In response to an outbreak of violence, the instigation of which remains unclear, the Chinese government has cracked down, and cracked down hard, on the Uighur minority in China's northwest province, Xinjiang. According to Chinese media reports, always softened, more than 150 people have already been killed, many of them Han Chinese, with at least a thousand Uighurs plucked from the streets, branded agitators (or, worse, "splittists") and thrown into jail. The government has swiftly clamped down on Internet communications and the entire area, one sixth of the nation, is in a state of siege.
In these early days, the government's propaganda machine has been, by historical standards, transparent. Reports of casualties were quickly reported. But openness won't last long. The media is already attempting to demonize "ring leader" Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman and human rights advocate who had been imprisoned in China and now lives in Washington.
The Clampdown: Why it Will be Protracted
For a few reasons, the Communist Party's response is likely to be harsher, and even more sustained, than last year's response to the Tibetan uprising.
First, the degree of Uighur cultural repression has been, over decades, even greater than in Tibet. So anger at officialdom is more pronounced. "Internal immigration," carried out en masse since before the Cultural Revolution, has flooded the region with Han Chinese. They now constitute the majority of every major city and represent over 75% of the Xinjiang population. (The Tibetan ratio is no more than 50/50.) As someone who has travelled a few times to Urumqi, Xinjiang's largest city, and Kashgar, an old Silk Road outpost near the border of Afghanistan, I was struck by the dominance of all things Han. (To boot, a peek into windows makes disparity in disposable income glaringly apparent.) . Unlike Lhasa, where Tibetan and Chinese districts coexist (uncomfortably) side-by-side, the Uighur areas have been "surrounded," almost asphyxiated. True, every town boasts the sights and sounds of Central Asia -- chants at mosques, the jangle of exotic bazaars, naan bread wheels and lamb kabobs -- but they are not omnipresent. Bland Chinese-style avenues bulldoze their way through city centers. In Lhasa, on the other hand, vast urban expanses project a distinctly Tibetan flavor - color explodes everywhere -- despite the conspicuous presence of Chinese police and apparatchik.
Second, the outside world's familiarity with Xinjiang and Uighur plight is low. The region has never been romanticized in film and literature and only a few foreigners have visited. There are no transcendent architectural wonders a la Tibet's Potala Palace that capture Western imagination. There is no roving ambassador, no Dalai Lama, to elicit sympathy for compromised values. Therefore, the global community's response will be muted, led by diplomats and human rights groups, rather than CNN, bloggers and an indignant mass of activists. The issue will, sadly, fade quickly from the world's moral radar screen. The Party will have significant room to maneuver.
Third, the American "war on terrorism" - replete with kangaroo military courts and torture-extracted confessions - will make it more difficult for the West defend the interests of Uighur demonstrators, whom the Party has branded "terrorists." Yes, there are a few separatists amongst the agitators, some of whom advocate violence as a means of advancing independence. The majority, however, want equal opportunity and protection under the law, and nothing more. But American Geneva Convention violations will lead to relatively sotte voce diplomatic condemnation.
Finally, and most critically, Chinese people "fear" Uighurs more than Tibetans. Xinjiang is unfamiliar, an "alien nation." Tibet, on the other hand, is a hot tourist destination. (Tibetans practice Buddhism and their appearance is not starkly different from the Han.) The people expect their government, first and foremost, to protect the country from danger. Most mainlanders view the unknown as a threat to stability and unity, a sacred national imperative. If the Party is seen as "soft" in dealing with the uprising, it will lose credibility -- even legitimacy -- in the eyes of many citizens, including new generation types, perhaps the most nationalist group of all. Despite a universal belief that the "autonomous region" is an inalienable part of China, denizens of Xinjiang are regarded as outsiders. Their religion, Islam, is "foreign," associated with violence. (Only the Hui, an assimilated and geographically scattered Muslim minority, have been accepted as "real" Chinese.) Ethnically, the Uighur do not resemble Han. Their eyes are rounder and lighter. Their skin is olive, not "yellow." In smaller towns, the Uighur, a Turkic people, do not speak fluent Mandarin due to a culturally tone deaf, memorization-driven education system.
What's Next?
So what will happen? The rebellion will be contained and Uighurs will continue to seethe.
To avoid adding fuel to the fire, the government will avoid extremely harsh measures - e.g., open gunfire -- and keep the death count to a minimum. But make no mistake. Any fear of international opprobrium will not dampen the government's determination to smother dissent. Under the guise of safeguarding stability, it will use coercive means to stanch future uprisings - e.g., torture, a continued tightening of digital communication that lasts for months, travel bans for Uighurs and journalists that extend into 2011, continued demolition of traditional neighborhoods and Draconian bans on community/religious congregation. The Communist Party believes "to scare the monkey, you must kill a chicken." So it will hold high-profile show trials, covered only in Chinese publications. Some verdicts will carry the death penalty. Leaders will refuse to "negotiate" with Uighur leaders. Tension with minority populations will increase, reinforced by continued hiring discrimination and old-style, propaganda. (Today's China Daily headline: "Locals hope for normal life after riot.") I wish I could say the government will adopt a conciliatory approach and acknowledge the legitimacy of some grievances but primal dread of "looking weak," exacerbated by a disinterested West, will cause tension to mount.
Uighur resentment will simmer, boiling over only in the distant future, if ever.
Alexander Davenport: Fair and Balanced? Lhasa Vs. Urumqi
Why do rioting Tibetans generate more interest than rioting Uighurs?
The Real News: We're All Uighurs Now. Or Are We?
The early July riots in Urumqi have been spun by Beijing as yet another "foreign interference" conspiracy organized by the Uighur diaspora in exile.
