China tells residents of region with 11mn Muslim Uighurs to hand in passports

China has ordered all residents in its western frontier region of Xinjiang to hand in their passports, the latest draconian move in the restive province home to an 11million Muslim minority.

Citizens of Xinjiang, an oil-rich but ethnically divided region, must hand their documents to police and apply to get them back if they want to travel, state-controlled newspaper Global Times reported. The purpose was to “maintain social order”, the paper said.

The region’s 11million Uighurs, a Muslim people with linguistic and cultural ties to Turkey who account for roughly half of Xinjiang’s 23million people, have in recent years faced growing restrictions on travel, religion and dress. Authorities have clamped down on symbols of Islam such as beards and the veil. The province’s 800,000 civil servants are barred from taking part in religious activities.

The passport announcement was greeted with anger and dismay by Chinese internet users, who complained they would need to submit unusual amounts of personal information and travel documents to get their passports back. Some Xinjiang residents working in other parts of China have received phone calls telling them to travel home and hand in their passports.

“What’s going on in Xinjiang? Do people here have human rights or not? Can’t the government just let us live an easier life?” one person wrote on Weibo, the equivalent of Twitter. “I am so angry.”

Many Xinjiang Uighurs oppose Chinese rule and what they see as colonialist policies in the region. A violent insurgency has sporadically surfaced in recent years, while hundreds of Uighurs have turned up in Turkey and human trafficking camps in Southeast Asia.

Beijing blames the rising appeal of radical Islam among Uighurs for a series of fatal attacks in recent years. Kyrgyzstan’s state security forces have said Syria-based Uighur militants were behind a suicide bombing of the Chinese embassy in Bishkek in September.

Outside Xinjiang, China’s anti- corruption campaign has extended to millions of ordinary citizens the limitations on travel often meted out to political dissidents and “troublemakers”. Many civil servants have had to hand in their passports over the past few years.

Restrictions on overseas travel have had a chilling effect on academic exchanges, with Chinese scholars cancelling appearances at international conferences.

 

 

 

Additional reporting by Archie Zhang