Latest Articles about Western China
The Elusive Uyghur Insurgent Commander Haunting China in Afghanistan—Haji Furqan
Uyghur Islamist extremists propagating a separatist jihad against the Chinese state have concerned the Chinese government since long before recent reports of mass internment of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far west of China (South China Morning Post, February 26; Permanent... MORE
Islamic Countries Engage with China Against the Background of Repression in Xinjiang
The Silence of the Muslim World Regarding Repression in China Throughout 2018, a steadily growing body of evidence revealed the existence of a vast network of detainment facilities in China’s western Xinjiang Province, in which hundreds of thousands of Uighurs—a Turkic-speaking and majority Muslim ethnic... MORE
The Learning Curve: How Communist Party Officials are Applying Lessons from Prior “Transformation” Campaigns to Repression in Xinjiang
Editor's Note: This article continues coverage by China Brief of the ongoing efforts by the Chinese government to suppress dissent in Xinjiang (see China Brief, May 15 2018; and China Brief, November 5 2018). This article examines commonalities between the situation in Xinjiang and the... MORE
China’s Domestic Security Spending: An Analysis of Available Data
On February 1, 2018, China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) revealed a stunning 92.8 percent increase in its domestic security spending: from 30.05 billion RMB in 2016 to 57.95 billion RMB in 2017 (Xinjiang Net, 3 February). Within a decade, this figure has increased nearly... MORE
“Full Employment” in Tibet: The Beginning and End of Chen Quanguo’s Neo-Socialist Experiment
Introduction On November 8th, 2017, the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) published its second and final public job intake for the year, completing its annual process of announcing open public and civil service positions for eligible university graduates from this sensitive minority region. Notably, the timing... MORE
What Is China’s Military Doing on the Afghan-Tajik Border?
Perhaps few places on earth are as wrapped in mystery and intrigue as the northern reaches of Afghanistan, where, 150 years ago, Russia and the United Kingdom played the great game against one another and where, most recently, Moscow and the West were locked in... MORE
CPEC: “Iron Brothers,” Unequal Partners
Serious differences have come to the fore between China and Pakistan over the $60-billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). At a Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting at Islamabad in November 2017, China announced its decision to suspend funding for at least three road projects in Pakistan, pending... MORE
Astana Grapples With Growing Sinophobic Sentiment in Kazakhstan
Following bloody clashes between ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the city of Urumchi, in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, in the summer of 2009, Beijing resorted to both carrot and stick policies to secure stability in this volatile territory. On the one hand, the central... MORE
Chen Quanguo: The Strongman Behind Beijing’s Securitization Strategy in Tibet and Xinjiang
Over the last year, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Party Secretary Chen Quanguo (陈全国) has dramatically increased the police presence in Xinjiang by advertising over 90,000 new police and security-related positions. [1] This soldier-turned-politician is little known outside of China, but within China he has... MORE
Himalayan Impasse: How China Would Fight an Indian Border Conflict
At the end of August, Chinese and Indian troops both pulled back from the Doklam region in Bhutan after weeks of tense posturing. The face off began in June when Chinese construction crews accompanied by soldiers began building a road. The area is sensitive to... MORE