By: Wali Noori

 The conflict between the majority and minority and state oppression of the minorities groups have a long history, which goes back to the pre-history period. Both historical books and religious books have so many stories for us in this regard. In contemporary history, the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers, the Maoists separatists in India, the Pashtons and Baloches separatists’ movement in Pakistan, the Quebecois  separation efforts from Canada led Canadians to referendums, the question of aboriginal people in Canada, across Latin America and the United States, the former Yogoslavia have been divided into 7 countries, Kurdish Worker Party have been challenging Turkish government militarily for the last 3 decades and the Xinjiang came to world attention in 2009 when a massive peaceful protesters were oppressed by the Chinese state police. Many countries across the world have minority and majority problems that involved the issues of assimilation and multiculturalisms and minority rights protection problems but astonishing is that no country in the world has not been able to solved majority and minority division dispute completely. China can’t be an exception that minority groups have been resisting against Hans majority across China but Xinjiang and Tibet are in the spot light of international media and politics because of Chinese government police and military use of excesses force against peaceful protesters who are demanding religious freedom and greater autonomy over their natural resources.  Xinjiang geography and natural resources is very important for Beijing Economic Security, territorial integrity and national unity but the cultural assimilation, massive immigration, economic development in favor of Hans immigrants, limited religious freedom and the exclusion of the Uyghur Muslim minority from the Economic development policies have escalated the conflict between the Uyghur and the Chinese Hans and Beijing. In this paper I will explore the impact of Beijing’s religious restriction, state sponsored immigration, assimilation and economic development policies on Uyghur Muslims and the importance of Xinjiang for China’s national and economic security.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region is a landlocked region in China bordering, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Russia, Mongolia, India Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Urumqi the capital of Xinjiang is the further place in the face of the world from the Ocean and 4000 km away from Beijing and it is seems that it is located beyond the natural boundary of proper China. Xinjiang which means “New Dominion” in Chinese is the largest region of China a little smaller than Alaska, 16 percent of China whole land area; it is host to three major mountains ranges and to two deserts and many valleys and oases basin in different altitudes (Wilson, 2007). Annual rainfall in most of the region is 6 inches, the summer and winter temperature can be different more than hundred degrees, this mountainous region have scare waterways, and the difficult terrain have made transportation impossible. It is hard to reach some of its parts, but this natural resources rich region provide 25 percent of whole China oil and natural gases and 38 percent of coal and compare to the China mass population it is sparsely populated which 12 people live per square km. This deserted, mountainous, landlocked and less populated region and the ethic and cultural characteristics of the local people have compound difficulties from Chinese government since the Qing Dynasty. This region have been conquest by the Qing Dynasty in the mid-eighteen century, the native people of Xinjiang are Turkic-speaking and Muslim but people of this tribe are different in lifestyle, dressing and dialect. They do not differentiate themselves into ethno national categories; they called themselves the inhabitant of particular oases, settled people or herders and Muslim. In the late nineteenth century the term of Uyghur starts to use, they were just called Turk before, and now Uyghur refers to Turkic speaking region (Joseph, 2010).

Han immigration to Xinjiang:

Han immigration has started to Xinjiang in the late eighteenth century to sustain Beijing’s control over the colony, this immigration since then is shaping the political, economical and social life of the region in particular of the Uyghur Muslims, who are the local inhabitant of that region for many years. Throughout the history of the Chinese conquest of the region the immigration have different purposes to the region for the Chinese government that includes; political, economical, territorial integrity and national unity and others. There were half million Hans in the early eighteen century in Xinjiang which compose one third of the total population of the region that were mainly in the north of the Tiashan Mountains but Turkic speaking native people lived in the Tarim basin which is south of the mountains. The Hans immigration have seen massive uprising against their presence and that push the Qing government to reverse their immigration policy and to persuade the immigration to the south. In 1864 Yaqub Beg led a Turkic uprising have been able to liberate most of the region from the Qing for a decade but he was defeated in a very bloody campaign in the 1870s and the Qing recapture most of the region and in 1884 it was formally declared as a province by the Qing. In the early 19^th century the Chiang Ka-shik government was lack of resources to sponsor more Hans immigration and Hans warlord in Xinjiang form a policy forcing the Turkic people off the farmland and offering it to Hans free of tax but that was failed. In 1940 there were 190,000 Chinese and 3 million Turkis in the Xinjiang region, the intervening years strengthen the cultural identity of the local Turkic people and strengthen the cultural pride where they start to call themselves by a traditional term “Uyghur” in the late 19^th century (Joseph, 2010).

