A spokesman for the
Xinjiang government, Luo Fuyong, said that local police had gathered
around 900 pieces of evidence of online rumor spreading and arrested at
least 256 people.
Of those, he said 139 had
spread rumors about jihad, or Muslim holy war, mainly through posting
videos that showed violent terrorist attacks or taught viewers how to
create bombs and explosive devices.
"Jihad and terrorists are
the enemy of all human races," Luo said.
The report did not say
whether those arrested were Han Chinese or Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking
predominantly Muslim ethnic group.
The arrests were made
from June 26 to August 31 following an outbreak
of violence in the remote township, about 250 kilometers southeast
of the regional capital Urumqi, that left 35 people dead.Urumqi on edge before deadly anniversary
The report did not say
whether those arrested were Han Chinese or Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking
predominantly Muslim ethnic group.
The arrests were made
from June 26 to August 31 following an outbreak
of violence in the remote township, about 250 kilometers southeast
of the regional capital Urumqi, that left 35 people dead.
Frequent outbreaks of
unrest have hit Xinjiang, a resource-rich region where the arrival of
waves of Han Chinese people over the decades has fueled tensions with
the Uyghurs.
They complain of
discrimination and harsh treatment by security forces, despite official
promises of equal rights and ethnic harmony.
Beijing has found it
useful to portray such tensions as the result of outside interference,
attempting to cast separatists as part of a global terror network since
the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, said Nicholas Dynon, a researcher
at Macquarie University in Australia.
This strategy undermines
sympathies at home and abroad for legitimate grievances of the Uyghurs,
he added.
"Conflating
international terrorism with domestic separatism is way for Chinese
authorities to leverage support for their own issues."
The arrests in Xinjiang
come amid a nationwide crackdown
on online rumors that critics have said is a way for the government
to squash dissent.
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