

vapidave — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 04:35:58 -0800

Xinjiang ""New Frontier" is home to a number of different ethnic groups and major ethnic groups include Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, Hui, Kyrgyz and Mongol. (Uyghur Autonomous Region) for those catching up as I am.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:10:05 -0800

Chinese Uighur Muslims plead in court for US release

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:14:48 -0800

Meanwhile, things seem to be getting a bit more tense in Qinghai Province following the recent earthquake: After Quake, Tibetans Distrust China's Help Tibetan monks ordered to leave China's quake zone

By: codswallop

codswallop — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:29:07 -0800

And the Greco-Bolivian alliance - have they responded?

By: bokane

bokane — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:35:24 -0800

The Tom Cliff piece mentions needlestick attacks -- were those ever proven to have actually occurred? I know that a friend of a friend who works in an ER in Urümchi said that people were coming in to get tested after believing themselves to have been stuck, but the whole thing sounded like it might be an urban legend. There have been plenty of cases of such things getting picked up in Chinese newspapers - including a case in Tianjin not long ago, if I recall correctly. Ultimately these always seem to end up getting debunked a month or two down the line.

By: bokane

bokane — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 10:40:25 -0800

Following up on the needlestick attacks: one article says that as of September 3, 2009, 21 people had been arrested in connection with the needlestick attacks, so at least someone was taking it seriously. A September 13 article says that tests of samples taken from the syringes revealed no poisons or viruses, including AIDS.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:09:33 -0800

Excellent post—thanks, Abiezer.

By: Twang

Twang — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:01:56 -0800

a group of Chinese soldiers who had been relaxing on the school grounds sprang to action. They put on their army caps, waved the monks away The PRC has a most interesting definition of the word "autonomous". My feeling is that the word translates to: "the mayor can schedule public feelgood events and road resurfacings and such. But we'll be there to help whenever unforeseen events occur, or unauthorized journalists appear to upset the people or cast our benevolence in a poor light. And our railroads -you'll never ride- will pass through in case our soldiers need to protect you from yourselves."

By: Abiezer

Abiezer — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 22:05:42 -0800

New Dominion blog seems to be up and running again; here's their take on the move, with a bit of a look at the new man, Zhang Chunxian.