The Hans immigration from proper China have not discouraged even after the 1949 when the Chinese Communists took the power in Beijing. The Communist China like the Qing were very interested in the Xinjiang region for economic, political and territorial integrity reasons and followed the step print of previous governments who were suspicious on the Uyghur and other Muslims ethnic groups who were struggling for independence or greater autonomy. The communists reached into power in China in an era where the world was divided by two blocks the west and the communists, the proxies wars were fought in many fronts around world. The Chinese government who were allied at first with the Communist block and then changed their side to the west were concern about their western borders that was very pivotal to China national security. Many republics have been emerged from the post-Soviet Union central Asia region after collapse of the Soviet in 1990s.  Howell and Fan (2011) have a great piece on “Migration and Inequality in Xinjiang” and stated that the Chinese communist government had encourage the Hans Chinese immigration to Xinjiang in order to continue the flow the communist government formed the Xinjiang Production and Construction corps (XPCC) in 1954 which is a paramilitary units were directly control by the central government and the aim was to build farms, cities and to ensure the movement of Hans immigration to the region. Skilled Hans’s labors were encouraged to Xinjiang to build Xinjiang infrastructure and to extract its oil, gas and cotton industries and at the end of the 1990s, 95 percent of the Taklamakan Desert oil exploration program technical workers were Hans Chinese. Despite the economical liberalisation and prosperity in the coastal region of China that most of the Chinese emigrate from rural area to urban but Xinjiang is still the forth most preferable place for internal immigration and left all other provinces behind except Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong. All immigrants are not stated sponsored and the economic development in China emerged another category of immigrants that are self-initiated labors. The recent economic liberalization and the development have encourage people in order to get a better life to migrate from proper China to coastal cities but the competition for jobs in urban areas is very tough and in this regard Xinjiang is a good destination for labors with little skills. Many self-initiated labors with little skills moved to Xinjiang and these labors are just looking for jobs in order to make a good living. For the past two decades Xinjiang is very attractive to theses non-state sponsored and little skill labors and will continue to be attractive for years to come despite the ethnic disturbances between Uyghur and Hans.

Xinjiang as the economic and physical security of China:

Today the world is a place of economic interdependence which means that every country in the world is in somehow dependent on another for some kind of supplies. Any disturbance in supply can harm the country economy and also the suppliers can gain an upper hand and turn the term of trade against the importer. In supplies three things are very important for a country economic security the food, strategic minerals and energy such as; the materials that used in aircraft production, oil, gas, raw materials and advanced technology. The more the Chinese economic grows and the more need for raw materials and supplies grows which concern the decision makers in the Chinese capital. Energy is an important commodity for the Chinese economic growth despite that China is the 5^th largest oil producer but the high economic growth in China have made China the number one oil importer in the world. China was self-sufficient in oil production until 1993 but now China is producing less than 50 percent of oil consumes and that gap is widening every year, which means that China is depended on oil import and in the other hand China 50% oil is coming from the Middle East which is the most unstable region in the world that worries China’s leaders the most for their country energy need. To secure energy consumption China is establishing energy relation with countries all over the world and investing heavily in the oil business. The good news for China is that China is self-sufficient in gas and coal. Xinjiang in regard to energy supplies is important for two reasons; first, it’s rich in energy resources and second, as energy supply transit route. In 1991 the Japanese National Oil Corporation was granted oil producing right in the Tarim Basin and now Xinjiang is the third largest oil producing region in China and that number may arise because most of the Xinjiang region is not been discovered and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) have developed plans to turn Xinjiang as a major oil and production center (Atli, 2011).

