China's Xinjiang Class Experiment; British Investment Banker Charged With Double Homicide In Hong Kong
KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: I'm Kristie Lu Stout in Hong Kong and welcome to News Stream where news and technology meet. Now a British banker charged with murder shown here leaving court in Hong Kong, is the case that is gripping one of the world's safest big cities. We get an exclusive look at an education experiment in China bringing Uyghur children from restive Xinjiang to study in some of the country's richest cities. And new details emerge about the Virgin Galactic accident. And we'll explain how SpaceShipTwo's special wings are supposed to work. In a case that is gripping Hong Kong, a British investment banker has been charged with the gruesome murders of two women. Now appearing in court today, 29-year-old Rurik Jutting said he understood the charges against him, but he did not enter a plea. Now the victims, both said to be Indonesian, were found early Saturday morning after police say Jutting called them to his apartment. Now Hong Kong is viewed as one of the world's safest big cities. The number of homicides has hovered around a few dozen each year in a city that has more than 7 million people. Now New York is only a little larger than Hong Kong, but it had more than 300 homicides last year alone. And for more on the latest right here in Hong Kong, CNN's Anna Coren joins us now live. And Anna, a banker has been charged or this grisly double murder. Could you walk us through what was found at the crime scene?</s>ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kristie, the crime scene is just behind me. This is Jay Residents (ph), the apartment building of Rurik Jutting, the 29-year-old British investment banker. As you say, he calls police just before 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, telling officers to come over to his flat and investigate. Well, when they arrived on the scene it was nothing short of gruesome and grisly. They found the body of young Indonesian woman on the floor, her throat slashed. It was several hours later that they discovered a second body of another Indonesian woman, this time the body was stuffed into a suitcase and left on the balcony. Now what we know of Jutting, he's been here in Hong Kong since mid last year. Until recently, he was working for Bank of America Merrill Lynch. They acknowledge this. They refuse, however, to comment any further on the case. But, you know, this is a man who was educated at Cambridge University. He worked at Barclay's Bank after graduation 2008 and then joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch in 2010 in the London office before moving out here to Hong Kong last year. But certainly it has just shocked people in Hong Kong, certainly you know amongst the banking community, the banking industry here in Hong Kong. Speaking to some of his colleagues today, they just describe him as a normal, smart guy who was good at his job, so they are completely floored to learn that he has been charged with this double murder, Kristie.</s>LU STOUT: You learn more details about the suspect. What about the victims. These are two young women who were brutally killed. Who were they?</s>COREN: Yeah, two young women who the Indonesian consulate have confirmed are nationals of that country. Their names, Kristie, are Sumarti Ningsih as well as Mulaya Sih (ph). Now we don't have ages. They are yet to be confirmed from the consulate. But from what we are hearing from local reports and from people we are speaking to here in Wan Chai, which as we know is the red light district of Hong Kong, these women were both seen frequenting bars along a certain strip, the red light district of Hong Kong. We spoke to some of the women, other women who worked in that area, in that strip, and they said that they knew these girls. That they were kind, that they were friendly. They didn't go into too many other details, but certainly they were known in this area and they are deeply saddened by what has taken place.</s>LU STOUT: Anna Coren reporting on this very gruesome murder case. Thank you very much indeed or that Anna. Now Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement gets a fresh dose of support across the Taiwan Strait. In an interview with the New York Times, Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou says if Mainland China can practice democracy in Hong Kong or if Mainland China can become more democratic, then we can shorten the psychological distance between peoples from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. Now Chinese media, though, have repeatedly condemned the Hong Kong protests. Now China's Communist Party stresses the need for national unity, but the rest of the region of Xinjiang has been plagued by ethnic unrest. It is home to the predominately Muslim Uyghur minority. Now thousands of students from that western province are being sent to schools in China's richest cities as part of a government education program. And David McKenzie has this exclusive report.</s>DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In this classroom in China, one student stands out. Unlike his mostly Han Chinese classmates, Abdurrahman Mamat is Uyghur, a Muslim minority in China. He's thousands of miles away from his home in Xinjiang. This is the first time the Chinese government has granted access to foreign media to what it calls the Xinjiang class, an extraordinary Communist Party experiment in ethnic integration. Every year the Chinese government selects 10,000 Xinjiang students and puts them in Han schools across the country. They say it's a way to get an equal education. Students like Mamat, often from poor families, take a strict exam to get in. "Eastern China is more developed than Xinjiang. We get to enjoy better educational resources here," he says. "Closely watched by our minders." Uyghurs are mostly Muslims. Their culture and language separates them from Han Chinese. For years, the Communist Party has struggled with ethnic tension in Xinjiang and blame deadly terror attacks on Uyghur separatists. For China's much touted harmonious society, images like these are deeply embarrassing. And the Xinjiang class is as much about learning as it is about politics.</s>ZHENCHONG, DEAN, XINJIANG CLASS (through translator): When we teach these students we are not just educating them, we are cultivating their feeling of love for their country.</s>MCKENZIE: Chinese government documents go further saying minority students should be trained to, quote, "safeguard national security and defend the unity of China." But some experts say the party is failing.</s>JAMES LEIBOLD, LA TROBE UNIVERSITY: On the sort of political and ideological front it hasn't succeeded. I mean, what we've seen is actually students who participate and then graduate out of these programs tend to feel more Uyghur than they do Chinese when they come out of it.</s>MCKENZIE: At this high school, minority students eat at Halal cafeterias separated from Han Chinese. They bond together on the sports field, and according to long-term studies forge religious identity in adversity.</s>ZHENCHONG (through translator): We have to strictly manage them. We are a school. We are not a mosque. We do not allow the students to pray in our school.</s>MCKENZIE: But students like Mamat say the program gives him the only chance at a good education. It could take decades to find out how the Xinjiang Class will shape China. David McKenzie, CNN, Xinjiang, China.</s>LU STOUT: You're watching News Stream. Coming up next, in the aftermath of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo disaster, questions are being raised about the future of commercial spaceflight. And millions of Americans go to the polls this week in midterm elections. President Barack Obama has been campaigning for some Democrats. And we'll explain why this vote is so important for the White House. And a very disturbing look at ISIS and what it's doing to indoctrinate young children.