Tibet roadside view (photo, Liam Bates)
The Chinese government is using the March anniversary of the Tibetan uprising in 1952 to underscore its commitment to better connecting the distant western province to the rest of the country by detailing its transport plans. A new rail line, as part of the 2011-2015 Five Year Plan, will link Golmud in northwestern Qinghai Province and Korla in Xinjiang, the vice-governor of Qinghai, Luo Yulin, said in Beijing 6 March. The new rail connection will cut 1,000 km from the current rail link between Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, currently a 4,000km journey.
The official notes that two other major railway lines are to be built in the west, between Golmud and Dunhuang in Gansu Province, and between Golmud and Chengdu in Sichuan Province, and local authorities are also considering lines linking Xining with Chengdu, and Xining with Kunming in Yunnan Province, reports Xinhua news agency.
A new highway programme for the Tibet Autonomous Region will increase roads in the vast area from the current 58,000km to 70,000km, and by 2015 all Tibetan villages should be accessible by blacktop road, Li Shenglin, China’s transport minister says. Xinhua reports that “an expressway network, or ’4-hour economic zone’, linking five major cities, Lhasa, Xigaze, Nagqu, Shannan and Nyingchi” will put the last four cities all within four hours of Lhasa by car.
Five people were sentenced to death in Urumqi, in the far western province of Xinjiang Thursday 3 December. The men were accused of murdering a police officer and killing bystanders during the worst ethnic riots in China in July. The riots erupted when ethnic Uighurs rampaged through the city, killing up to 200 ethnic Han Chinese, before order was restored. The accused had Uighur-sounding names and the proceedings were held in Uighur.
The trial began in October against 21 people accused of having taken part in July’s riots. Nine people have since been executed.
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The US, which has in the past been outspoken about human rights violations in China, has made no official comment on the 15 October death sentences handed out in China. The sentences were given to people convicted of murder following the riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, in July 2009. Nearly 200 people died and an estimated 1,600 were injured in the ethnic riots that gripped the city for several days. RiaNovosti, US State Department, Xinhua
Police in Urumqi, in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, have put down a third day of protests. Up to 2,000 people, mainly Han Chinese, it appears, have reportedly gathered in squares in the centre of the city, scene of ethnic riots in July between the local minority Han Chinese and the majority Uygurs. The protests are about a series of stabbings with hypodermic needles. Chinese state media says that 476 people from nine ethnic groups have sought hospital treatment for stab wounds, “of whom 89 were showing obvious signs of needle wounds.” BBC, Xinhua
Update 07:45 The death toll has risen to 140, say Chinese state media, and scores were wounded in an outbreak of “deadly violence” in Urumqi, the capital city of northwest China’s Xinjiang region Sunday 5 July. Hundreds of ethnic Uighur residents took to the streets and burned cars and buses, destroyed shops, and attacked passersby. Traffic controls in place Sunday were partially lifted Monday morning. The government blames a plot by an exiled ethnic Uighur group for the violence. Local activists deny outside interference and refer to a serious clash between ethnic Uighur workers and Han Chinese in a toy factory in Guangdong province in southern China late June 2009. BBC, Reuters, Xinhua