Beside that Xinjiang is oil rich region it is also a transit way for China oil supply. China is always concern over oil supplies through the maritime and China’s political leaders paying a lot of attention to secure oil shipments through pipelines and that is only possible through Xinjiang region which is neighboring to the Central Asian republics and the oil through pipelines from Central Asia and Russia has to enter to China through Xinjiang. In July, 2005 the first transnational pipeline begun working that starts in Atasu northwestern Kazakhstan and enter Xinjiang at Alashankou at the Kazakh-Chinese border was built by Sino-Kazakh. Half of the oil in the pipeline is Kazakh’s and the other half is Russian, when the pipeline reaches its full capacity it will transport China 15% oil import. Land transportation to Xinjiang neighboring Central Asian republics and then to Europe provide low cost trading opportunities and because of this China is investing heavily in Xinjiang to turn the region into an economical hub. By 2020 the current 3600 km railroad between Xinjiang and Kazakhstan will extended to 12000 km that will add some new links to connect Xinjiang with Kyrgystan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan and 12 more new highways will be build in the length of 7155 km. Trade opportunities between China and the Central Asian republics through Xinjiang is not limited to only the Asian republics but it include Europe. Railway transportation is cost and time sufficient alternative between China and Europe than the maritime sea transpiration. Xinjiang is turning as an economic hub and gateway to the west while connecting China to the rest of the world through pipelines, highways and trade routes (Atli, 2011).

Natural barriers toward reintegration:

Language discrimination and economic disparities of the Uyghur Muslims: race, language, economic differences, religions and others are the hurdles toward a neutral multicultural society in the Xinjiang region among the Uyghur minority and the Hans majority. The violence and peace has its up and down in the history of  Xinjiang among the Uyghur and Hans Chinese but the Chinese central government has not find a real answer to the problem of the region that can narrow the economic, social and others gap between the two groups. Caprioni have explores these problems and reasons that widen the gap between the two ethnic groups that I will discussed them in details below.

Since creation of XUAR on October 1, 1955 Urumqi has been the political and economic center for Xinjiang. Uyghur and Hans are studying in the same and working in the same danwei but they live in two separated districts of the city. Uyghur reside in the southeast which is the oldest part of the city which they live in the houses that is typical Central Asian architecture and they wearing their traditional clothes but there is a division among the younger generation that some follow their traditional clothes and some have adopted the western modern style fashion. In contrast to the Uyghur the Hans Chinese resides in the modern part of the Urumqi that is located in the northern part of the city where skyscrapers and modern shopping malls and multi-lane highways has been constructed.  There is an invisible dividing line between the two areas and groups that was drawn before but continues to be follow today by both young educated Hans and Uyghur. Xinjiang became part of the Chinese Empire in 1759, since then it has been a common place for the Hans Chinese but they live in isolation from one another in two different areas to avoid conflicts but linguistic, religious and cultural differences are the barriers to bring into exists an united Uyghur and Hans society (Caprioni, 2011).

According to PRC 1982 Constitution Mandarin and Uyghur are the official languages of Xinjiang region which means that newspapers, stores schools, banks and others need to be operate in both languages but it is not true so in reality. In schools most of the Uyghur can speak Mandarin language while it is not true for most of the Hans, the students who have been graduated from the Uyghur schools having problems in passing the college entry exam despite the grade for college entry is low in Xinjiang than the rest of China and Uyghur school quality is far behind than the Hans schools that most of the parents are complaining about scare school supplies, poor quality and mandarin is taught by Uyghur speaking teacher who do not follow standard Mandarin while Mandarin is a prerequisite for find a good paying job. Uyghur and Hans are working and studying in one place, they share all public spaces but their resident is different from one another which were discussed above. Hans are not interested in learning the Uyghur language because of its usefulness and lack of teaching materials while Uyghur do not  read, listen and watch the media that is broadcasting in mandarin and they prefer the media that is publishing and broadcasting in Uyghur to avoid the PRC propagation (Caprioni, 2011).

Han immigration to Xinjiang is the root cause of most of these barriers that is seen by the Uyghur as a danger to their identity, land, economy, jobs and resources and the Uyghur are using any means in their hand to differentiate from the Chinese identity and the same is true for the Hans. Caprioni have discussed the time zone, internal-marriages, ethnicity, lack of social interaction and religions are the other barriers that both ethnic groups are using to avoid each other.

