Uighurs and China's Xinjiang Region

Author:Preeti Bhattacharji, Research Associate

Updated: July 6, 2009

 Introduction
 Intermittent Independence
 Economic Development
 Han Migration
 Ethnic Tension
 Terrorism and Counterterrorism
 Tough Neighborhood
 International Disinterest

Introduction

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), a territory in western China, accounts for
one-sixth of China's land and is home to about 20 million people from thirteen major ethnic
groups. The largest of these groups is the Uighurs [PRON: WEE-gurs], a predominantly Muslim
community with ties to Central Asia. Some Uighurs call China's presence in Xinjiang a form of
imperialism, and they stepped up calls for independence—sometimes violently—in the 1990s
through separatist groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The Chinese
government has reacted by promoting the migration of China's ethnic majority, the Han, to
Xinjiang. Beijing has also strengthened economic ties with the area and tried to cut off potential
sources of separatist support from neighboring states that are linguistically and ethnically linked
with the Uighurs.

Intermittent Independence

Since the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, Xinjiang has enjoyed varying degrees of
autonomy. Turkic rebels in Xinjiang declared independence in October 1933 and created the
Islamic Republic of East Turkestan (also known as the Republic of Uighuristan or the First East
Turkistan Republic). The following year, the Republic of China reabsorbed the region. In 1944,
factions within Xinjiang again declared independence, this time under the auspices of the Soviet
Union, and created the Second East Turkistan Republic. But in 1949, the Chinese Communist
Party took over the territory and declared it a Chinese province. In October 1955, Xinjiang
became classified as an "autonomous region" of the People's Republic of China.

Some Uighurs, nostalgic for Xinjiang's intermittent periods of independence, call for the
recreation of a Uighur state. "The Central Asian Uighurs know a great deal about the two East
Turkestan periods of sovereign rule, and they reflect on that quite frequently," says Dru C.
Gladney, president of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College. Many of these Uighurs say
China colonized the area in 1949. But in its first white paper on Xinjiang, the Chinese
government said Xinjiang had been an "inseparable part of the unitary multi-ethnic Chinese
nation" since the Western Han Dynasty, which ruled from 206 BC to 24 AD.

Economic Development

Xinjiang's wealth hinges on its vast mineral and oil deposits. In the early 1990s, Beijing decided
to spur Xinjiang's growth by giving it special economic zones, subsidizing local cotton farmers,
and overhauling its tax system. In August 1991, the Xinjiang government launched the Tarim
Basin Project (World Bank) to increase agricultural output. During this period, Beijing invested
in the region's infrastructure, building massive projects like the Tarim Desert Highway and a rail
link to western Xinjiang. In an article for The China Quarterly, Nicholas Bequelin of Human
Rights Watch says these projects were designed to literally "bind Xinjiang more closely to the
rest of the PRC."

Since 1954, China has also used the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) to
build agricultural settlements in China's western periphery. Locally known as the Bingtuan, the
XPCC is charged with cultivating and guarding the Chinese frontier. To achieve this mission, the
corps has its own security organs, including an armed police force and militia. Over the past fifty
years, the XPCC has attracted a steady stream of migrant workers to Xinjiang.

Beijing continues to develop Xinjiang in campaigns called "Open up the West" and "Go West."
Experts like Gladney say these programs have made the region relatively prosperous. "If you
look at the general per capita income of Xinjiang as a region," he says, "it's higher than all of
China's except for the southeast coast." But others note that Xinjiang's wealth is concentrated in
its oil-rich centers, and international development bodies like the Asian Development Bank say
that there are high levels of inequality (PDF) in the area. The Chinese government has launched
a series of programs to alleviate poverty in Xinjiang, and in March 2008, Chinese Premier Wen
Jiabao emphasized harmonious development of the region in a government report.

Han Migration

Growing job opportunities in Xinjiang have lured a steady stream of migrant workers to the
region, many of whom are ethnically Han. The Chinese government does not count the number
of workers that travel to Xinjiang, but experts say the local Han population has risen from
approximately 5 percent in the 1940s to approximately 40 percent today. These migrants work in
a variety of industries, both low tech and high tech, and have transformed Xinjiang's landscape.
In June 2008, the BBC produced a photo report called Life in Urumqi, which said Xinjiang's
capital had recently witnessed "the arrival of shopping centres, tower blocks, department stores
and highways."

Many of these Uighurs say China colonized the area in 1949. But in its first white paper on
Xinjiang, the Chinese government said Xinjiang had been an "inseparable part of the unitary
multi-ethnic Chinese nation" since the Western Han Dynasty.

