In the summer of 1998 Beijing launched a nationwide...

In the summer of 1998 Beijing launched a nationwide anti-smuggling campaign, first ordering the army, law enforcement agencies and bureaucracy to turn their multi-billion dollar businesses over to central government control. At the start of 1999, China also set up a task force of 6,000 officers to crack down on rampant smuggling. The situation in Xinjiang attracted particular attention. Here, there are some 17 million people and Uighurs make up 48% of the population, but the proportion has continued to fall in the face of waves of new Han Chinese immigrants who now comprise 38% of the population. Xinjiang has been rocked by rioting, bombings and assassinations since the mid-1990s. Turkish-speaking Uighur militants have agitated for an independent East Turkestan in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and 3 former soviet Central Asian Republics. In January, China stepped up its military presence in strife-ridden Yili, and 1,000 paramilitary police were posted in the prefectural capital of Yining and launched a campaign against religious violence and crime in Xinjiang. 25,400 death sentences were handed down and more than 16,600 executions were carried out in China between the end of 1990 and 1998. According to Amnesty International, China continues to execute more people than the rest of the world put together. In 1999, limited records available at the end of the year indicated that the authorities carried out at least 1,077 executions - although the true figures are believed to be far higher.