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Najiaying Mosque in Yuxi City
Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0
In southern China, the government is apparently cracking down on protests by a Muslim minority. According to reports, clashes between demonstrators and police broke out in the Muslim-majority town of Yuxi in the southern Yunnan region. Around 30 people were apparently arrested, according to the AP news agency, but the exact number is unclear.
As eyewitnesses told the AFP news agency, there have been several hundred police officers in the town since Monday. According to the report, the authorities are planning to demolish four minarets and the domed roof of the Najiaying Mosque. "The mosque is a home for Muslims like us," she said. Numerous members of the Muslim Hui live in the area.
Online censorship and suspected internet outages
Already on Saturday, dozens of police officers had pushed back a gathering of people in front of the Najiaying Mosque, who threw objects at the forces.
According to eyewitness reports, there were several arrests as well as internet outages in the area around the mosque. Videos showing the protests were removed from Chinese online networks, according to the AP news agency.
An official denied the Internet outages on Tuesday. The responsible administration also published an announcement for the population. According to this, all parties involved should "immediately stop all illegal and criminal acts". All those who did not surrender would be "severely punished".
Beijing has been targeting Muslim minorities for years. An estimated one million Uyghurs, Hui and other Muslims have been arrested in the western region of Xinjiang since 2017. Presumably, hundreds of thousands are held there in camps, as research by SPIEGEL and other media showed last year.
The Chinese leadership justifies the action with the fight against "terrorism". In the past, mosques have been completely demolished or partially dismantled.
fek/AFP/AP