ConflictBarometer_2016

ASIA AND OCEANIA
monastery in Draggo/Luhuo County, Sichuan Province, after
they had organized a prayer ceremony for the wellbeing of
the Dalai Lama. In June, local authorities ordered to reduce
the number of residents at the Buddhist academy in Larung
Gar town, Sichuan Province, to 5,000. After they had started
to demolish buildings in Larung Gar on July 20, three Tibetan
nuns committed suicide in July and August. Until the end of
the year, authorities evicted around 1,000 nuns and monks
from Larung Gar and forced many of them to take patriotic
reeducation courses. Throughout the year, at least three Tibetans
immolated themselves in protest for freedom of expression
and association.
The Tibetan exile community remained split between advocates
for autonomy and those for secession. On April 27, Lobsang
Sangay was officially declared the winner of the 2016
Sikyong elections and reinstated as head of the CTA, the selfproclaimed
Tibetan government in exile. Sangay adhered to
the ''Middle Way Approach'' (MWA), seeking a genuine autonomy
for the greater region of Tibet. On June 15, the spiritual
leader of the Tibetan Buddhist school of Gelug and advocate
of the MWA, the Dalai Lama, met privately with US President
Barack Obama in Washington, prompting sharp criticism from
the Chinese government [→ China – USA]. lja
CHINA (UYGHURS / XINJIANG)
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 1949
Conflict parties:
Conflict items:
ETIM, WUC, Uyghurs vs. government,
Han
secession, resources
The conflict over secession and resources, such as oil, gas,
and coal, between ethnic Uyghurs in China and Uyghur separatist
organizations based abroad, on the one hand, and the
Chinese government and the Han Chinese majority, on the
other, remained violent. Compared to 2015, the number of violent
incidents decreased, while authorities considerably expanded
the surveillance infrastructure in the Xinjiang Uyghur
Autonomous Region (XUAR) along with new facilities, WiFi
spots, and newsstands.
On January 1, China's first national Anti-Terrorism Law came
into effect, serving as a legal framework for counter-terrorism
activities and offering more precise definitions of ''terrorism”
and ''extremism.” On February 1, the Xinjiang Higher People's
Court reduced the prison sentences of eleven Uyghurs who
had previously been convicted for endangering state security.
In late March, at least 40 Uyghurs were arrested for religious
extremism in Gulja County, Ili Prefecture, XUAR. From April 11
onward, Xinjiang authorities offered reward money for information
on suspected terrorists and religious extremists. In
late May, a violent clash between Uyghur inmates and prison
guards erupted in a juvenile detention camp in XUAR's capital
Urumqi. Ten prisoners escaped, while two guards and three
prisoners were killed. At the end of August, Chen Guoquan
became the new Party Secretary of XUAR, who declared to implement
more proactive policies against the so-called ''three
evils”, namely, terrorism, extremism and separatism. Ahead
of the G20 Summit in early September in Hangzhou, Zhejiang
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Province, local authorities reportedly imposed stricter controls
on Uyghurs in the city. On September 10, a bomb explosion
in XUAR killed a deputy police chief and wounded three
officers during a house raid in the Kokterek Township in Guma
County, Hotan Prefecture. Subsequently, police detained at
least 17 suspects. In November, local authorities reportedly
requested Uyghur residents of Aksu Prefecture, northwestern
XUAR, to hand over their passports. The World Uyghur
Congress, based in Munich, Germany, condemned this as an
infringement on mobility rights of the Uyghur community. On
December 28, three Uyghurs drove a car into the yard of a
local party office in Moyu County, Hotan Prefecture, and attacked
several persons with knifes before detonating a bomb,
leaving five dead and three injured.
China intensified regional anti-terrorism cooperation with the
Central Asian countries and also called on other countries to
deport Uyghur terrorist suspects. In late April, Turkey and
China agreed to improve anti-terrorism cooperation and constrain
illegal immigration during a forum on security issues
in Asia in the Chinese capital Beijing. On April 28, Indonesia
stated that it had rejected a Chinese request to extradite
four Uyghur detainees suspected of terrorism. On May 31, 70
Uyghurs, held at a Thai detention facility, announced a hunger
strike, protesting against deportation to China. On August 23,
a Thai military court opened trial against two Uyghurs charged
with carrying out the 2015 bomb attack in Bangkok that had
targeted Chinese tourists. On August 30, an Uyghur member
of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement carried out a suicide
attack on the Chinese Embassy in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek,
leaving three injured.
CHINA – INDIA
Intensity: 2 | Change: | Start: 1954
Conflict parties:
PRC vs. India
Conflict items: territory, international power, resources
The non-violent crisis between China and India over territory,
water, and international power continued.
On March 31, China opposed an Indian proposal in the
UNSC to list the head of the Pakistani jihadist group Jaishe-Mohammad,
Masood Azhar, as a terrorist.
Furthermore, China rejected India's application to the Nuclear
Suppliers Group (NSG) during the NSG plenary in Seoul on
June 23 and 24, as well as on November 11 in Vienna, setting
the signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty as a precondition
for the membership.
Throughout the year, Chinese troops crossed the Line of Actual
Control (LAC), the demarcation line between China and
India. For instance, on March 8, eleven Chinese soldiers of the
People's Liberation Army crossed the LAC in four vehicles and
approached the ''Finger VIII” Sirjap-I area near Pangong lake
in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India. This led to an hourslong
standoff with a patrol of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
During his visit to China from April 18 to 23, India's Defense
Minister Manohar Parrikar agreed with Chinese military officials
on setting up a military hotline and improving military
cooperation. On April 20, the 19th Special Representatives'