China punishes Xinjiang official for practising faith

China has reprimanded 15 Xinjiang officials for violations that include adhering to religious faith, state media said on Tuesday, amid a crackdown on what the government calls illegal religious activities in the unruly western region. Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighur people who speak a Turkic language, have been beset for years by violence that the Chinese government blames on Islamist militants and separatists.

One official in the southern city of Kashgar, where a state-backed imam was killed last month, had "worshipped openly", the official Xinhua news agency said, behaviour which violated rules that state workers are forbidden to be religious. "The punishment of expulsion from public office was handed to [the official] surnamed Mai who violated the clear regulation that state workers must not have religious faith," Xinhua said, citing the city's Uighur mayor, Ainiwaer Tuerxun. Mai had "remained devout and incorrigible, and had a poor attitude," the report added.

Tensions are running high in Xinjiang, after officials told Muslims to eschew religious customs during the fasting month of Ramadan, which rights groups saw as an bid to repress Uighurs. Another official was punished, according to Xinhua, for having "ambiguous understanding and attitudes, sluggish action, and ineffective implementation toward counter-terrorism operations". Punishments for violations, which included spreading information that was harmful to ethnic unity, ranged from expulsion from government positions to stern warnings.