The Chinese government all across China is using the Beijing time but the Uyghur is using the local time which is two hours behind the official government time in Xinjiang but in contrast to Uyghur the Hans who reside in Xinjiang are using the official Beijing time. This is a symbol of opposition to the Hans hegemony and their close ties to the central Asian republics to show the Hans that their ethnicity and geography is just not Chinese. Religion is another barrier; in 1949 China has declared itself officially a secular state but after the 1980s reforms the government became more tolerant toward religions. Islam is the soul of the Uyghur identity and that is seen in the Hans populated areas in Xinjiang by many educated Hans as a tool that keeps the Uyghur from development and modernization. Uyghur who are the follower of Sunni Islam which is the most moderate branch of Islam seen themselves as the children of Allah and people who are belonging to their ethnicity and in the other hand the Uyghur consider the Hans as heartless and evil people due to their lack of faith and spirituality. In short both religion and time are the factors to keep separate the Uyghur Muslim world from the Hans secular one. Uyghur are reserved people and they do not accept the invitation of Hans where women and men are together, pork and alcohol is served, Chinese music and dance and the same is true for Hans they do not accept invitation where women and men are separate and pork and alcohol is not served. Hans are not interested in the Uyghur traditional dance and singing and the Uyghur is not taking Chinese martial arts classes and internal marriage is uncommon and a very sensitive issue. Some Hans’s men would like to be friend with Uyghur girls because of their visual appearances but prefer to not be in a relationship because of the Islamic tradition and public disapproval. An Uyghur girl will be consider traitor to the Uyghur community and to Islam if she accept a relationship with a Han because most Uyghur consider Hans as atheists unhygienic and uneducated in the Uyghur culture, language and history that will deem unable the couple to build a family. The Uyghur are consider by most of the Hans in Xinjiang fundamentalist Muslims that do not respect women, always beat up women and instead of work they prefer to dance, sing and smoke. Strong since of ethnicity among both groups and prejudicial and discrimination are the other barriers that widen the gap between Uyghur and Hans (Caprioni, 2011).

Inequality between Hans and Uyghur and Beijing reaction:

Hans is given preference in employment in Xinjiang than the Uyghur which is the main source of income inequality and ethnic discontent. The development gap between northern and western China is big and will continue to grow. Some scholars have compared the income inequality gap to the former Yugoslavia before it break up in many parts. Studies have found that many Uyghur have excluded from professional jobs such as; jobs in industrial and oil sectors and this is the reason that the Han-Uyghur income gap is large and the Uyghur quality of life has risen steadily. Despite that the Hans Chinese is playing an important role in the development of Xinjiang they are seen by Uyghur as colonizers that monopolizing their natural resources and getting wealth by exploiting minorities (Howell & Fan, 2011). To help integrate the minorities in Xinjiang with Hans Chinese and silence the spirit of separation, the Chinese government have developed a huge development plan for western China that Xinjiang is included which is called; (Great Western Development Strategy) to build infrastructure and several projects have been already implemented. This development plan that was announced by President Hu Jintao in May 2010 in a work conference on Xinjiang’s development is to be the first big one in the history of PRC is aim to establish a basic health system by 2012, bring up per capita income to the Chinese level by 2015 and eliminating poverty by 2020. But all of these will not help to calm the separatist movements; there are two other important points that need to be address by the Chinese central government. First, Xinjiang is host to great minorities groups which is the core of the current problem but this is denied by the Chinese government despite the government is aiming to increase material wealth in order to insure minority cooperation and help them to integrated with Hans Chinese. Second, the Eastern part of China is taking more advantages than the Westerners from the (Great Western Development Strategy) projects because the strategy is aiming on building infrastructure and extraction of energy and natural resources in place of resolving directly the social problems in the western region and it would have been more beneficial that the central government focused on poverty relief, improvement in health and education system (Atli, 2011).

 Restricts on Religious practices and crack down on protesters: 

              I have touch a little bit the religious freedom and crack down on peaceful protesters on Uyghur in Xinjiang region above which is the most worrying issue for the region and human rights activists and organization across the world. China is notorious for torturing and execution of the political opposition groups and leaders and in this part I will discuss it briefly.

