Uighur crisis in Xinjiang: an overview
(Image: "Karakorum Highway, Xinjiang" by flickr user pmorgan.) For folks struggling to understand the current explosion of ethnic unrest in what the government of China officially refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, this Far East Economic Review essay by Calla Weimer may be helpful reading. Snip:
What makes Xinjiang so volatile is a simmering resentment by the native Uighur people against repression by the Han majority. Uighurs in many respects are denied the opportunity to live the life they desire. They are inhibited in the practice of their Islamic faith. They are limited in their access to economic opportunity. And, not unlike their Han Chinese counterparts, they are denied basic freedoms of expression and assembly.All Eyes on Xinjiang (FEER, via @rmack)China's ethnic-minority problems are deeply rooted, and resolving them will require change of a systemic nature. China is not a society that embraces pluralism. Difference is seen as a threat and little quarter is given to alternative points of view or ways of life. The government controls many aspects of people's lives and livelihoods, and local officials have a great deal of power within that context, power that is subject to abuse whether toward Han or toward minorities. But minorities suffer more under a system where prejudices can weigh on official behavior. This in turn brews resentment among those systematically victimized. An acrimonious dynamic builds and festers. This can happen with minority groups anywhere, but in China there is more scope for those who have power to abuse it. And there is no voice for those who have grievances.
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I found this article, by Dr Marika Vicziany, Professor & Director at the Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, quite an interesting background piece:
http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/09/crikey-clarifier-who-are-the-uighurs-and-why-are-they-protesting/
You can Uighurize your Twitter icon by tinting it light blue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Eastern_Turkistan.svg
a Tibet re-play. Take the resources, destroy the natives, absorb into the Han Borg.
It doesnt seem so different from the English approach to the natives when they possessed Australia. Or for that matter all that different from the approach Europeans used in taking North America.
It doesnt make it right. I'm just not sure I can cast the first stone here so to speak.
So it's okay to do evil things as long as someone else has done similar evil things in the past? That's a convenient philosophy.
The government are systematically colonizing Xinjiang with Han. Same thing is being done in Tibet and other conquered parts of the Empire. It's the same playbook that the Soviet Union used in Eastern Europe. There are more simmering ethnic hatreds in China than you can shake a stick at.
China's ethnic-minority problems are deeply rooted, and resolving them will require change of a systemic nature. China is not a society that embraces pluralism. Difference is seen as a threat and little quarter is given to alternative points of view or ways of life.
We have jackasses who espouse that philosophy in the US. They're called conservatives.
Note that Indonesia has also done this in East Timor (although they have managed to gain independence) and West Papua.
"They are inhibited in the practice of their Islamic faith"
Is it just me - or is that a kind of dangling participle? could be read as suggesting that Islam is inhibiting Uighurs, rather than Han/the central government inhibiting the practice of Islam.
/end boring grammar rant
Actually, that's the rare interesting grammar rant.
Back when I lived in Shanghai in 87/88 I sensed even then that there was something going on. The Uighurs I'd speak to when we'd go shopping on the Bund (and who would solicit to "change money!") would occasionally point to Chinese folks and give them the thumbs down, sometimes saying to me, "Chinese out of Xinjiang!" or "Burrrr---NO!".
I have assumed that the Uighurs have experienced something similar to the Tibetans. Chinese (and I love Chinese people...my wife is Chinese) have a really hard time comprehending that non-Chinese ways work or are worth protecting or preserving. Unlike us Americans, this is not so much a philosophical belief but the way they really see the world.
In general, of course, but it's a surprisingly robust generality.
I think Democratic way is best solution to handle differences in a nation, where each part of them must give space for other side to do what they want in " law umbrella of the nation".
socre
@6 Brad Collins:
Are the Chinese systematically over-running the Uighurs and Tibetans? I have heard it said so, but I have also heard that it's not the result of any specific policy, simply removing barriers to the flood of Han who would like to move out to those countries. I have not seen much information to help me compare the two claims.
@4 & 6 you're so right.
Ever since China-watch started at a popular level in earnest (say, early 80's as market liberalisation took hold), various occasionally useful journals like the Economist have run numerous articles on the clear potential for societal breakdown and rebellion. For once they got it right, and we're seeing the start of it. More to come. People will always rebel where they see their neighbours benefitting disproportionately to some immeasurable yardstick of fairness / equity, and particularly where they are under occupation, military or other. The hatreds and anger are passed down through the generations via prejudicial tales and acknowledgement of current awful situations.
As to the colonisation point - I've had a lot of contact with chinese ethnics from differing nations, including China, and one point they've commonly used to round on the "west" when the volition takes them is the awfulness of the history of colonisation.
When the shoe is on the other foot, it slips on quietly, and tries to keep out of the limelight. But a trait of the chinese state is to brazen it out - chin up in defiance, refusal to back down, and continuation of the tactic.
I've yet to come close to understanding what might change that kind of mentality.
