CHANGE: Beijing Steps up Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang. “The mostly Muslim Uighur population of China’s far-western province of Xinjiang has never had it particularly easy when it comes to practicing its faith. Under Mao Zedong, when religion was essentially forbidden throughout China, the state would go to extremes to suppress Islam—like force-feeding candy to Muslim school children to make them break their Ramadan fasts. The bad old days of repression may now be coming back strong. Concerned about ethnic ‘splittism,’ Beijing is increasingly resorting to tactics—some new, some old—to make it difficult for Uighurs to live out their faith . . . This is not a sign that China knows what it’s doing in Xinjiang.”