Ethnic tension in Xinjiang region between Uyghur Muslims and Hans Chinese and Uyghur and the state police and army have been increasing since 1980s. Police have crashed with Uyghur uprising in Baren town in 1990 that police claimed that the Uyghur trying to establish in Xinjiang a republic that will call the (East Turkestan republic) and in 1996 and 1997 the tension have been escalated. The Muslim separatists riots left behind 10 dead and 144 wounded and two died and 27 wounded, and three buses were exploded in February 1997 in Urumqi. Uyghur separatists have attacked governmental officials and offices in Xinjiang and a bomb blown up in Beijing that is attributed to Uyghur and even a bomb that exploded to the Chinese Communist Party Head Quarter have been attacked. Chinese government responded to these incidents very harshly with execution of political prisoners, mosque closures, arrest of suspected separatists, arms seizures, large troop employment and stop arm flows to the region.  Meanwhile, exile Uyghur groups have claimed that more than 100,00 people have been arrested during the crackdown and more than a thousand have been killed, while some Chinese politician were calling to make a great steel wall against the Uyghur Muslims. This harsh crackdown of Chinese government on accused Uyghur separatists has been condemned by the Amnesty International, the State Department of the United States, seven other International Organization and draw the attention of the Muslims nations into the situation of the Uyghur that resulted many gathering of delegate in Inkara, Istanbul, Munich, Sydney and a conference in Washington attracted 100 delegates from Middle East, Europe and Central Asia (Dorian et all, 1997). At the same time that China has been criticised for its treatment of the Uyghur Muslims accessed separatists and China is an important ally of the West in the war against terrorism but China make no difference between separatists, terrorists and civil rights activists and that is true for Tibetans, Taiwanese, Uyghur and Falun Gong Bhuddists. The these large riots were response to Crackdown on a religious meeting in Yining that is called in Uyghur “meshrep”, and The Amnesty International claims that thousands separatists and terrorists suspects that were gathered in the round up operation were put immediately on trail and thousands people on immediate summary execution. Amnesty claims that China has the highest frequent execution rate in the world and inside China Xinjiang region has the highest execution rate that is 1.8 people per week that most of the victims are the Uyghur Muslims. Religious freedom is protected by the Chinese constitution but people are very frustrated on recent restriction mosque attendance by youth, students and governmental officials (Gladney, 2002).

The Xinjiang autonomous region that is the homeland of Uyghur Muslims is vital to China physical security and economic security. China need the Xinjiang autonomous region in any cost but the Uyghur who have been treated in their homeland as a second class citizens and their religious freedom is limited have frustrated and that led to upraising that how different meaning for different group of Uyghur; some is fighting for religious freedom, while some is struggling for greater autonomy over their homeland natural resources and some want to establish an independent state in the region. It seems that China have not find answer responsively to the Uyghur minorities upraising problems yet, the central government is trying to turn Xinjiang into an economic hub but this is escalating the situation rather than calming the problem. The future of Uyghur Muslims minority is not clear what is clear that China will not let the region to separate from China and the Uyghur will not sit quiet.

References:

Joseph, W. (2010). Politics  in China: An Introduction. Oxford University Press: USA.

Howell, A & Fan, C. (2011). Migration and Inequality in Xinjiang: A Survey of Han and Uyghur Migrants in Urumqi. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 52, (1), 119–139. Retrieved from: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/downloads/597/403.pdf

Atli, A. (2011). THE ROLE OF XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION IN THE ECONOMIC SECURITY OF CHINA. Orta Asya ve Kafkasya Arastirmalari, 6 (11). 111-133. retrieved from:ttp://search.proquest.com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/wpsa/docview/920743413/fulltext/141E7E7CF2F61B64AB3/1?accountid=9894

Carproni, E. (2011). Daily Encounters Between Hans and Uyghurs in Xinjiang: Sinicization, Integration or Segregation? Pacific Affairs, 84 (2). 267-287. Retrieved from: http://search.proquest.com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/wpsa/docview/920743413/fulltext/141E7E7CF2F61B64AB3/1?accountid=9894

Gladney, D. (2002). Xinjiang: China’s Future West Bank? Current History A Journal of Contemporary World Affairs, 101 (656). 267-270. Retrieved from: http://www.oakton.edu/user/2/emann/HIS140CLASS/CURRENTHISTORYreadings/China/XinjianChina.pdf

Dorian, J,. Wigdortz, B., Gladney D.(1997). hina and Central Asia’s volatile mix : energy, trade, and ethnic relations. Asia Pacific, 31, 2-7. Retrieved from: http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/3791