Oh - wiki the region, and you'll learn why the Han are so interested. Robbing the poor to feed the rich.
My guess ... given the Han themselves are a fictitious entity (CNN.com tells me actually composed of 8 distinct and mutually unintelligble language-speakers) ... we're going to see a lot more problems coming - let's imagine Uighur improvised explosives.
Nonetheless, China is not to be written off. Even Russia thinks so - witness the latest slow love-dance between the soulless Putin and Sr. Obama.
Here's an idea - send your used twitter-capable mobiles to a Uighur council!
China is sponsoring state terrorism and countries like Sudan, Iran, North Korea, Mianmar where there are genocides and people are brutally oppressed and killed. China is the sponsor and behind the most oppresive countries in the world and instigating violence in most of the Asian and African countries. They are doing the same thing to its ethnic minorities too. Wake up the rest of the world,
the Chinese already steal all the manufacturing jobs from you and your technology and very few basic manufacturing jobs left in your country and responsible for the disappearance of middle class and the necessary jobs to support them. They are responsible for causing this depression worldwide! They took your money and use it to genocide Uyghurs, Tibetans, the Darfur genocide, and to sponsor all the state terrorism and intimidating all the neighboring countries and inciting violence in most African and Asian countries! Wake up America, boycott all the Chinese goods and anything from China and support the fight of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Sudanese, Mianmar and other being oppressed and genocided minorities!
We obviously didn't send enough Uighurs to Bermuda last month...
This is standard westernized one-sided demonization of the big bad Chinese and look what they're doing to the poor Tibetans/Uighur/Mongolian/Hui/Miaos/etc. Isn't that terrible? Maybe if we twitter & youtube enough times about it, it'll change somehow and they can be democratic just like we want them to be. Sorry guys, not going to happen. This will all blow over, and in a few weeks, I guarantee you no one here will even care or remember about the poor Uighurs. Meanwhile, the Chinese secret police would have executed all the ring leaders they can find, and jailed/beat a few more questionable cases just for good measure.
I'll be the first to admit that the Communist Government can be very iron-fisted when openly challenged. That's just their modus operandi. Yes, the Chinese government restricts their religious practice, but they do that to everyone, even Han Chinese who happen to be Christian or practice Falung Gung. It's not like the Chinese government are going out of their way to crush Muslims in particular. If you want to practice religion in any form, you have to practice the sanitized State-run version of it and not have anything that remotely resembles a challenge to their power.
As far as "limited economic opportunity" I have yet to find any article specifically mentioning exactly what kind of economic repression there is. I suspect it's just a case of Han businessmen coming over with the only big investment money in the region, and only hiring people they know & trust (i.e. other Hans). The Chinese are admittedly not a particularly open or culturally-aware nation, but this is hardly systematic repression by the government. The Chinese government actually does try do a form of Affirmative Action, where ethnic minorities are given scholarships and accepted into universities with lower test score than Hans.
Not to mention that China has been forcing Han Chinese to migrate to the outlying provinces in order to become the "majority" in those areas. They are given resources, housing, and jobs to establish themselves in the area, effectively disenfranchising the local people who have lived there for centuries, if not longer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/world/asia/28kashgar.html?_r=1&scp=5&sq=urban%20demolition%20in%20china&st=cse
talks about how chinese urbanists are demolishing uighur islamic towns -- an excuse to destroy islamic urban and social fabrics?
Sylkworm I think you basically have it right, not that there probably aren't some systematic unfairnesses here and there.
My feeling, have lived amongst the Chinese and speaking Chinese (and arguably kinda half Chinese myself now) is that minority suppression is really just a byproduct of traditional Chinese inability to comprehend that some people don't want to live a Chinese lifestyle and that, furthermore, the lack of willingness to accept Chinese ways is not due to caprice or backwardness or misunderstanding of "reality".
I can give a direct example: My mother-in-law had no use for teasponns in our house, as she didn't traditionally use them. So she'd pack our metal teaspoons in with my young son's lunch. Eventually, they were all gone and we switched to Chinese spoons and tablespoons (which the Chinese use).
Multiply this to the national level and you get the picture: Systems that support Han ways of doing things and that make it difficult as hell to go some other way.
Yes, there is affirmative action in China and I've seen it applied to Uighurs at Jiao Tong University where I taught.
After the latest riots in the Uighur region in China I have clearly understood now why China always supports the evil states such as iran,nort korea,Sudan etc...
And so does Moscow too.No more strange to me.Bad guys hand in hand..
Here's a youtube video, from what I assume to be a South Korean news feed. WARNING: This is VERY GRAPHIC stuff, and shows what appear to be several dozen people dead in the aftermath of the race riots. Several are Hans, and a few were recognizably Uighur. A few I couldn't make out.
*** GRAPHIC VIDEO ***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXiz0YoCzjo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh7zpztz1tA
*** GRAPHIC VIDEO ***
Reminds me of homofobia.
I found many articles related to Uighur people on Uighur News.
http://www.uyghurnews.com/