Gershon Hepner: Uighurs, Tibetans, Jews
In China, Moslems called the Uighurs are fighting to be free of rule by Han Chinese. It figures that they want liberty.
The point is that this was a riot, not a "peaceful protest". There were 153 people killed, mostly Han Chinese. When the Han tried to retaliate against the Uighur brutality, the leaders of the "counter-riot" were arrested. I believe that the Uighur instigators were arrested as well. Both groups are facing the death penalty (as well they should be, with 153 lives to atone for).
Just my two cents,
Lefty
The reason why the "peaceful" Uighurs are getting ignored by the media is because they actually make the Chinese government look like the good guys.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/world/asia/09han.html?hpw
"The government, apparently hoping to tamp down racial violence, has not released a breakdown of the ethnicities of the 156 dead. But Mr. Lu’s father said that of more than 100 photographs of bodies that he looked through at a police station to identify his son, the vast majority were Han Chinese, most with their heads cut or smashed."
You see, many Westerners are just a bunch of hypocrites. When China wants to modernize the Xinjiang region, the government is labeled implementing "cultural genocide". So you leave these Uyghurs alone in their backward way of life. Guess what, they are not happy either as they constantly complain they are left out of the game, and they don't get fair treatment! I guess you just can't win! Maybe China should adapt the US policy of ethnic extermination with the Native Americans for the last 200 years. This way, there would be no people to complain?
wow man you got it. you are bale to connect the dots. please send me a link to your phd research paper. wow you have solved the age old mystry. we american are lucky to have people like you with moral clarity and judgement. great. I can sleep better at night now....wow
you cannot declare " mission accomplished " when you are dealing with militant Islams. They are
violent people or prone to indiscriminate killing and maiming, ala Iraq and Afghanistan style. Before
the emergence of suicide bombers, the Chinese should take control of the whole region and make
sure it is stable and peaceful. Any scenario would be better than what is happening in Iraq and
Afghanistan on a daily basis.
This has almost nothing to do with Islam. It's the colonization of one group -- Uighurs -- who are actually very fond of alcohol and fairly tepid Muslims -- by the Chinese, who are ham-fistedly trying to overpower them.
Of course, they may incite some of them to Islamic radicalism, but that will be an unfortunate consequence of a stupid and arrogant policy.
Please, read a little history and do a little research.
American policy " too. Most of the 150 injured and killed are Han Chinese and that is
the action of " tepid " Muslims ? Perhaps you preferred suicide bombers in the streets
of Chinese cities. What are you talking about colonization of a people ? Xinjiang is a province in China for ages. Please read a little Chinese history and do plenty of research.
Out of sight of the world, the world is losing non-replaceable cultural treasures -- this area was part of the great Silk Road that once sent goods between China and Europe.
Replacing all that? The sterile sameness of Chinese commercial "development" and an influx of Han workers to eventually overwhelm the Uighurs genetically, economically and socially. A really intelligent development policy would involve preserving cultural treasures and working with local people, spreading modern education and taking advantage of their moderate, watered-down Islam.
But no, China has chosen the path of the gangster, as shameful as the American "Trail of Tears" which saw the Cherokee forcibly moved from their homeland by our racist president Jackson, famous as the (white) people's president.
I think the world needs to temper its admiration for thousands of years of Chinese culture and accomplishment with a realization that it's also stained with this kind of counterproductive brutality. The past is the past, but this is happening now.
I'm sure the Chinese government will welcome a bit of Muslim extremism in the area, so that it can claim that Uighur resistance is "terrorism." We can thank them for supplying more recruits for al Quaeda and the Taliban.
TV interview:
http://gb.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2009/07/09/nl090709091.jpg
Picture from Chinese news paper reporting the ShiShou event in Hubei Province:
http://gb.cri.cn/mmsource/images/2009/07/09/nl090709083.jpg
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/images19.jpg&imgrefurl=http://chinadigitaltimes.net/china/shishou/&usg=__NKbve2bPoq3ji0nsxLvEYJSJdOQ=&h=753&w=500&sz=78&hl=en&start=16&um=1&tbnid=NP5HfKo-QG2Y0M:&tbnh=142&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dshishou%2Briot%2Breuter%2Bpictures%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1
Han Chinese, are not violent people, historically. Han Chinese don't have any history of oppressing any racial minority groups, They tend to integrate with the racial minority group. And that happened to a vast majority of the racial minority group. Well, they also lose their racial identity, but, at least they get to have nice lives for exchange.
What planet you live on?
You got it exactly right...the Uighur minority actually is pampered by the government, with preferential treatment all around. I cannot believe how ignorant people are abroad who don't seem to get this.
What the problem is, is that these minorities get preferential treatment from the govt, but still cannot lift themselves up, whether it's because they don't want to integrate into mainstream society or the Han civilians are treating them in a racist manner.
(1) The Uighurs are hardly oppressed, at least not by the Government. Firstly, most officials in that semi-autonomous region are actually not Han Chinese, BUT minorities. These include the MAYOR of that city (Urumqi) as well as the GOVERNOR. These people are given preferntial treatment in fcat by the govt, which fosters resentment among the majority Han chinese.
(2) Most of the dead are Han Chinese civilians who were butchered when the Uighur mobs became violent. When the Han Chinese tried to exact revenge on the second day, they were stopped by the police, who dispersed them using tear gas, etc.
The problem with the Uighurs is they choose not to integrate with the larger society, whxch explains their economic difficulties. If you don't speak Chinese, and live in CHINA, why should you be surprised not to be able to easily get jobs?
Dr. Sean Roberts ( George Washington University) Q&A on Uyghurs from Washingtonpost:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2009/07/07/DI2009070701491.html?hpid=topnews
America has it's own problems with intolerent Christians already.