In the run up to the Olympics, China’s human rights abuses have gained extensive media exposure. The violent suppression of protesters in Tibet, and the ensuing protests along the route of the torch relay have dominated the coverage; however, China’s abuses are not confined to one region. Another, just to the north of Tibet and encompassing one-sixth of China’s area suffers from many of the same problems as Tibet. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Eastern Turkestan as it is known to its native population, is home to an ethnically, culturally and historically unique people-the Uyghurs-who share linguistic and cultural bonds with the populations of Central Asia. Like the Tibet Autonomous Region recent decades have seen mass migrations of Han Chinese to the region with strong government support, and significant economic development of the region.

In early April, at the same time as they were dealing with rioting Tibetans, Chinese officials said that they were dealing with ethnic unrest in Xinjiang. One demonstration in the town of Khotan on March 23 was quickly suppressed. China blamed Islamic separatist groups, which it labels splittists and terrorists for the disturbance. Han residents reported as many as 500 Uygurs protested in the centre of Khotan. The demonstration followed the death in custody of a wealthy Ughur Jade trader and philanthropist, Mutallip Hajim. But beyond this event, the Uyghurs have fought for greater freedom to practice their religion and culture, as well as for more autonomy from Beijing. China’s attempts to pacify ethnic groups with economic development has in many cases backfired, with the gains disproportionately favouring the recent Han Chinese immigrants.

Two weeks prior to the protest in Khotan, China announced the discovery of what it said was a terrorist plot in Xinjiang said to involve the smuggling of combustible liquids onto a commercial airliner by a Uyghur woman who had spent time in neighbouring Pakistan. Officials reported it as part of a terrorist campaign developed by a radical Islamic independence group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Uyghurs described Beijing’s claims as an excuse to increase security and suppression of dissent in the region.

Earlier this month Beijing officials said they had broken up plots by two terrorist groups who were planning to stage attacks during the Olympics. Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said on April 10 that both groups were based in the Xinjiang province. He said some 45 people had been arrested on suspicion of planning to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide-bomb attacks targeted at hotels, government buildings and military bases in Beijing and Shanghai in the lead-up to and during the games. Wu said the Islamic Movement of East Turkestan asked its members to do trial runs using poisoned meat, poison gas, and remote-control explosive devices. Another group was accused of planning to carry out suicide-bomb attacks in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, and other cities in China. Uyghur rights activists have denied the allegations and China commentators and members of the Uyghur Congress say that claims of terrorism are designed to deflect attention from Tibet.

Confirming the claims of the Chinese government is very difficult due to the propaganda and control of information in China. However, commentators such as Professor Geremie Barme from the School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University, speaking to Lateline said of the supposed plot, “I don’t know if I believe anything myself... one of the terrorist organisations they’ve named is this sort of tin pot group that’s known for not ever being able to organise anything, and that they’re now a part of this massive plot against the Olympics, is too... I’ve already heard from journalist friends in Beijing, they regard it as being somewhat risible.”

The Uyghur were a dominant culture in Central Asia for more than 1000 years, but went into decline following the Manchu invasion of Eastern Turkestan in 1759. The Uygher region was incorporated into the Chinese empire in 1884, and given the name Xinjiang meaning new frontier. It encompasses territory of more than 1.7 million sq. kms, and is a strategically important region for China as its borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan, along with the powerful states of Russia, Pakistan and India. Its lands hold rich reserves of natural resources. The province has coal reserves of 2.19 trillion tons, which is 40 percent of China’s total. Moreover, geological surveys have discovered 138 different minerals, as well as an estimated 25 percent of China’s oil and natural gas reserves in the province, with current proven natural gas reserves at 840 billion cubic metres.

Despite the abundant natural resources, the native Uyghurs live in poverty. More than 80 percent of its oil and 70 percent of coal is taken to internal regions. China’s official statistics, believed to be an underestimation, show that 16 million people live in Xinjiang. The rate of migration to the region and China’s one-child policy has had a great effect on the Uyghurs; in 1949 they constituted 96 percent of the population, and the Hans accounted for less than 300 thousand people.  Today, roughly half the population is Han Chinese.

The non-Chinese population of Xinjiang of approximately nine million is almost entirely Muslim. Xinjiang is populated by more than 40 ethnic groups, of which approximately eight million are Uyghurs, as well as 1.2 million Kazakhs, 120 thousand Kirghizes, 29 thousand Tajiks and 14 thousand Uzbeks. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union each of these other Central Asian ethnic groups gained their own states.

