BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Friday placed one of the country’s most senior ethnic Uighur officials, head of the energy administration and a former governor of the restive region of Xinjiang, under investigation for suspected graft.

Nur Bekri, Chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, attends a news conference during the annual session of China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), in Beijing March 7, 2010. REUTERS/Jason Lee

The ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog said in a brief statement National Energy Administration Director Nur Bekri was being probed on suspicion of breaking the law and violating party discipline, the usual euphemism for graft but which could also refer to other legal problems.

It gave no other details and it was not possible to reach Nur Bekri for comment.

President Xi Jinping has targeted the energy sector as part of a wider war against pervasive graft that began when he came into office six years ago.

Nur Bekri, 57, worked in Xinjiang until moving to Beijing in late 2014 to head the energy administration. He is also a deputy head of China’s powerful state planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

Nur Bekri, a tall, jocular figure who speaks almost totally unaccented Mandarin and was known for being more open to foreign media than most Chinese officials, was the 12th senior official from the energy administration to be felled since it was founded in 2008.

In Xinjiang, he had been a strong proponent of expanding the resource-rich region’s coal-mining sector, but his advocacy for the polluting industry was tempered in favor of promoting cleaner projects after he came to Beijing.

He is one of the few Uighurs - a Muslim people who speak a Turkic language and who call Xinjiang home - ever to have broken through and made it to a top national-level job in Beijing.

He had been in Moscow on Tuesday attending an official event on China-Russia investment, according to China’s state planner.

Xinjiang has been one of China’s most violent regions, with hundreds killed in unrest between the minority Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese in recent years.

Nur Bekri was Xinjiang’s governor from 2008 until 2014, a time that saw bouts of ethnic violence that included deadly rioting in the region’s capital, Urumqi, in 2009.

‘EXTREMIST IDEOLOGY’

During his time in that position, which ranks below the Communist Party secretary, Nur Bekri was a proponent of restrictions placed on religious practices of the largely Muslim ethnic minorities there, ostensibly to curb what the government said was the spread of extremist ideology.

He said in the wake of the 2009 riots the government’s religious policies completely accorded with the interests of the people.

Nur Bekri had also touted bilingual education for Uighurs in schools as a route to economic opportunity, although critics said in reality that meant marginalizing the Uighurs’ own language and culture in favor of Mandarin.

Ilham Tohti, a Uighur economics professor and outspoken critic of Beijing’s policies towards his people, was jailed for life on separatism charges in 2014, a sentence that caused an outcry from human rights advocates. Nur Bekri called the evidence against him irrefutable before he was jailed.

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, a Munich-based advocacy group, said in an emailed statement that despite actively promoting Beijing’s policies, Nur Bekri had not been trusted by Beijing and was seen as “scum” by Uighurs.

“I hope that Nur Bekri’s problems will awaken those Uighurs who are currently assisting Beijing’s repression. They will not be able to gain real political trust from Beijing,” he said.

Nur Bekri’s tenure as governor ended under then party secretary Zhang Chunxian, who was replaced as Xinjiang’s chief by Chen Quanguo in 2016.

Chen dramatically ramped up police presence and mass surveillance on minorities and ushered in the use of mass detention centers that have sparked a growing international outcry in recent months.

FILE PHOTO: Nur Bekri, chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, attends a news conference in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region August 19, 2010. REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic/File Photo

China denies the abuses and says the “vocational”-style training centers, thought to hold potentially a million Uighurs and other Muslims, were designed to prevent extremism.

Calls are growing from Western countries for action on the camps and U.S. officials have said they were considering sanctions on Chinese officials and companies linked to the crackdown.</s>BEIJING
• China has placed one of the country's most senior ethnic Uighur officials, head of the energy administration and a former governor of the restive region of Xinjiang, under investigation for suspected graft.

The ruling Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog said in a brief statement yesterday that National Energy Administration director Nur Bekri was being probed on suspicion of breaking the law and violating party discipline, the usual euphemism for graft but which could also refer to other legal problems.

It was not possible to reach Nur Bekri for comment.

The administration said in a statement it had held a meeting to express its full support for the probe, and that officials recognised the "serious and complex" nature they faced in the anti-corruption fight.

