Beijing to step up terror crackdown

Alshanko Pass, a key border crossing between Kazahkstan and China's historically troubled Xinjiang province

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam
CNN Senior China Analyst

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Anti-Beijing "terrorist" forces in Xinjiang have killed more than 40 people and injured 330 since the early 1990s, according to officials in the autonomous region.

Xinjiang, in the west of China, has been a base of Uighur separatism and pro-Islamic religious groups.

And in a meeting in the regional capital of Urumqi last weekend, Party Secretary Wang Lequan vowed to step up the "strike hard" campaign against separatists and other anti-government elements at least through to Chinese New Year.

The official Xinjiang Daily reported in its latest edition that three types of evil forces -- "enemy elements, separatists and terrorists" -- had wreaked havoc on Xinjiang since the early 1990s.

The daily said the terrorists had used six methods to achieve their goals: explosion, assassination, arson, poison, looting, thuggery and full-scale riots.

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Quoting officials, the paper said separatists and terrorists had killed or tried to assassinate senior cadres as well as "patriotic religious personnel" in the region, including a vice-chairman of the regional Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

It is the first time that authorities have released the details of the alleged crimes of Uighur separatists, several hundred of whom Beijing says have been trained by the Taliban and al Qaeda terrorist networks.

Diplomatic analysts said since September 11, Beijing had deployed more troops and People's Armed Police units to the region and that more than 2,500 separatists and "religious extremists" had been detained.

The analysts said Beijing hoped to take advantage of the fall of the Taliban and other developments in Central Asia to cut off the underground supply line of weapons and other material into Xinjiang.

Beijing has been trying to economically develop China's impoverished western regions over the past two decades in an effort to contain religious and ethnic tensions.

Local television quoted Wang as saying in Urumqi that cadres must remain in a state of high alert and that "they must never neglect the agenda on [political] stability because they are too busy with economic work."

Speaking in the same meeting, Vice-Party Secretary Zhou Shengtao said the authorities would tighten control over the "management of religious affairs."

It is understood security personnel have stepped up surveillance of mosques in order to prevent them from becoming centers of separatism and opposition to Beijing.