China Reform Monitor: No. 1118

July 31:

Jume Tahir, 74, the government-appointed imam of the 600-year-old Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang was found dead in a pool of blood outside the mosque, the Times of India reports. Witnesses and other officials described the killing as an assassination. According to official reports “three thugs influenced by religious extremist ideology” killed the imam and police shot dead two of them while capturing the other, who violently resisted with “knives and hatchets.” Tahir had been critical of violence carried out by Uighurs and was suspected of maintaining “a special relationship with the Chinese ministry of security.” Earlier this month he condemned violence carried out in the name of ethnicity and religion. In China, religious leaders are appointed by the government and subject to strict content controls on their preaching.

August 1:

In order to “help military personnel to reestablish their sense of honor” the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has implemented new Regulations on Rewarding and Commendation that include limitations on the amount of awards, an increase in the number of medals given to common soldiers versus high-ranking officers, and separates citations from material rewards. An editorial in the official China Daily said: “In the last few years some corrupt military officers have manipulated the rules, forcing many military personnel to lose trust in the citation and reward system. This has to be corrected, lest it becomes disastrous for the military.” The new regulations, it said, will “correct the wrongdoings and plug the loopholes that some corrupt officers have used to bend the rules.”

China’s newly developed DF-41, a solid-fuel road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile, can penetrate all existing U.S. air defense systems, Die Welt reports. The DF-41 – comparable to the U.S. minuteman rocket and Russia’s RS-24M Yars – is capable of ascending over 1,000 km into space, making early detection by reconnaissance and radar facilities a must to destroy the incoming missile. It takes between 20-25 minutes to launch the missile from China to a target in the U.S.

August 3:

The PLA was defeated in six out of seven battles during its first war drill with a professional force playing the side of the enemy. The drills – which pitted PLA ‘red’ teams from seven military area commands against a ‘blue’ team played by an infantry brigade from Beijing Military Area Command – resulted in the defeat of every military area except Shenyang, Times of India reports. Unlike previous exercises, which were scripted, the outcome of this year’s exercises was not predetermined. Wan Fazhong, brigade commander of the Lanzhou Military Area Command ‘red’ team said that the exercise was the first step for the PLA to become combat-ready. “The more the opposing force resembles the enemy, the more we can toughen up our combat capabilities,” he said.

August 4:

Days after a violent attack in Shache county, Kashgar last week that left 37 civilians and 59 “terrorists” dead, Beijing is offering more than 300 million yuan ($49 million) to Xinjiang residents who help authorities crackdown on “terrorists.” Last week in Hotan, with the help of more than 30,000 “volunteers,” ten suspects were located in a cornfield. Police shot dead nine of them and captured one after chasing the group to an abandoned house, where they “resisted arrest by throwing explosives into the crowd,”the Himalayan Times reports. A total of 4.23 million yuan was handed out to individuals and government agencies that helped in the hunt for the 10 “suspected terrorists.” Following the tipoffs an award ceremony attended by more than 10,000 people was held in Hotan in which six people “who helped hunt suspected terrorists,” were given 100,000 yuan each.