Administration officials all agreed that "Nur Bekri's being suspected of serious discipline and legal breaches has caused serious harm and has had a negative effect on the energy sector", it said.

President Xi Jinping has targeted the energy sector as part of a wider war against pervasive graft that began when he came into office six years ago.

Nur Bekri, 57, worked in Xinjiang until he moved to Beijing in late 2014 to head the energy administration. He is also a deputy head of China's powerful state planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

Nur Bekri, a tall, jocular figure who speaks almost totally unaccented Mandarin and is known for being more open to foreign media than most Chinese officials, is the 12th senior official from the energy administration to be felled since it was founded in 2008.

In Xinjiang, he had been a strong proponent of expanding the resource-rich region's coal-mining sector, but his advocacy for the polluting industry was tempered in favour of promoting cleaner projects after he came to Beijing.

He is one of the few Uighurs - a Muslim people who speak a Turkic language and who call Xinjiang home - to have broken through and made it to a top national-level job in Beijing.

He had been in Moscow on Tuesday attending an official event on China-Russia investment, according to China's state planner.

Xinjiang is one of China's most violent regions, with hundreds killed in unrest between the minority Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese in recent years.

Nur Bekri was Xinjiang's governor from 2008 until 2014, a time that saw bouts of ethnic violence that included deadly rioting in the region's capital, Urumqi, in 2009.

During his time in that position, which ranks below the Communist Party secretary, Nur Bekri was a proponent of restrictions placed on religious practices of the largely Muslim ethnic minorities there, ostensibly to curb what the government said was the spread of extremist ideology.

Nur Bekri had also touted bilingual education for Uighurs in schools as a route to economic opportunity, although critics said in reality that meant marginalising the Uighurs' own language and culture in favour of Chinese.</s>related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

2 related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

The director of China's National Energy Administration, ethnic Uighur Nur Bekri, is under investigation on suspicion of breaking the law and violating Communist Party discipline, the party's anti-corruption watchdog said on Friday.

SHANGHAI: The director of China's National Energy Administration, ethnic Uighur Nur Bekri, is under investigation on suspicion of breaking the law and violating Communist Party discipline, the party's anti-corruption watchdog said on Friday.

Nur Bekri is one of China's most senior Uighur officials and a former governor of the restive region of Xinjiang. He also serves as a deputy head of China's state planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced the investigation in a brief posting on its website. It did not provide details of the alleged transgressions other than to describe them as "serious disciplinary and legal violations", a routinely used euphemism for corruption.

President Xi Jinping has targeted the energy sector as part of a wider campaign to weed out pervasive graft that began when he came into office six years ago.

A deputy head of the energy administration was sacked and placed under investigation in 2014.

Nur Bekri was the chairman of Xinjiang, home to the Uighurs in China's far west, from 2008 until 2014, a time that saw bouts of ethnic violence that included deadly rioting in 2009.

Reports of mass detentions of ethnic Uighurs and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang in recent months have sparked a growing international outcry.</s>SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The director of China’s National Energy Administration, ethnic Uighur Nur Bekri, is under investigation on suspicion of breaking the law and violating Communist Party discipline, the party’s anti-corruption watchdog said on Friday.

Nur Bekri is one of China’s most senior Uighur officials and a former governor of the restive region of Xinjiang. He also serves as a deputy head of China’s state planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced the investigation in a brief posting on its website. It did not provide details of the alleged transgressions other than to describe them as “serious disciplinary and legal violations”, a routinely used euphemism for corruption.

President Xi Jinping has targeted the energy sector as part of a wider campaign to weed out pervasive graft that began when he came into office six years ago.

A deputy head of the energy administration was sacked and placed under investigation in 2014.

Nur Bekri was the chairman of Xinjiang, home to the Uighurs in China’s far west, from 2008 until 2014, a time that saw bouts of ethnic violence that included deadly rioting in 2009.

Reports of mass detentions of ethnic Uighurs and other ethnic Muslims in Xinjiang in recent months have sparked a growing international outcry.</s>The Chinese government placed under investigation for suspected graft on Friday one of the country's most senior ethnic Uighur officials who is also head of its energy administration and was a former governor of the restive region of Xinjiang.

