In the remote northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang, China authorities are certainly being exhaustive in their attempts to stem a spike in the long-running activity of Islamic militants. Recent attempts have involved the use of drones employed to locate, capture and kill suspected Islamic militants in the region, as well as restrictions being placed on the practice of Islam and the wearing of beards and veils in public.
Authorities in the violence-prone Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China are sparing no measure in their crackdown on existing terrorists, and through a recently proposed policy, may even be trying to stem the birth of future terrorists. After a series of anti-terrorism efforts have repeatedly failed to stem the ongoing violence, a recent article in the party political theory journal Qiushi suggests Xinjiang may soon adopt limits on the ability of ethnic groups to bear children.
While most news about Central Asia discusses pipelines and transiting materiel to Afghanistan, southern Kyrgyzstan still sways uneasily in a quiet cross-breeze of mistrust and recriminations, after riots in June 2010 that killed over 400 people. After 18 months, two special commission reports, and a new president, few residents in this mountainous region believe the […]