China is again showing its ugly racism and bigotry.
Chinese authorities have ordered all motor vehicles in Bayingol prefecture in far-western Xinjiang to be installed with mandatory satellite tracking devices, the latest tough anti-terror measure targeting the ethnically divided region. The Uyghur Muslims in East Turkestan (now called Xinjiang by the Chinese authorities) is one of the most persecuted people in our planet.
All vehicles will be required by June 30 to install GPS-style tracking devices connected to China's proprietary Beidou navigation satellite, "so they can be tracked wherever they go", the state-run Global Times reported on Tuesday.
Cars not fitted with the devices will be unable to buy petrol at service stations in Bayingol, nor be resold on the second-hand market.
Remote and sparsely populated Bayingol occupies a huge part of southeast Xinjiang, although much of the violence has been concentrated further away near Kashgar and Hotan in the southern Uighur heartland.
The government has blamed much of the unrest on separatist Islamist militants, although rights groups and exiles say anger at tightening Chinese controls on the religion and culture of Muslim Uighurs is more to blame.
China routinely denies any repression in Xinjiang.
Violence has continued to flare particularly in the more remote southern regions of Xinjiang, although accounts are difficult to verify independently and exiles and rights groups suspect incidents are underreported.
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