Source: CNN
Date: May 17, 2018
CNN reports about the Chinese government’s decision to send over a million Communist Party officials to live with Uyghur Muslim families in the western region of Xinjiang. Families will have to provide detailed information on their daily lives and political views. In return, the live-in officials not only will look for any religious elements at homes but will also provide “political education” to the Uyghur households.
The “home-stay” program, supposedly started as a means “to maintain social stability and achieve lasting security,” expanded greatly from the Chinese government’s attempt to monitor the Muslim population of Xinjiang in 2014. In just four years, the number of officials involved in the program has grown almost tenfold.
The regional government continues to arrest and imprison many Uyghurs increasingly relying on high-tech tools, such as surveillance cameras, mandatory GPS trackers in cars and DNA collection for all residents aged 12 to 65, and mass mobilization programs. Last year, authorities also enacted an anti-extremist law.
