Stepping up its crackdown on Uyghur Muslims during Ramadan, Chinese police said they were using spies to make sure members of the ethnic group don’t observe fasting.
The spies, which Chinese officials refer to as “ears”, are ordinary citizens, police and members of neighborhood committees.
“We have many secret agents,” a police officer from an area near Turpan, or Tulufan in Chinese, in eastern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, told Radio Free Asia.
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“Our ‘ears’ came from three fields — the ordinary residents, the police and the neighborhood committees,” said the police officer from an area near Turpan.
“Because of the language barrier, we recruited Uyghurs to surveil other Uyghurs,” she said. “In my workplace, there are 70-80 Uyghur policemen who either directly work as ‘ears’ or lead other civilian ‘ears.’”
No Ramadan
China began banning Muslims in Xinjiang from fasting during Ramadan in 2017 when authorities began arbitrarily detaining Uyghurs in “re-education” camps.
The authorities partially relaxed restriction in 2021 and 2022, allowing people over 65 to fast.
This year, however, the government prohibited everyone from fasting regardless of age, gender or profession, according to a political official at Turpan City Police Station.
“No one is allowed to fast in this Ramadan,” which runs from March 22 to April 20 this year, he said.
This year’s policy also includes home searches, street patrols and mosque searches.
“When we search the houses, we check if they have carried out illegal religious activities and if there are security threats,” the political official added.
Violators would be punished with legal education for light offenses and jail sentences for severe ones, he said.
Many refer to China’s Xinjiang, home to many ethnic minorities, including the Turkic Uyghur people, as East Turkestan.
For years, Chinese authorities have imposed restrictions on Uyghur Muslims in the north-western region of Xinjiang.
According to UN, more than one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities have been rounded up in camps.