A Glimmer of Hope

In 2016 Chén Quánguó(陈全国), one of 25 members of the Politburo, was appointed Communist Party chief in Xinjiang. Chen had served five years in Tibet as Party Secretary and was credited with restoring security in the restive region through surveillance and control. 

Chen massively increased police recruitment and recruited Uyghur into security personnel, police assistants and grid "social management" positions - cleverly saving money on fully trained police and significantly boosting Uyghur employment. Although many of the other measure he applied drove away business for both Han and Uyghur.

According to 2017 information by Adrian Zenz and James Leibold, Chen forced many Uyghurs across Xinjiang to return to their home regions.  Even inside the region, travel required a permit, and free flow of labour was severely restricted. Checkpoints nearly doubled travel times, increasing the cost of doing business. As did heavy security requirements, such as installing metal detectors or even airport-style X-ray scanners at entrances, procuring monitoring equipment, alarms, riot-proof doors, or having to hire private security guards.  Itinerant Uyghur shops were systematically shut down. In his second year in Xinjiang, the "re-education" camps began to proliferate along with their associated factories and housing. 

Most have heard of the devastating and ongoing effect they have had on Uyghur culture and families. Yet, in securing the region, both Uyghur and local Han have been affected by Chen's extreme surveillance and heavy handed measures. Nor is he revered in the international community, being on the list of individuals sanctioned by the United States for crimes against humanity.  

Six years on, in December 2021, it was announced that Chén Quánguó would be replaced by Ma Xingrui(马兴瑞) the governor of the economic powerhouse, Guangdong Province. He was, prior to that, the Communist Party Secretary of the special economic zone, Shenzhen.  Ma has a background in the aerospace sector and has held the positions of Director of State Administration for Science Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND), Director of the China National Space Administration, and General Manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. He was chief commander of Chang'e 3, China's first lunar surface exploration, and chief engineer of the Shijian 5 satellite project. Other notable positions held by Ma in his career include Director of the China Atomic Energy Authority, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, and Head of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Guangdong.

Uyghur have expressed a glimmer of hope that Ma Xingrui's appointment as Xinjiang as Party Chief could be a step toward reopening the region to the world.  He has been described as having an innovative mind, and being a "straight-talking man of principle".  His experience in Guangdong and Shenzhen will be useful in guiding Xinjiang's economic development, and addressing labor and human rights concerns which have been causing trading partners to avoid the region.  

A new governor has also been appointed for Xinjiang, Erkin Tuniyaz, who was formerly vice governor of the region. Although ethnic Uyghur himself, he has earned notoriety for his vociferous defense of Chinese policies toward the Uyghur.

In his own words: "On the basis of implementing the UN's Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, we took preventive counterterrorism and deradicalization measures and established the vocational education and training centers according to law."

In his February 2021 video address to the United Nations, Tuniyaz explained that all trainees of these facilities had graduated by October 2019 and now had "stable jobs and are living a normal life." 

Unfortunately, Tuniyaz's views are not echoed by the voices coming from the Uyghur community. Neither are they agreeable with his statement that in Xinjiang, "Various religions coexist in harmony and stability. Xinjiang protects its people's freedom of religious belief, and fully meets the faithful's needs for their normal religious activities. Islamic classics and popular books have been translated and published, infrastructure conditions for religious venues have markedly improved and the public service level continuously upgraded. All these have won wide praise and support from the religious believers."

Tuniyaz has a masters degree in economics and served as deputy head of the Organization Department of Communist Party of China Xinjiang Committee and deputy Party secretary of Hotan before becoming vice chairman of Xinjiang regional government in 2008.  He studied law at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee between 2009 and 2011 and was a senior visiting scholar at the Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2012.  Although Tuniyaz appears to passionately support the Party line, there is a glimmer of hope that, being Uyghur, he may also act with compassion to his own people.

Prayer Points

Give praise to the Lord who is ultimately in control and working out His plan. 

Pray that the Lord will not ignore the suffering of the Uyghur, Kazakh and others in the reeducation camp system, or those undergoing forced or coerced labour. 

Pray that Uyghur overseas will hear the gospel message, and that the changes in leadership in Xinjiang will soon permit them to unite with their families in Xinjiang and share the Good News. 

Pray for peace in Xinjiang and the spread of the gospel there.
Pray for the new leaders that they will govern with kindness and compassion for the people they serve.