China’s ruling Communist Party is tightening its narrative on Islam with top officials emphasising the effects of global religious militancy and the possibility of losing Chinese identity.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has focused to ‘Sinocise’ the country’s minorities in the last one year. At the same time, leaders in the Muslim-majority have region have increased shadowing of the ethnic minority.
The president on Friday ordered a meeting of Xinjiang officials to ensure there is stability in the region, advising them to create a “great wall of iron” – an analogy to former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping using the term “great wall of iron and steel” to applaud the People’s Liberation Army’s dealing of a pro-democracy protest in Tiananmen Square in 1989.