Tough On Uighurs And Muslims, China Removes Communist Party Leader In Xinjiang

Illustration photo of Xinjiang city, China. (Wikimedia Commons/Anagoria)

JAKARTA - China has removed Chen Quanguo, head of the Communist Party in the Xinjiang region, over a security crackdown targeting ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in the name of fighting religious extremism.

Serving since 2016, Chen will be transferred to another position. Meanwhile, the governor of the coastal economic powerhouse of Guandong Province, Ma Xingrui, who has been in office since 2017, will succeed him, the official Xinhua news agency said without providing other details, citing Reuters December 26.

Chen, 66, is a member of China's politburo and is widely regarded as the senior official in charge of the security crackdown in Xinjiang. He was sanctioned by the United States (US) last year.

On Thursday last week, US President Joe Biden signed a bill banning imports from Xinjiang over concerns about forced labor, prompting condemnation from China.

Meanwhile, several foreign lawmakers and parliamentarians, as well as US Secretary of State in both President Biden's and President Trump's administrations, have labeled the treatment of Uyghurs genocidal.

For information, UN researchers and human rights activists estimate that more than one million Muslims have been detained in camps in the Xinjiang region of western China.

Meanwhile, China rejected allegations of abuse, described the camps as vocational centers designed to combat extremism, and in late 2019 said everyone in the camps had "graduated".