China Said to Deploy Drones After Unrest in Xinjiang
Didi Kirsten Tatlow
New York Times,August 19, 2014
Uighur children playing in the streets of Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang. Xinjiang has seen growing ethnic and religious tensions in recent years.Credit Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Three days after an eruption of violence in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang this summer left nearly 100 people dead, the region’s “antiterrorist command” asked the country’s biggest space and defense contractor for help. It wanted technical experts to operate drones the authorities in Xinjiang had ordered last year in anticipation of growing unrest. The target was “terrorists,” according to the online edition of People’s Daily, a Communist Party media outlet.
On Monday, the Uyghur American Association, a Washington-based advocacy group for Uighurs, the mostly Muslim ethnic group native to Xinjiang, said the use of drones pointed to the further militarization of the region and warned that the drones could be deployed against people as well as for surveillance and intelligence-gathering mentioned by Chinese media.
According to a report in People’s Daily this week, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the main contractor for the Chinese space program, responded swiftly to the July 31 request by the Xinjiang authorities.
Photo
A worker preparing to pack a model of the Chinese-made Wing Loong, or Pterodactyl, drone at an expo last year in Beijing. Drones are being increasingly used in China.Credit Sim Chi Yin for The New York Times
On Aug. 1, the company sent a technical team to Yarkand County, in Kashgar Prefecture, where state media reported that on July 28 security forces had shot and killed 59 people described as terrorists and about three dozen others described as civilians.
Xinjiang has seen growing ethnic and religious tensions in recent years between Uighurs and the Han, China’s dominant ethnic group, with hundreds, perhaps thousands, killed.
The technical team departed from Beijing, driving through the night and arriving in Yarkand at 3 a.m. on Aug. 2, People’s Daily reported.
There, the drones were deployed on multiple missions round the clock, operated by special forces in Yarkand but under the supervision of the space company team, state media reported, providing “important intelligence in tracking down and arresting terrorists,” Legal Daily reported, without elaborating.
The Uyghur American Association has called for international attention to the use of drones.
“The domestic use of unmanned aerial vehicles is an extremely serious and disturbing development and U.A.A. believes the use of drones in East Turkestan will only intensify tensions in the region,” it said in a statement, using its name for the region known in Chinese as Xinjiang, or “new border.”
“The use of drones over villages in East Turkestan shows that China treats all Uyghurs as state enemies,” said the group’s president, Alim Seytoff, in the statement. “China is not singling out alleged ‘terrorists’; it is intimidating entire communities, including the very people its purported antiterror campaign is supposed to protect.”
The association said the violence broke out after local residents protested against a heavy-handed crackdown during the recently concluded Ramadan fasting period and against “the extrajudicial use of lethal force in recent weeks in the county,” citing local sources.
The drones were ordered last year by the Xinjiang regional government, and delivered earlier this year, People’s Daily said.
Drones are being used increasingly in China, the state-run newspaper Global Times has reported, and the country manufactures and exports its own.
Drones have been used to locate earthquake victims, and once, Global Timesreported, to hunt for an emu that escaped from a national park in Linfen, Shanxi Province, where Chinese yew trees are cultivated. It wasn’t clear if the emu was found.
Didi Kirsten Tatlow
New York Times,August 19, 2014
Uighur children playing in the streets of Kashgar, in southern Xinjiang. Xinjiang has seen growing ethnic and religious tensions in recent years.Credit Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesThree days after an eruption of violence in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang this summer left nearly 100 people dead, the region’s “antiterrorist command” asked the country’s biggest space and defense contractor for help. It wanted technical experts to operate drones the authorities in Xinjiang had ordered last year in anticipation of growing unrest. The target was “terrorists,” according to the online edition of People’s Daily, a Communist Party media outlet.
On Monday, the Uyghur American Association, a Washington-based advocacy group for Uighurs, the mostly Muslim ethnic group native to Xinjiang, said the use of drones pointed to the further militarization of the region and warned that the drones could be deployed against people as well as for surveillance and intelligence-gathering mentioned by Chinese media.
According to a report in People’s Daily this week, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, the main contractor for the Chinese space program, responded swiftly to the July 31 request by the Xinjiang authorities.
Photo
A worker preparing to pack a model of the Chinese-made Wing Loong, or Pterodactyl, drone at an expo last year in Beijing. Drones are being increasingly used in China.Credit Sim Chi Yin for The New York TimesOn Aug. 1, the company sent a technical team to Yarkand County, in Kashgar Prefecture, where state media reported that on July 28 security forces had shot and killed 59 people described as terrorists and about three dozen others described as civilians.
Xinjiang has seen growing ethnic and religious tensions in recent years between Uighurs and the Han, China’s dominant ethnic group, with hundreds, perhaps thousands, killed.
The technical team departed from Beijing, driving through the night and arriving in Yarkand at 3 a.m. on Aug. 2, People’s Daily reported.
There, the drones were deployed on multiple missions round the clock, operated by special forces in Yarkand but under the supervision of the space company team, state media reported, providing “important intelligence in tracking down and arresting terrorists,” Legal Daily reported, without elaborating.
The Uyghur American Association has called for international attention to the use of drones.
“The domestic use of unmanned aerial vehicles is an extremely serious and disturbing development and U.A.A. believes the use of drones in East Turkestan will only intensify tensions in the region,” it said in a statement, using its name for the region known in Chinese as Xinjiang, or “new border.”
“The use of drones over villages in East Turkestan shows that China treats all Uyghurs as state enemies,” said the group’s president, Alim Seytoff, in the statement. “China is not singling out alleged ‘terrorists’; it is intimidating entire communities, including the very people its purported antiterror campaign is supposed to protect.”
The association said the violence broke out after local residents protested against a heavy-handed crackdown during the recently concluded Ramadan fasting period and against “the extrajudicial use of lethal force in recent weeks in the county,” citing local sources.
The drones were ordered last year by the Xinjiang regional government, and delivered earlier this year, People’s Daily said.
Drones are being used increasingly in China, the state-run newspaper Global Times has reported, and the country manufactures and exports its own.
Drones have been used to locate earthquake victims, and once, Global Timesreported, to hunt for an emu that escaped from a national park in Linfen, Shanxi Province, where Chinese yew trees are cultivated. It wasn’t clear if the emu was found.
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