RFA’s Uyghur Service reported on October 24, 2016 that China has sent more than 350 officials to Hotan (Hetian, in Chinese) prefecture in Xinjiang for a three-year term to monitor mosques. It quoted from a report by the Hotan government’s local TV station, which said the prefecture recently launched a policy called “staying in villages to monitor mosques” where 352 Chinese cadres are assigned to keep an eye on the mosques and the people’s religious activities. The prefecture’s Communist Party boss Zhang Jinbiao was quoted as saying: “This mosque-monitoring decision is made according to the Uyghur Autonomous Region’s foremost policy directive and principal to maintain social stability and analyze the situation correctly.”Turghunjan Alawudun, Chairman of the World Uyghur Congress’s religion committee described the action as “The Hotan prefecture party boss’s current policy to monitor religious activities in the villages is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s directive to exploit religion for socialism. We urge the Chinese government to end this extreme policy.”