BEIJING: The Chinese government placed under investigation for suspected graft on Friday one of the country's most senior ethnic Uighur officials who is also head of its energy administration and was a former governor of the restive region of Xinjiang.

The ruling Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog said in a brief statement National Energy Administration Director Nur Bekri was being probed on suspicion of breaking the law and violating party discipline, the usual euphemism for graft but which could also refer to other legal problems.

It gave no other details and it was not possible to reach Nur Bekri for comment.

President Xi Jinping has targeted the energy sector as part of a wider war against pervasive graft that began when he came into office six years ago.

Nur Bekri, 57, worked in Xinjiang until moving to Beijing in late 2014 to head the energy administration. He is also a deputy head of China's powerful state planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

He is one of the few Uighurs - a Muslim people who speak a Turkic language and who call Xinjiang home - ever to have broken through and made it to a top national-level job in Beijing.

Xinjiang has been one of China's most violent regions, with hundreds killed in unrest between the minority Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese in recent years.

Nur Bekri was Xinjiang's governor from 2008 until 2014, a time that saw bouts of ethnic violence that included deadly rioting in the region's capital, Urumqi, in 2009.

During his time in that position, which ranks below the Communist Party secretary, Nur Bekri was a proponent of restrictions placed on religious practices of the largely Muslim ethnic minorities there, ostensibly to curb what the government said was the spread of extremist ideology.

He said in the wake of the 2009 riots the government's religious policies completely accorded with the interests of the people.

Nur Bekri had also touted bilingual education for Uighurs in schools as a route to economic opportunity, although critics said in reality that meant marginalising the Uighurs' own language and culture in favour of Mandarin.

Ilham Tohti, a Uighur economics professor and outspoken critic of Beijing's policies towards his people, was jailed for life on separatism charges in 2014, a sentence that caused an outcry from human rights advocates. Nur Bekri called the evidence against him irrefutable before he was jailed.

Nur Bekri's tenure as governor ended under then party secretary Zhang Chunxian, who was replaced as Xinjiang's chief by Chen Quanguo in 2016.

Chen dramatically ramped up police presence and mass surveillance on minorities compared to his predecessor, and ushered in the use of mass detention centres that has sparked a growing international outcry in recent months.

China denies the abuses and says the "vocational"-style training centres, thought to hold potentially a million Uighurs and other Muslims, were designed to prevent extremism.

Calls are growing from Western countries for action on the camps and U.S. officials have said they were considering sanctions on Chinese officials and companies linked to the crackdown.</s>, Beijing, China, Sep 21 – The head of China’s energy administration has been placed under investigation by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog, the latest top official ensnared in the Communist Party’s campaign against graft.

Nur Bekri, an ethnic Uighur, had worked his way up in his native Xinjiang, eventually rising to deputy party secretary and government chairman in the far western region, before receiving the post at the energy administration in 2014.

China’s anti-graft agency, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said Friday that Bekri was under investigation for “serious violations of Party disciplinary rules and laws”, a euphemism that usually means corruption.

Bekri also held the post of deputy head of China’s state planner, making him one of the highest-ranking Uighur officials.

The mostly Muslim Uighur minority populates the restive Xinjiang region, where it faces a draconian crackdown in the name of combating terrorism and separatism.

Up to a million minorities are believed to be held in extrajudicial re-education camps in Xinjiang, rights groups say.

The energy industry has been the target of President Xi Jinping’s anti-graft crackdown, with several top officials at China’s state-owned oil companies coming under investigation in recent years.

Xi has presided over the much-publicised anti-corruption campaign since coming to power in 2012, which some have compared to a political purge.</s>BEIJING (AP) - The head of China's energy planning agency has been snared in President Xi Jinping's marathon anti-corruption campaign.

Nur Bekri, one of the most senior officials from the Uighur ethnic minority in China's Muslim northwest, is suspected of unspecified "severe discipline violations," the official term for corruption, the ruling Communist Party's discipline agency said Friday.

