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Nectar Gan and Wayne Chang

Thousands of ethnic minority Muslims defy authorities in defense of mosque

Thousands of ethnic minority Muslims surrounded a mosque in southwestern China over the weekend in a last-ditch effort to prevent what they said was an attempt by authorities to remove its dome and minarets, as a crackdown on religious freedoms widens.

The apparent alteration of a mosque belonging to the Hui ethnic group in Najiaying village, Yunnan province comes amid a sweeping campaign unleashed by China's leader Xi Jinping to "sinicize" religion.

The policy aims to purge religious faiths of foreign influence and align them more closely with traditional Chinese culture – and the authoritarian rule of the officially atheist Communist Party.

In recent years, authorities have removed overtly Islamic architecture – destroying domes and tearing down minarets – from more than a thousand Hui mosques across the country, Hui activists say, with the Najiaying mosque being one of the last holdouts.

Now, the "sinicization" campaign appears to be finally coming for Najiaying – a historic home to the Hui and an important hub for Islamic culture in Yunnan, an ethnically diverse province on China's borders with Southeast Asia.

But the push has faced a fierce backlash from local residents.

Videos posted on social media and geolocated by CNN show residents clashing with lines of police officers in riot gear, who blocked off the entrance to the mosque and pushed back the crowd with shields and batons.

Residents shouted back in anger, with some hurling water bottles and bricks at the police, the videos show.

"This is our last bit of dignity," a local witness told CNN. "It's like coming to our house to demolish our home. We can't allow that to happen."

The source, who declined to be named over fears for personal safety, said thousands of Hui residents – including men and women, elderly and children – had gathered around the mosque on Saturday, under the close watch of more than 1,000 police officers deployed nearby.

"After arriving at the mosque, we realized that they had driven the cranes into the compound and were ready for the forced demolition," the source said, adding that scaffolding had already been erected around the mosque.

Tensions escalated around 1 p.m., with worshipers demanding to enter the mosque for noon prayers, the source said. They said they saw police officers hitting the crowd with batons, which prompted some residents to clash with police.

Dozens of protesters were arrested by police at the scene, the source said. Ma Ju, a prominent Hui activist who now lives in the United States and has kept close contact with Najiaying residents, said about 30 people were arrested.

CNN cannot independently verify the claims and has reached out to the local police and government for comment. CNN has also reached out to the Yunnan provincial government and its bureau for religious affairs for comment.

'Our nightmare is only starting now'

The hours-long standoff on Saturday yielded a temporary win for the protesters, who streamed into the mosque as the police retreated, according to the witness and online videos.

Throughout Saturday night and Sunday, residents took turns to guard the mosque, fearing that authorities would return to demolish its large centerpiece green dome and four minarets, the source said.

But repercussions quickly followed, according to those CNN spoke with.

By Sunday afternoon, word started to spread that authorities were arresting more people, according to the source.

On Sunday evening, law enforcement authorities in Nagu township, where Najiaying is located, issued a stern but vague statement. Without mentioning the protest or the mosque, it said police were investigating an incident that took place on Saturday, which "seriously disrupted social order" and caused "vile social impact."

The authorities also called on the "organizers and participants" of the incident to turn themselves in before June 6 to receive leniency, and encouraged the public to report on each other.

By Monday, Najiaying was shrouded in a blanket of fear, the source said.

The internet has been cut off in many neighborhoods. Drones buzzed overhead and surveilled the village. Public loudspeakers blasted the authorities' message on repeat, urging protesters to turn themselves in, according to the source and Ma, the US-based activist.

"It feels like our nightmare is only starting now," the source told CNN. "Everyone is in fear…We don't know what's going to happen next."

Read the full story here.

Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International based in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.

Professor blasts off

China sent its first civilian astronaut into orbit on Tuesday with the launch of the Shenzhou-16 mission to its space station, marking another step forward for the country's ambitious space program.

Three astronauts blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the desert of China's Gansu province at 9:31 a.m. on Tuesday morning. It was China's fifth manned mission to its Tiangong space station since the research vessel's in-orbit construction began in 2021 and the second in-orbit crew rotation.

The crew – (pictured above, from left) Gui Haichao, Jing Haipeng and Zhu Yangzhu – will take over from the Shenzhou-15 astronauts, who have been abroad the newly completed space station since November.

