The decades of accumulated ethnic tensions between the Han Chinese settlers and the Uighurs [Muslims] in China’s Xinjiang province ignited into a full-blown riot in the capital Urumqi. With the death toll exceeding 150, the rioting and the crackdown that followed are said to be the bloodiest since the Tiananmen Square killings two decades ago. It resulted in the death of at least 156 persons and injury to over a thousand. The violence was caused by the Uighur Muslims who have cultural similarities with the people of Central Asia and want an independent homeland. It was to air their long standing grievances against the Hans. The origin of the trouble traced to the death of two Uighur men during a dispute between toy factory workers in Guangdong which provided the necessary spark to ignite the ethnic volcano. Men armed with clubs, axes, steel rods etc. belonging to both groups attacked each other and damaged property of each other wherever they could. The Chinese authorities swooped down on the protesters with full force, the way they are known to react in such situation. The seriousness of the crisis can be understood from the fact that President Hu Jintao cancelled his plan to attend the G-8 meeting in Italy.
China put down the rioting with a heavy hand because it cannot allow fomenting of trouble in the sensitive oil and gas rich region on any pretext because this can be exploited by Al-Qaeda or its allied organisations in Central Asia for their own larger destructive agenda. But, if violence was the handiwork of Uighur separatists with Islamic leanings, Xinjiang could be developing into China’s Kashmir. This is a failure of China’s resettlement policy that seeks to forcibly transplant Han culture over the rest of ethnic groups. Beijing is, however, accusing the Uighurs based abroad of provoking the attack on locals as part of a separatist campaign of terror.
Relations between the Chinese Government and the ethnic Uighurs have over time soured to the point of bloodshed. Though the economic development of Xinjiang province has been remarkable, there is a steady suppression of cultural rights by the Communist Party. This has been testified by the Human Rights Watch whose report mentions restrictions on the religious freedom of Uighurs, the bar on religious holidays and the imprisonment of dissidents. Even demographically, Uighurs have now been reduced to a minority in Urumqi in the face of an ever so increasing Han immigration. There is an uncanny similarity with China’s strategy in Tibet where too the migration of Han Chinese has been encouraged to counter the Tibetan Buddhist culture. The Uighurs of Xinjiang allege that far from allowing them to reap the benefits of modernisation, the Government has encouraged Han migration to Xinjiang. This, they say, has resulted in the Han’s further eminence through better paid jobs and preferential treatment. In 1949, Xianjiang was dominated by Uighurs [a Central Asian people who speak Turki and claim a kinship with Turks] with only a sprinkling [about 5%] of Hans. Today, the ratio is roughly 50:50. The Uighurs’ plight is like that of Tibetans. Like the anti-Chinese riots last year in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, the savagery in Urumqi shows that modernization does not always dampen resentment against the Chinese rule. For both the Uighurs and the Tibetans, economic development has been inseparable from immigration by ethnic Han Chinese.
Uighurs, the vast majority of whom are Muslims, have never quite reconciled themselves to Beijing’s domination ever since the Chinese troops marched in and annexed the Central Asian region in 1949. But, for China, Xinjiang is crucial. It is a massive province occupying sixth of the country’s landmass and rich in oil, gas and mineral resources. Lop Nor, China’s nuclear testing site, is located here. Most important this province keeps China in the reckoning in Central Asia. It shares borders with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikstan, Afghanistan, India [Leh district], Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Tibet. Xinjiang was part of the ancient Silk Route which carried silk and much else from the heart of Asia to the Mediterranean coast to ships waiting to sail for Rome.
Given its strategic importance, China needs to go slow on its Han settlement policy and win the hearts of the Uighurs for its own sake. A suppression of the Uighur Muslims may encourage forces like Al-Queda to make a discreet entry there as a saviour of their Muslim brothers which will also have serious implications for its other Central Asian neighbours. China’s suppression of violence in Tibet last year damaged its reputation and branded it as an intolerant country. China has adopted a one-country-two systems in the case of Hong Kong and has promised the same if Taiwan returns to the motherland. Although Xinjiang enjoys the status of an autonomous Province, there is nothing in practice for its people to enjoy autonomy. A one-country-two-systems status will ensure it a greater self-rule and will remove one of the major grievances of the Uighurs who accuse Beijing of discrimination against them and imposition of Han Chinese on the province against their wishes.
