ABSTRACT
As the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region marked its 50th anniversary in 2005, Beijing was deploying both the carrot of economic development and the stick of political and religious repression to maintain its control of the region. While mosques in Xinjiang are found in most villages, towns, and cities, the mazar tombs of the Sufi sheikhs and the religious complexes that have grown up around them are typically in isolated rural settings. The Strike Hard Campaign in Xinjiang led to harsh and sustained repression during 1996, and there were public trials of large numbers of Uyghurs who were accused of serious criminal offences but who were also alleged to be linked to the separatist movement; many were executed. The Chinese Communist Party has sought to regulate all religions, including Islam, through the Religious Affairs Bureau, which was established by the State Council in 1954; its successor organisation, the State Administration for Religious Affairs, was established in 1998.
