HONG KONG (UCAN): Relatives of Uyghur police force personnel are now being detained as part of a crackdown on the ethnic Muslim group in the Xinjiang region of China. It had been an unwritten agreement that the families of security personnel enforcing the crackdown were off limits, but now the cops are beginning to cop it.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): At least 12 Uyghur students in Egypt were arrested and deported back to China last month in a demonstration of how far-reaching China’s arm is when it comes to keeping a grip on the beleaguered Muslim minority.
 
Since July, it has been reported that 150 Uyghur students in Egypt were rounded up and told there were some irregularities with their residency papers.
 

BEIJING (AsiaNews): Since mid-July, Muslim people of Uyghur background in Xinjiang have been required by the Chinese government to install an application ostensibly designed to monitor terrorism, but it is claimed by AsiaNews to monitor telephone communications.
 
Anyone who refuses to install the spyware app becomes liable to 10 days in prison.
 

URUMQI (SE): The use of the Uyghur language in schools in the Xinjiang region of China has been banned by the government and an official announcement says that those violating the order will face severe punishment.
 
The ban is being seen as one of the strongest repressive measures yet imposed by Beijing to try and assimilate ethnic Muslim Uyghurs.
 

HONG KONG (UCAN): The Chinese government has tightened the screws on religious freedom in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region with new regulations providing for parents and guardians to be reported if they force children to take part in religious activities.

The new regulations in the Muslim-majority state were passed by the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Regional People’s Congress on September 29 and will come into effect on November 1.

BEIJING (UCAN): Chinese authorities promised to  freeze the squeeze on the Muslim Uyghur population, who have been blamed for fuelling violence in Xinjiang province over the past two years.

They promised that repressive measures would end, even though the fight against terrorism and separatism in the remote region will be renewed.

BEIJING (UCAN) : The president of China, Xi Jinping, reacted angrily to accusations that his administration would use the terrorist attacks on Paris to further clamp down on Muslim rights in Xinjiang.

Xi called for an end to what he termed double standards in the west on global terrorism.

HONG KONG (UCAN): China has proposed a new nationwide ban on what it is terming terrorist clothing in a move designed to curb Islamist extremism in Xinjiang province.

A draft amendment proposed on August 24 by China’s top legislature does not specify exactly what would be criminalised, but the proposed ban is believed to apply to burqas, separatist flags and crescent-shaped beards, as often worn by Muslims.

BEIJING (UCAN): Courts across the Xinjiang region of China had sentenced 45 people on terrorism charges prior to August 28 amidst a crackdown on minority Muslim Uyghur separatists.

Xinhua reported on August 27 that courts in Aksu, Kashgar, Karamay, Hotan and the autonomous Kazakh prefecture had held 10 trials in recent days, sentencing people to between four years and life in prison.