Customs officials in northwest China's ethnically tense Xinjiang region have adopted new measures to deal with sudden incidences involving separatists, religious extremists and terrorist forces at airports, railway stations or highways, state media said on Saturday.
The customs department in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi recently issued a circular advising customs officers to be on the lookout for unexpected problems involving such groups and calling for increased monitoring of transportation facilities, according to China News Service (CNS). Zhang Yanjia, head of the Urumqi customs department, was quoted by CNS saying customs officials are now conducting 24-hour surveillance of transportation hubs such as airports and train stations and monitoring vehicles entering Xinjiang more closely.
"The officers will seriously investigate any suspicious vehicles and search them for weapons, ammunition or drugs," the report said.
The measures were taken as a result of China's increased concerns about "terrorist" activities after the September 11 attacks in the United States.
China considers ethnic Uighur Muslim separatists as "terrorists" and critics say it has used the global war on terror as a license to crack down more harshly against groups advocating an independent state of East Turkestan for the Uighurs.
The Turkic-speaking Uighurs have been blamed for sporadic riots and bombings in the past few years. Bureau Report