Chinese Security Forces Rally in Xinjiang in a Show of Power
" Professor Leibold said. that The new regime of Chen Quanguo not only wants to look tough on terror in the eyes of the Han and Uighur population of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, but also wants to send a message back to Zhongnanhai
that his regime is going to take a more hard-line stance on terror when compared to his predecessor Zhang Chunxian,
Mr. Leibold, who has recently written on security forces in Xinjiang, said his research showed
that the Xinjiang government had recruited more than 30,000 new police officers to be present at streetside mobile stations since Mr. Chen took power last year.
But there were no signs indicating that any of those rallies under Mr. Chen or Mr. Zhang were attended by as many as 10,000 security officers.
20, 2017
Chinese officials in the western region of Xinjiang, an area troubled by occasional acts of ethnic violence
and domestic terrorism, ordered paramilitary units and police officers to attend large rallies in the past week as a show of force.
About 10,000 police officers and members of the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force responsible for domestic security, attended a rally
on Saturday in a central square in Urumqi, the regional capital, according to a report on the Xinjiang government’s official website.
Mr. Leibold said Mr. Chen was "clearly angling for a Politburo seat at the 19th Party Congress," an important political meeting
that is expected to take place in Beijing in the fall.
Last year, Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party chief of the Tibet Autonomous Region, where ethnic
tensions are also a chronic problem, was appointed to be the party chief of Xinjiang.
