NY Times, 23Jan2014: 3 Dead in Clash at Police Station in Western China, Report Says

3 Dead in Clash at Police Station in Western China
NY Times, 23Jan2014 by Andrew Jacobs

"BEIJING — Three ethnic Uighurs were shot and killed last week outside a police station in China’s far west Xinjiang region during a fight with security guards who blocked them from entering the building, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday.

The shootings, which took place on Jan. 15 in Aksu Prefecture but were only confirmed on Wednesday, are the latest in a spate of deadly skirmishes involving the region’s Uighur residents and Chinese authorities.

Such confrontations have been occurring with increasing frequency in the past year, alarming Chinese leaders and prompting even heavier security in a vast energy-rich region that borders several Central Asian nations. Last week, Beijing announced that it was doubling Xinjiang’s public security budget, with one regional official vowing “no mercy for terrorists,” according to the state news media..."

Full article here: http://nyti.ms/19QSDmq

NY Times, 25Jan2014: China Accuses Uighur Intellectual of Separatism for His Advocacy Work

China Accuses Uighur Intellectual of Separatism for His Advocacy Work
from the NY Times, 25Jan2014, by Andrew Jacobs

"BEIJING — In an ominous sign of the fate awaiting one of China’s best-known Uighur intellectuals, security officials in the far western region of Xinjiang issued a statement on Saturday that accused him of separatism and inciting ethnic hatred.

The statement provides the first concrete indication that the scholar, Ilham Tohti, an economics professor in Beijing, could face a long prison term for his advocacy on behalf of Uighurs, the Turkic-speaking Muslim minority whose uneasy coexistence with the Chinese authorities has grown increasingly violent."

Full article here:  http://nyti.ms/1f0KauJ