BEIJING (AFP) – Authorities in China's troubled Xinjiang region will step up identity checks and monitor religious activities in a renewed bid to quash terrorism, separatism and extremism, state media said Wednesday.
The announcement of new government regulations aimed at helping the police and judiciary stamp out the so-called "three forces" in the region comes six months after ethnic violence left nearly 200 people dead.
More than 1,600 people were also injured in the violence that erupted between mainly Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in the regional capital of Urumqi on July 5, according to government figures.
So far 22 people, mostly ethnic Uighurs, have been sentenced to death for the violence, drawing sharp criticism from the West and rights groups concerned that the accused were not guaranteed due process.
Nine of those convicted have already been executed.
"The new rules provide forceful legal guarantees to step up the struggle against separatism," Jappa Abibulla, chairman of the Xinjiang People's Congress, told the China News Service.
"They clearly state that striking at the 'three evil forces' of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism in accordance with the law are the priority task for maintaining social order."
The new regulations -- which come into effect on February 1 -- stipulate that governments down to the village level must step up checks on target populations and monitor all religious activities, China National Radio said.
Local governments must also step up the registration of migrant workers and home rentals in their jurisdictions and help set up a region-wide information-sharing network, it said.
The newly amended rules also stipulate that promotions of government leaders will be subject to their efforts to stamp out the "three forces".
China's roughly eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities -- which China denies -- and tensions have simmered in the Xinjiang region for years.
The latest amendments to rules issued in 1994 come after the July unrest revealed shortcomings in the existing rules, the radio report said.