China Preparing to build 'Great Wall' for securing ‘Xinjiang’

Kashgar/Beijing: China is planning to construct a ‘security wall’ to stop the insurgence of terrorists in the Xinjiang. The Xinjiang Governor, Shohrat Zakir made this statement in an interview given to a China daily. The Chinese government has been taking aggressive steps against the Uyghurs, Muslim attackers and this seems to be a part of the same initiative.

“Efforts are on to make the border security stricter and for constructing a great wall of steel in the Xinjiang province. Precautions will be taken that there are no gaps in the security on the border of the province. It will be ensured that the important areas of the province are fully secure. Use of technology will be increased along the border and the roads and infrastructure will be developed” clarified Xinjiang Governor, Shohrat Zakir.

The northwest province of Xinjiang is home to about a ten million of Uyghurs. This autonomous province, having common borders with eight countries, has a major population of the ‘Turkish’ people and their culture is different from other citizens of China. The Chinese government and the Uyghurs are at loggerheads since many decades and China is making serious attempts to gain control over them.

Since the last few decades, the organisation ‘East Turkeystan Independence movement’ is active in this province and it is demanding a separate county for the Uyghurs. Many countries have notified this organisation as a terrorist outfit. The Chinese government is consistently campaigning against this organisation. But in spite of this, the organisation is said to be active. Based on these activities, the ruling Communist Party has taken various measures for stepping up the security in the Xinjiang.

Governor Zakir’s statement about the ‘Great Wall’ also seems to be a part of these measures. Measures like collecting DNA samples of the local citizens, collecting ‘biometric’ information, ban on daily religious activities have already been implemented. Followed by installation of surveillance cameras, important areas including Kashgar, the capital of Xinjiang and the ‘Facial recognition system project’ is being implemented.

A database is being prepared of the local citizens and if a person goes out of a particular perimeter the security machinery is ‘alerted’. This has exposed the intention of keeping the local Uyghurs under watch. There were many terror attacks and incidents of violence in Xinjiang province in 2013 and 2014. There have been no major violence or terror incidents in the last year. Still Chinese government has started deploying security measures stating a possibility of terrorist activities by the ‘IS’ terrorists that have entered the province.