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	China''s hotbed: who created the violence? by Stephen McDonell Australian Broadcasting Corporation China   Sep 2014   In China last week, a prominent scholar was sent to jail for life after he criticised government policy in the country"s far west.   Beijing ignored the pleas of Australia, the United States and others who urged a lenient approach towards Ilham Tohti.   As well as losing his liberty forever, the ethnic Uighur economist had his property confiscated, leaving his wife and children without a means to survive.   Xi Jinping"s government has been instigating an increasingly hardline approach right across China in terms of smashing any form of dissent creeping in. The Muslim region of Xinjiang is at the extreme edge of this.   Nearly every month there is fresh report of deadly clashes coming out of China"s Xinjiang province. In the latest story from China"s state media just days ago, 40 so-called rioters died in the town of Luntai.   Sometimes these incidents have been planned attacks from jihadists targeting ordinary people and using bombing and stabbing as a preferred method of murder. At other times they appear to have been more along the lines of a dispute involving a crowd that gets out of hand.   Either way, over the past year, hundreds have been killed in this vast Sunni Muslim region, the traditional home of Turkic-speaking Uighurs.   The Chinese government blames the bloodshed on foreign jihadist groups drumming up unrest and, according to Beijing, there can be no other view. It wants to control the way the world sees Xinjiang to the point where no reasoned analysis of why Uighurs might be unhappy with their lives is to be permitted.   We"ve just come across this first hand on a filming trip driving across Xinjiang for Foreign Correspondent. We faced unrelenting pressure from China"s state security apparatus trying to prevent us from interviewing ordinary Uighurs about their grievances.   It appears to be the same reason for Ilham Tohti"s life imprisonment. He was able to deliver a well thought out critique of China"s Xinjiang policy so the government in Beijing felt it had to shut him down altogether. Again - it wants the only Uighur unrest to be so-called "terrorist unrest". There is no room for any understanding of why the Uighurs might feel discontent in the land of their forefathers.   Make no mistake, innocent people have been killed by religious extremists in Xinjiang in what are clearly orchestrated attacks, but there are also a fair proportion of these incidents that seem to be clashes triggered by bubbling resentment. The point is the Chinese authorities doesn"t want journalists (or anyone) to drill down into the details of these clashes in order to find out what"s really going on.   In recent decades, Han Chinese have gone from about 7 per cent of the population in Xinjiang to nearly half. Government policy appears to be assimilation at all costs. Teaching in Uighur language is being phased out. There"s a trial program, rewarding inter-ethnic marriage with cash handouts. Beards and veils are discouraged. Uighurs are, on the other hand, encouraged to live elsewhere in China.   On that last point, it can be hard, when they face considerable police scrutiny if they ever leave their home town.   Human rights groups and governments around the world, including Canberra and Washington DC, have described Ilham Tohti"s case as a politically motivated move to silence his voice.   The ABC asked Professor Bruce Jacobs from Monash University for his reading of why this man had been given life imprisonment for doing nothing more than criticise Beijing"s strategies. He said:   Well they see anything which challenges their rule there as a threat. China, in places like Xinjiang and Tibet, is a colonial state. The Chinese are running a colonial regime. When we talk about a colonial regime, we mean a regime that"s run by outsiders for the benefit of the outsiders. That"s exactly what"s happening in Tibet today and its what"s happening in Xinjiang. And its what happened when the Europeans ran colonies around the world as well.   So is is there room for any reasonable airing of concerns inside Xinjiang? According to Professor Jacobs:   No. The Uighurs have no options. By throwing Tohti into jail for the rest of his life - or even just sentencing him - they"re showing that moderate action has no future. The only actions which have the option, or the potential for success, are the radical actions, because the Chinese colonial state is so violent and very vigorous in pushing down any sort of Uighur self consciousness.   Many China analysts now share the view that the Chinese government is driving the Uighurs into the hands of extremists.   Theirs traditionally has been a moderate form of Islam that is coming under threat from all sides.   The government says it needs to respond with an iron first to emerging terrorist violence but many have questioned whether the crackdown actually preceded the violence. By turning the screws on the Uighurs tighter every day is China creating a hotbed of discontent?   http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/china-and-the-uighur-people/5786808   * Below is a link to Communities @ Risk: Targeted Digital Threats Against Civil Society, a report by the Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research laboratory based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs. The report sheds light on an often overlooked digital risk environment, 8 of the 10 Civil Society Agencies examined focus on Tibet and the many challenges they have encountered. Visit the related web page
	In defence of the public interest by Ole von Uexkull The Right Livelihood Award Foundation Sweden   25 September 2014   NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden and Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger have been jointly given the 2014 Right Livelihood honorary award.   The award, from Swedish charity the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, recognised Snowden’s “courage and skill in revealing the unprecedented extent of state surveillance violating basic democratic processes and constitutional rights”.   Rusbridger’s citation recognised his role in “building a global media organisation dedicated to responsible journalism in the public interest, undaunted by the challenges of exposing corporate and government malpractices”.   The Right Livelihood award was established in 1980 to honour and support those “offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today”, with 153 laureates from 64 countries.   It is presented annually at a ceremony at the Swedish parliament and there are normally four winners.   Three other 2014 laureates will share the award equally: Pakistani human rights lawyer and activist Asma Jahangir; Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission; and American environmentalist, author and journalist Bill McKibben.   Bill McKibben is honored "for mobilizing growing popular support in the USA and around the world for strong action to counter the threat of global climate change.”   Asma Jahangir''s work has included three decades of "continuously speaking truth to power" and "relentless campaigning against laws that discriminate against women," despite assaults and threats made against her.   Basil Fernando''s "pivotal" work has spanned three decades. His accomplishments include leading the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), an organizations whose work has advanced human rights, for nearly 20 years.   Ole von Uexkull, executive director of the Right Livelihood Award Foundation, said: “This year’s Right Livelihood laureates are stemming the tide of the most dangerous global trends. With this year’s awards, we want to send a message of urgent warning that these trends – illegal mass surveillance of ordinary citizens, the violation of human and civil rights, violent manifestations of religious fundamentalism, and the decline of the planet’s life-supporting systems – are very much upon us already.   “If they are allowed to continue, and reinforce each other, they have the power to undermine the basis of civilised societies.”   "But the Laureates also demonstrate that the choice is entirely in our hands: by courageous acts of civil disobedience in the public interest, through principled and undeterred journalism, by upholding the rule of law and documenting each violation of it, and by building social movements to resist the destruction of our natural environment, we can turn the tide and build our common future on the principles of freedom, justice, and respect for the Earth," he continued. Visit the related web page
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