Among the Shenzhou-16 crew, Gui, a professor at China's prestigious aeronautics institution Beihang University, is the first Chinese civilian to be on a spaceflight. All other astronauts have been members of China's People's Liberation Army.

Read more here.

Xi tells national security chiefs to prepare for 'worst case' scenarios

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called on his top national security officials to think about "worst case" scenarios and prepare for "stormy seas," as the ruling Communist Party hardens efforts to counter any perceived internal and external threats.

"The complexity and difficulty of the national security issues we now face have increased significantly," Xi said Tuesday at a meeting of the party's National Security Commission, state news agency Xinhua reported.

"We must adhere to bottom-line thinking and worst-case-scenario thinking, and get ready to undergo the major tests of high winds and rough waves, and even perilous, stormy seas," he added.

The latest stern instructions from Xi, China's most powerful leader in decades, comes as Beijing faces a host of challenges, from a struggling economy to what it sees as an increasingly hostile international environment.

In face of what he called a "complex and grave" situation, Xi said China must speed up the modernization of its national security system and capabilities, with a focus on making them more effective in "actual combat and practical use."

He also called for China to push ahead with the construction of a national security risk monitoring and early warning system, enhance national security education and improve the management of data and artificial intelligence security.

Since coming to power a decade ago, Xi has made national security a key paradigm that permeates all aspects of China's governance, experts say.

He has expanded the concept of national security to cover everything from politics, economy, defense, culture and ecology to cyberspace. It extends from the deep sea and the polar regions to space, as well as big data and artificial intelligence.

Under Xi's notion of "comprehensive national security," China has introduced a raft of legislation to protect itself against perceived threats, including laws on counter-terrorism, counter-espionage, cybersecurity, foreign non-government organizations, national intelligence and data security.

Most recently, it broadened the scope of its already sweeping counter-espionage law from covering state secrets and intelligence to any "documents, data, materials or items related to national security and interests."

Read the full story here.

Nectar Gan is China Reporter for CNN International based in Hong Kong. She covers the changes taking place in China, and their impact on the world.

Factory activity in China has slumped to its weakest level since the country ended its zero-Covid policy in December, as its economic recovery continues to lose steam.

Asian markets tumbled following the release of the May data, even as a tentative agreement brokered by US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to raise the US debt ceiling cleared a key hurdle on Tuesday evening.

China's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dropped to 48.8 this month, down from 49.2 in April, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. It was the second contraction in as many months. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while anything below that level shows contraction.

The index, which mainly covers larger businesses and state-owned companies, was at its lowest level since December. Beijing scrapped most of its pandemic restrictions early that month, effectively ending its three-year-long zero-Covid policy.

The official non-manufacturing PMI, which measures sentiment in services and construction sectors, decreased to 54.5 in May from April's 56.4, also the weakest level in four months.

"The economic recovery faces challenge[s]," Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist for Pinpoint Asset Management, said Wednesday. "Domestic demand weakened recently, partly due to [the] cooling property market and the second wave of Covid."

The world's second largest economy is still in the midst of a historic downturn in the property market. The country is also gearing up for a fresh wave of Covid-19.

Last week, Zhong Nanshan, a prominent Chinese epidemiologist, predicted that the current second wave of Covid infections would peak at the end of June with around 65 million people infected per week. Doctors in Beijing have told state media that the proportion of serious complications was low, as was the hospitalization rate.

Zhang said external demand for Chinese goods was not supportive of economic recovery, as the United States faces the risk of recession. Recent data showed that China's exports grew 8.5% in April, down sharply from 14.8% in March, indicating global demand was slowing.

"The sentiment in the financial market is quite bearish," he said.

Laura He is a reporter and digital producer for CNN Business. She covers news about Asian business and markets from Hong Kong.

Around the region

North Korea's attempt to put a military reconnaissance satellite in space failed Wednesday when the second stage of the rocket malfunctioned, state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
A 16-year-old girl was brutally stabbed and bludgeoned to death in a busy public alleyway in India's capital, sparking renewed outrage over the lack of safety for women in the country and violence perpetrated by men.
The United States sanctioned more than a dozen Chinese and Mexican companies, accusing them of shipping or selling equipment to make counterfeit pills, as Washington cracks down on imports of illegal fentanyl that fuel America's deadly opioid epidemic.
An Australian man bitten on the head by a crocodile while snorkeling in the sea off far north Queensland escaped the unusual attack by prizing open the reptile's jaws.