Bekri, 57, has headed the National Energy Administration since 2014 and also is deputy chairman of the Cabinet's economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

FILE - In this March 23, 2017 file photo, China's Energy Minister Nur Bekri, right, shakes hands with Sweden's Minister for Energy Ibrahim Baylan at the Swedish Government headquarters Rosenbad in Stockholm. The head of China's energy planning agency, one of the most senior officials from the Uighur ethnic minority in China's Muslim northwest, is suspected of unspecified "severe discipline violations," the official term for corruption, the ruling Communist Party's discipline agency said Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. (Henrik Montgomery/TT News Agency via AP, File)

Thousands of officials including a former member of the ruling party's Standing Committee, China's inner circle of power, have been detained in the multiyear crackdown.

Senior executives in the state-owned oil and gas industry have been imprisoned on corruption charges.

Prior to 2014, Bekri held a series of posts over the previous three decades in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

There was no indication the investigation had any connection to a sweeping crackdown in Xinjiang in which monitoring groups say as many as 1 million ethnic Muslims have been detained in prison camps.</s>The head of the agency that oversees Chinese government energy planning has been snared in President Xi Jinping's marathon anti-corruption campaign.

The ruling Communist Party's discipline agency said Friday that Nur Bekri, one of Beijng's most senior officials from the Uighur ethnic minority, is suspected of unspecified "severe discipline violations," the official term for corruption.

Bekri, 57, is in charge of the National Energy Administration and deputy chairman of the Cabinet's economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

Thousands of officials including a former member of the ruling party's Standing Committee, China's inner circle of power, have been detained in the multiyear crackdown.</s>The head of China's energy planning agency has been snared in President Xi Jinping's marathon anti-corruption campaign.

Nur Bekri, one of the most senior officials from the Uighur ethnic minority in China's Muslim northwest, is suspected of unspecified "severe discipline violations," the official term for corruption, the ruling Communist Party's discipline agency said Friday.

Bekri, 57, has headed the National Energy Administration since 2014 and also is deputy chairman of the Cabinet's economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission.

Thousands of officials including a former member of the ruling party's Standing Committee, China's inner circle of power, have been detained in the multiyear crackdown.

Senior executives in the state-owned oil and gas industry have been imprisoned on corruption charges.

Prior to 2014, Bekri held a series of posts over the previous three decades in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

There was no indication the investigation had any connection to a sweeping crackdown in Xinjiang in which monitoring groups say as many as 1 million ethnic Muslims have been detained in prison camps.</s>China’s energy chief and former governor of its far west region of Xinjiang has been placed under investigation, the country’s top anti-corruption agency announced on Friday morning.

Nur Bekri, director of the National Energy Administration, was suspected of a “serious violation of discipline and law” – a term that could refer to anything from corruption to political disloyalty – according to a terse statement by the National Supervisory Commission.

Bekri is one of very few ethnic Uygur officials appointed at his level in the Chinese government. He was last seen in public at a meeting this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as part of a Chinese delegation led by Vice-Premier Han Zheng, according to footage from state broadcaster CCTV on Wednesday.

Han’s trip to Russia concluded on Tuesday before he began another trip to Singapore on Wednesday.

Bekri is understood to have been taken away from Beijing airport on his arrival there on Thursday.

The 57-year-old became one of the country’s youngest ministerial-level officials when he was appointed governor of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, the region’s second most powerful position, in 2008. A year later, in July 2009, deadly clashes broke out in Urumqi, the region’s capital, between ethnic Han and Uygur groups, resulting in 197 deaths, according to the official figure.

Bekri had directed accusations at Ilham Tohti, the former professor at Beijing’s Minzu University who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2014 for “inciting separatism”.

Accused by Bekri of colluding with overseas forces and preaching separatism, Tohti has since been given and nominated for numerous human rights awards in Europe for his advocacy of non-violent resistance in the region.

Bekri was appointed director of the National Energy Administration in 2014, and was at that point still seen as a political rising star, before hitting major political hurdles last year, beginning when he was surprisingly not invited to the National Party Congress of more than 2,000 of the Communist Party elite.

Having been one of the 205 full members of the Central Committee, comprising the party’s top leaders, between 2012 and 2017, Bekri lost his seat in the five-yearly reshuffle, despite not having reached retirement age and despite retaining his ministerial title – an unusual demotion.
The director of the National Energy Administration of China, Nur Bekri, is placed under investigation for graft.