During the 20^th century Xinjiang was subject to the political machinations of Russia and China. In the 1930s and 1940s Xinjiang gained relative autonomy from China, as a result of Soviet influence in the region. However, following 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party came to power, the idea of a single China was promoted, which meant the assimilation of Xinjiang. Mass migration to the region was encouraged to both aid the economic development of the region and to integrate Xinjiang with the rest of China. The Cultural Revolution saw the uniqueness and differences of national minorities labelled a “bourgeois reactionary line”. As the Cultural Revolution came to an end the Chinese government reversed many of their policies, granting more power and rights to minorities, along with the promotion of religious centres to gain support for its economic policies and dampen political opposition. Despite the official rhetoric about economic stabilisation and development in Xinjiang, in 1988 roughly one-third of the minority population did not have adequate food and clothing.  In 1997 80 percent of Uyghurs were living below the poverty line.

In 2005 Human Rights Watch and Human Rights in China released a joint report stating that China was engaged in a “crushing campaign of religious repression” against the Muslim Uyghurs, and that it was being carried out in the name of anti-separatism and counter-terrorism.  The report discovered a “multi-tiered system of surveillance, control, and suppression of religious activity” aimed at the Uyghurs. Arrests in the region were deemed arbitrary and discriminatory, with religious practices performed by some Uyghurs deemed acceptable, while others resulted in harsh punishment.  When judged in the light of the Chinese constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion, these arrests can also be judged as hypocritical. China is involved closely in all cultural and religious aspects of Uyghur life, right down to dictating what version of the Koran may be used. These actions are seen as considered state policy. Thousands are detained each year for “illegal religious activity”, and Xinjiang leads the nation in executions for state security crimes; over 200 people have been sentenced to death since 1997.

Since September 11, 2001, China has attempted to position its repression of Uyghurs within the context of the global “war on terror”. Exploiting the climate in western nations following the attacks on the United States and the fact that some Uyghurs were found fighting in Afghanistan, China has consistently and largely successfully portrayed Uyghurs as the source of a serious Islamic terrorist threat. This seems to have become the dominant perception among the Chinese public.

A protest in February 1997 in the town of Yining led to the deaths of several protesters. Riots followed which saw thousands of Uyghurs arrested.  A month later, in March 1997, separatists detonated bombs simultaneously on three public buses in the provincial capital of Urumqi, killing nine and seriously wounding sixty-eight. This is the only known occasion in recent decades when Uyghur activists are known to have attacked civilians indiscriminately. Subsequent attacks were also carried out on police stations, military installations, and individual political leaders.

Although the 1990s saw some violent incidents, it is not true that there has been an escalation in violence. As historian and Xinjiang expert James Millward writes:  “Although relatively few large-scale incidents in the 1990s were better publicised than those of the 1980s, they were not necessarily bigger or more threatening to the state. There have been, moreover, few incidents of anti-state violence—none large-scale—since early 1998. And none of them since the 1997 Urumqi bus bombings, alleged to be the work of Uyghur terrorists, have targeted civilians.” The Chinese authorities while publicly acknowledging the anti-state violence in Xinjiang in the mid-1990s, generally suggested it was carried out only by a handful of separatists, stressing the prosperity and stability of the region. In early September 2001, the Xinjiang authorities had stressed that “by no means is Xinjiang a place where violence and terrorist accidents take place very often,” and that the situation there was “better than ever in history.”

Immediately after the September 11 attacks the authorities reversed their stance, asserting for the first time that opposition in Xinjiang was connected to international terrorism and also stating that in some cases the movement had connections to Osama bin Laden. The Chinese government’s active diplomatic campaign convinced the United States to add the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement to the United Nations list of terrorist groups. The United States claimed that this was an independent decision, explaining their reasons in a statement that was, verbatim, a statement released by the Chinese authorities.

Since 2003 the Chinese government has suggested that all Uyghur opposition to Chinese domination, including non-violent resistance, is connected to international radical-Islamic terrorism.  Chinese authorities have argued that “separatist thought” has been taken up by terrorists as who previously resorted to violence. “Xinjiang independence elements have changed their combat tactics since the September 11 incident,” stated a high-ranking Xinjiang official, “They have focused on attacking China on the ideological front instead of using their former frequent practice of engaging in violent terrorist operations.”

Human Rights Watch reported that ,“In effect, China is claiming that terrorists have now become secret peaceful activists, presumably waiting for the right moment to revert to their former methods. This is a very dangerous set of assumptions that can be acted upon by the Chinese or Xinjiang security services at any time to justify arrests, heavy sentences, and the death penalty.” The Chinese authorities are trying to erase the distinctions between cultural and minority rights activists, pro-independence activists, and those who use violence.

Image by leon.sun
courtesy of Creative Commons