The Communist Party chief of China’s Xinjiang region has called on security personnel to “unwaveringly” uphold the authorities’ “high-intensity crackdown on terrorism”.
The call from Ma Xingrui came as the western border region completed its latest military-police joint exercise.
“Social stability must be at the forefront” of “strengthening stability and boosting development”, Ma told police officers in Xinjiang on Friday.
“[Our] approach towards high-intensity crackdowns has to remain unwavering,” Ma was quoted as saying by Xinjiang Daily, an official newspaper.
“[We] have to eliminate all terrorist threats at the initial stage, and push forward with normalising counterterrorism work.”
Ma also called for stronger border security and a “society-wide” ability to control risks. Eliminating political, economic and ideological “risks” were important to ensure the prevention of “structural risks”, he said.
The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region is home to nearly 26 million people, more than half of them from ethnic minority groups, including the mainly Muslim Uygurs and Kazakhs.
China’s years-long crackdown on extremism among Uygurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang has sparked allegations of human rights abuses and sanctions from the United States and other countries.
Beijing denies accusations of repression and has hailed its policies in managing ethnic conflicts, combating terrorism and relieving poverty as successful. However, it has continued to step up security measures as part of a campaign to normalise counterterror work.
The latest military-police drills took place in “southern Xinjiang”, in the Kunlun Mountains bordering India and Pakistan, according to Xinjiang Daily. The specific location or dates of the exercise were not reported.
Around 3,000 security personnel took part, the report said, including those from the People’s Liberation Army, the paramilitary People’s Armed Police, the quasi-military Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and immigration control and public security agencies.
Helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as armoured and assault tanks were used in the exercise, according to state media.
During the drills, personnel practised arresting targeted terrorists, preventing the return and infiltration of terrorists, and combating terrorism in high-altitude regions, footage broadcast by Xinjiang Television showed.
In 2016, Beijing imposed security measures in Xinjiang that it said aimed to crack down on terror attacks following decades of ethnic tensions and unrest. But the measures led to allegations of widespread human rights abuses, including that at least 1 million Uygurs and other Muslim minorities were held in mass internment camps.
Beijing maintains the centres are for “vocational training”.
The Xinjiang government has in recent years focused on promoting economic development, especially trade links with its neighbouring Central Asian countries, and also sought to improve its international image.
During a visit to the regional capital Urumqi in August, President Xi Jinping doubled down on “social stability” as a top priority for Xinjiang, calling for greater efforts against terrorism and religious extremism while also pushing economic development.
