– In the aftermath of violent protests by Uighurs, a Muslim minority in China’s far northwest, authorities deepened their campaign against religious practices.
By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Beijing — At a teachers college in far northwestern China, students were irritated to find that their professors were escorting them to lunch last month — an odd occurrence since they were more than capable of finding the cafeteria themselves.
There was an ulterior motive, students told travelers who recently visited the city of Kashgar: The college wanted to make sure that the students, most of them Muslims, were eating rather than fasting in daylight hours during the holy month of Ramadan.
Courtesy: → Los Angeles Times
Sounds like nonsense to me – even if it is in the LA Times, Beijing is trying to keep peace in the region not start a civil disturbance. Which is what would happen in Muslims were prevented from fasting.