Ethnic riots between the Uighur Muslims and the Han Chinese in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, far western region of China, are the worst in recent history of communist China. Labour trouble in toy factories that has been badly hit by global recession provided the spark to the half-a-century-old tension between the two communities and soon spread to other parts of the region. Official claims that 184 persons, mostly the Han Chinese, have been killed and 1000 injured in the communal riots in the first two days are far from credible. Firstly, it is most unlikely that the Han Chinese are the victims. They were the ones who had launched a bloody counter-attack on the ethnic Muslims after the initial rioting by the latter. Secondly, China’s track record on transparency is so poor that one wouldn’t be surprised if the number of casualties turned out to be 10 times the figures dished out by the official agencies. Already the World Uighur Congress—one of the US-based separatist groups—has claimed that number of people killed in riots and army firing ran into several thousands, most of whom the Uighur Muslims.
Chinese are known to suppress information. Last year, the government claimed that 13 Tibetans had lost their lives during street protests in Tibet, whereas the Tibetan government in exile said that 220 people had died in police firing. The exact number of casualties may never be known, given lack of transparency in China. That President Hu Jintao rushed back home halfway through the important G-8 meeting in Italy’s L’Aquila city is a measure of the explosive nature of the trouble in the region bordering India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Beijing did succeed in suppressing the violent confrontation with an iron hand, but reports about clashes in certain parts of the region are still pouring in. Massive deployment of armed forces in the troubled region and mass arrests of suspects and leaders of the Muslim groups may have brought peace, at least on the surface, but the wounds will take a long time to heal.
The trouble in Xinjiang has to be understood in its historical, social and economic contexts. An independent Turkestan Republic that was created with the support of the former Soviet Union was largely inhabited by the native Uighurs—largely Muslims—till 1949 when the People’s Army captured it. It was with brute force that the region was merged with China. The Han Chinese constituted only six per cent of the population of Turkestan. Their population, as per the census of 2004, has drastically gone up to 40 per cent of the 20 million population of the region. This demographic change came about as a result of Beijing’s massive demographic invasion under the garb of “Go West” campaign to “modernise” the backward region and the subsequent arrival of big industries to tap oil-rich Xinjiang’s vast resources. The ethnic Uighur population has come down from 80 per cent in 1949 to 49 per cent, as of now. While a large number of the Han Chinese have come to live here and run industries and other economic activities, thousands of Uighurs migrated to other parts of the vast country in search of jobs and better living conditions during the last 50 years.
There has been a marked improvement in the region’s economy but Uighurs complain that fruits of development have been cornered by the Han Chinese while the natives have been reduced to the status of serfs, as is the case of the ethnic Tibetans in what is known as Autonomous Region of Tibet. Uighurs say they are legally denied positions of authority and power and that they have no option but to work as unskilled workers on low-paid jobs. This explains why a large number of natives left the region.
Racial discrimination, political persecution, denial of human rights and exploitation of natives are the major causes of unrest among the Muslims of the region, which have given birth to an underground movement for freedom from the Beijing’s yoke. Beijing’s response has been on expected lines—silencing the voices of protest by massive repression. But there is a strong undercurrent of disaffection and revolt against the communist rule, which largely remains unreported.
Recent riots are only a symptom of the simmering discontent. Rebiya Kadeer, a famous and rich businesswoman, who had been part of the Chinese elite till the end of the 20th century, had to migrate to US after spending six years in Chinese jails. Her two sons are still in Chinese custody. She has stoutly denied any hand in the riots but Beijing blames her and Al-Qaeda for engineering the riots to “defame” China.
A recent threat issued by an Algeria-based offshoot of Al-Qaeda that it would target Chinese interests overseas in retaliation to large-scale killings of Muslims in the restive region of Xinjiang tends to give credence to Chinese claims that Islamist terror groups are behind the recent riots. There are reports that the global jehadi community is gearing up for vengeance against China. It has caused deep concern in Beijing, as it is for the first time that Al-Qaeda has threatened it. There are several thousand Chinese workers in West Asia and North Africa, including more than 50,000 in Algeria.
Although there may be an element of truth in the Chinese charge of Islamists’ hand in the recent riots, blaming foreign forces for ethnic troubles is an old trick in the Chinese strategy. They blame Dalai Lama for promoting unrest in Tibet even though the Tibetan spiritual leader has given up the demand for a free Tibet and is willing to accept the genuine autonomy for his homeland as part of People’s Republic of China—a climbdown that is strongly resented by freedom-loving Tibetan youth. Tibetans have suffered brutal suppression at Beijing’s hands. There are similarities in the uprisings in Xinjiang and Tibet. Both were independent countries outside the control of Beijing before the emergence of communist China and are now victims of Chinese expansionism. Tibet flared up last year. This year, it is the turn of Xinjiang. Like the former USSR, China is an artificially created nation by suppressing local cultures and ethnic groups through demographic invasions and brute repression. USSR collapsed. Will China meet the same fate? Only time will tell.
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