We're All Uighurs Now. Or Are We?

Pepe Escobar: Does anyone care about what happens to the Uighurs?

The early July riots in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province in China's Far West, opposing turcophone Uighurs and Han Chinese, have been spun by Beijing as yet another "foreign interference" conspiracy organized by the Uighur diaspora in exile. Pepe Escobar argues it's more complicated than that. All the trouble stems from the official Chinese policy of population transfer -- enticing millions of Han Chinese to move to the Far West where they find limitless opportunities not available to the local population. And then there's the key strategic importance of Xinjiang province -- immensely rich in natural resources. China's spin plus heavy handed repression has been met by thundering silence all across the "international community". What a difference from the recent turmoil in Iran.

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