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ASIA / PACIFIC Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER March 6, 2017 Prefecture in China’s Xinjiang to track cars by satellite By Gerry Shih The Associated Press EIJING — A pre- fecture in China’s far western Xin- jiang region is requiring all vehicles to install satellite tracking systems as part of stepped-up measures against violent attacks. Traffic police in Bayingolin Mongol Auton- omous Prefecture an- nounced the regulation shortly after thousands of heavily armed police pa- raded in the Xinjiang capital and ruling Commu- nist Party officials vowed to ramp up their campaign against separatists and Islamic militants. The vehicle-tracking program in Bayingolin will utilize China’s homegrown Beidou satellite system, launched in recent years to reduce China’s reliance on U.S.-based GPS providers for sensitive applications. Authorities said they will also track cars using RFID technology embedded in license plates. “In recent years, the ter- rorist situation around the world has become severe, and cars are the main means of transport for terrorists,” said prefectural authorities in an online statement. Authorities aimed to register and track up to 20,000 vehicles, the statement said. Gas stations will only serve cars equipped with the tracking system, ac- cording to a separate local news report. Police officials in the prefecture confirmed the tracking program to The AP but declined to answer questions. Xinjiang officials have sharply increased surveil- lance, street searches, and police patrols in recent years amid bombings, B RIGHTS ROLLBACK. The secretary-general of Amnesty Interna- tional, Salil Shetty, shows the 408-page Amnesty International report during a press conference in Paris. Amnesty named Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and U.S. President Donald Trump among leaders it said are “wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats, and dehumanizes entire groups of people.” (AP Photo/Thibault Camus) Amnesty blames Trump, others in global rollback of rights By John Leicester The Associated Press ARIS — Amnesty International says “toxic” fear-mongering by anti-establishment politicians, among them U.S. President Donald Trump and the leaders of Turkey, Hungary, and the Philippines, are contributing to a global pushback against human rights. Releasing its 408-page annual report on rights abuses around the world, the watchdog group described 2016 as “the year when the cynical use of ‘us vs. them’ narratives of blame, hate, and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s,” when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany. Amnesty named Trump, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte among leaders it said are “wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats, and dehumanizes entire groups of people.” “Poisonous” rhetoric employed by Trump in his election campaign exemplified “the global trend of angrier and more divisive politics,” Amnesty said. “The limits of what is acceptable have shifted. Politicians are shamelessly and actively legitimizing all sorts of hateful rhetoric and policies based on people’s identity: misogyny, racism, and homophobia. The first target has been refugees and, if this continues in 2017, others will be in the crosshairs.” The group’s annual report, “The State of the World’s Human Rights,” documented what it called “grave violations of human rights” in 159 countries in 2016. Amnesty said governments “turned a blind eye to war crimes, pushed through deals that undermine the right to claim asylum, passed laws that violate free expression, incited the murder of people simply because they are accused of using drugs, justified torture and mass surveillance, and extended draconian police powers.” It added that “the big question in 2017 will be how far the world lets atrocities go before doing something about them.” Exceptionally, London-based Amnesty chose to launch its report in Paris. Salil Shetty, the group’s secretary-general, said France has used emergency powers introduced in 2015 in the wake of terror attacks in an abusive and “deeply discriminatory” manner, confining more than 600 people, mostly Muslims, under house arrest and banning more than 140 protests. “Even states that once claimed to champion rights abroad are now too busy rolling back human rights at home to hold others to account,” Amnesty said. “The more countries backtrack on fundamental human-rights commitments, the more we risk a domino effect of leaders emboldened to knock back established human-rights protections.” France’s government has repeatedly defended the emergency powers as a necessary safeguard against the severe terror threat it says is facing the country, and parliament has repeatedly voted to extend those powers. P Celebrate Earth Day everyday! Reduce w Reuse w Recycle The Asian Reporter Foundation’s 19th Annual Scholarship & Awards banquet will be held April 20, 2017. For information about sponsorship opportunities, nomination forms for “Most Honored Elder” and “Exemplary Community Volunteer” awards, or college scholarship application forms, call (503) 283-0595 or visit <www.arfoundation.net>. ASTHMA IS ON THE RISE. Help us find a cure. 1-800-LUNG-USA SAFETY VS. PRIVACY. Vehicles are seen driving on snow-covered roads in Urumqi, the capital of north- west China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A prefecture in China’s Xinjiang region is requiring all vehicles to install satellite tracking systems as part of stepped-up measures against violent attacks. Traffic police in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture announced the regulation shortly after thousands of heavily armed police paraded in Urumqi and Communist Party officials vowed to ramp up a campaign against separatists and Islamic militants. (Wang Fei/Xinhua via AP) militants have been vehicle and knife attacks Central Asian states. The Chinese government reported in recent months blamed on separatist militants from the native denies religious discrimi- in the region’s southern ethnic Uighur minority. nation and says its policies towns. At a rally in the regional Uighur activists say eco- are needed to maintain nomic marginalization and stability in a region capital of Urumqi, Xinjiang by militant party official Zhu Hailun a repressive government targeted exhorted rows of rifle- presence — including Islamic radicals. Despite the constant toting soldiers and police in restrictions on Muslim reli- gious and cultural prac- state of police lockdown, tactical anti-riot uniforms knife-wielding to use their “hot blood and tices — have fuelled resent- three ment and feed a vicious attackers killed five and loyalty” to defend the peo- cycle of radicalization and injured five others in ple and deal a “crushing, Xinjiang’s far western obliterating blow” against violence. Xinjiang shares a border Pishan county last month, separatist and radical with Afghanistan, Paki- while several clashes Islamic forces from Central stan, and several unstable between police forces and Asia.