June 24:
On June 15, two days before the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, authorities inAkeksu prefecture, Xinjiang issued a seven-point document obtained by Radio Free Asia. The regulations urge village cadres to monitor politically-suspect families, and requires them to report to authorities each morning and night. Officials are instructed to increase their “management” of visitors and take their fingerprints and hair samples. Farm tool repair shops will be checked to ensure they are not manufacturing weapons, and mosques will be searched and their prayer carpets removed to find “illegal” religious material. Local authorities must ensure Uighur owned shops “are well-stocked with alcohol and cigarettes,” and farms are encouraged to set up “competitions” to promote increased physical activity during the Ramadan fasting period, the document says.
June 30:
Konstantin Ilkovskiy, the governor of Zabaykalskiy region in Russia’s Far East, has signed a MoU leasing 150,000 hectares of land to a Chinese company for agriculture for 49 years at 250 rubles ($4.50) per hectare per year, The Moscow Times reports. The deal, which limits the number of Chinese workers on the land to 50 percent, provoked a backlash among State Duma deputies from the nationalist LDPR party who claimed that Russia would lose the territory to China. The LDPR deputies are appealing to Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev to revoke the decision. Their leader Igor Lebedev said: “The LDPR wants to resolve this important geopolitical question otherwise in 20 years the governor of Zabaykalskiy will be Chinese.” Chinese firms have invested heavily in the Russian Far East – they control more than 75 percent of agricultural land in the Jewish autonomous region. “If you open a Chinese textbook, you will read that Russia illegally acquired large swathes of Chinese territories, which means that the border issue is not solved,” said Alexander Lomanov of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Retired Major General Wang Haiyun, a former military attaché at China’s Embassy in Moscow, said the deal would permit a large-scale influx of Chinese labor into the Zabaikalsky, which is closer to Beijing than to Moscow, The Moscow Times reports..
July 4:
Turkey has summoned China’s ambassador to express concern over reports that Uighurs are being banned from worship and fasting during Ramadan. China's Embassy in Istanbul, in turn, expressed its displeasure with Turkey's complaint and released a statement denying the charge: “The allegation that Muslims in Xinjiang are banned from practicing their religion, such as fasting during Ramadan or praying, does not comply with the truth and is baseless,” it said, adding that the Chinese constitution protects freedom of religion. Meanwhile, a group of Turkish nationalists, who gathered in central Istanbul to protest China's restrictions on Uighurs’ religious freedom, attacked a group of Korean tourists believing them to be Chinese. The protest was organized by the far-right Idealist Hearths (Ulku Ocaklari), which has close links with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Police intervened to prevent them from attacking the tourists and used tear gas to disperse them, the Hurriyet Daily reports.
July 8:
Belarus’ $509.9 millionDobrush Paper Mill project, which is supported by a $348.6 million loan from China Development Bank, has been disrupted due to a prolonged failure to pay its Chinese workers. About 250 Chinese employees of China’s Xuan Yuan Industrial Development Co., Ltd. flanked by riot police walked 30 km from Dobrush to Homel, Belarus to protest three months of unpaid wages. At one point, a truck blocked their way, sparking anger and paralyzing traffic. The group refused to talk with Belarusian officials and demanded a meeting with China’s ambassador Cui Qiming. The official BelaPAN news agency reports that ten “instigators” will be deported, while the other protesters would remain until their contract expires. A total of 900 Chinese are building the Mill, which was approved by the country’s autocratic leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka in 2012. The facility, which will produce coated and uncoated three-ply paperboard on a “turnkey basis,” is scheduled for completion next spring.
A “mass scuffle” has occurred at theAktogay station in East Kazakhstan Region between “citizens of China and local residents” resulting in 31 workers, 21 of whom Chinese citizens, being admitted to hospital. According to police, during a meal one of the Chinese workers did not like the quality of the food and assaulted the cook, prompting a brawl. The conflict was between workers of the mining and processing plant of the Kazakhmys Corp. in Ayagoz District, East Kazakhstan Region, Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency reports.