In its 2007 annual report to the U.S. Congress, the Congressional-Executive Commission on
China said the Chinese government "provides incentives for migration to the region from
elsewhere in China, in the name of recruiting talent and promoting stability" (PDF). Since
imperial times, the Chinese government has tried to settle Han on the outskirts of China to
integrate the Chinese periphery. But the Communist Party says its policies in Xinjiang are
designed to promote economic development, not demographic change. Xinjiang's influx of
migrants has fueled Uighur discontent as Han and Uighurs compete over limited jobs and natural
resources.

Ethnic Tension

The Chinese government says Xinjiang is home to thirteen major ethnic groups. The largest of
these groups is the Uighurs, who comprise 45 percent of Xinjiang's population, according to a
2003 census. Like many of these groups, the Uighurs are predominantly Muslim and have
cultural ties to Central Asia.

As Han migrants pour into Xinjiang, many Uighurs resent the strain they place on limited
resources like land and water. "Uighurs feel like this is their homeland, that these resources
should be more devoted to them," says Gladney. In 2006, Human Rights in China said
population growth in Xinjiang had transformed the local environment, leading to "reduced
human access to clean water (PDF) and fertile soil for drinking, irrigation and agriculture."

Ethnic tension is fanned by economic disparity: the Han tend to be wealthier than the Uighurs in
Xinjiang. Some experts say the wage gap is the result of discriminatory hiring practices. The
Congressional-Executive Commission on China reports that in 2006, the XPCC reserved
approximately 800 of 840 civil servant job openings for Han. Local officials say they would like
to hire Uighurs, but have trouble finding qualified candidates. "One common problem of the
western region is that the education and cultural level of the people here is quite low," said Wang
Lequan, Xinjiang's Communist Party secretary, in an interview with the BBC. Gladney says Han
applicants tend to have better professional networks because they are more often "influential,
children of elite Party members and government leaders."

According to Bequelin, Uighurs are also upset by what they consider Chinese attempts to
"refashion their cultural and religious identity." In an op-ed for the Washington Post, Rebiyah
Kadeer, a prominent exiled Uighur, condemns China for its "fierce repression of religious
expression," and "its intolerance for any expression of discontent." Beijing officials respond to
these accusations by saying they respect China's ethnic minorities, and have improved the quality
of life for Uighurs by raising economic, public health, and education levels in Xinjiang.

In July 2009, ethnic tension between the Han and Uighur communities in Xinjiang was brought
into the international limelight after severe riots between the two groups and police forces
erupted in the province's capital city of Urumqi. According to Chinese state media, at least 150
people were killed, and more than 800 were injured. The riots were reportedly sparked by a
Uighur protest over the ethnically motivated killing of two Uighur workers in the southern
province of Guangdong. Accounts of how the protest turned violent differ.

Terrorism and Counterterrorism

During the 1990s, separatist groups in Xinjiang began frequent attacks against the Chinese
government. The most famous of these groups was the East Turkestan Islamic Movement
(ETIM). China, the United States, and the UN Security Council have all labeled ETIM a terrorist
organization, and Chinese officials have said the group has ties to al-Qaeda. Concern about
Uighur terrorism flared in August 2008—just days before the Beijing Olympics—when two men
attacked a military police unit (NYT) in Xinjiang, killing sixteen. However, a month later, the
New York Times reported that according to eyewitness accounts of three foreign tourists, the
attackers were also in paramilitary uniform, casting doubts on the official Chinese version of the
incident, which had called it a terrorist incident. The attack had come a week after a group
calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party took credit for a slew of terrorist attacks (Xinhua),
including two bus explosions in Yunnan province.

The Han population there has risen from approximately 5 percent in the 1940s to approximately
40 percent today.

The Chinese government has taken steps to combat both separatists and terrorists in its western
province. According to the U.S. State Department, Chinese authorities raided an alleged ETIM
camp in January 2007, killing eighteen and arresting seventeen. China also monitors religious
activity in the region to keep religious leaders from spreading separatist views. Since September
11, 2001, China has raised international awareness of Uighur-related terrorism and linked its
actions to the Bush administration's so-called war on terror.

But many experts say China is exaggerating the danger posed by Uighur terrorists. China has
accused the Uighurs of plotting thousands of attacks, but Andrew J. Nathan, a China expert at
Columbia University, says, "You have to be very suspicious of those numbers." Gladney notes
that many of the "terrorist incidents" that China attributes to ETIM are actually "spontaneous and
rather disorganized" forms of civil unrest. Most experts say ETIM has no effective ties to al-
Qaeda, and Bequelin goes so far as to say, "ETIM is probably defunct by now, as far as we
know." In a 2008 report, Amnesty International accused Chinese officials of using the war on
terror to justify "harsh repression of ethnic Uighurs." But in Xinhua, a state-run newspaper,
Chinese rights organizations refuted the Amnesty report, saying it was designed to slander China
under the pretense of human rights.

Experts disagree on the efficacy of China's counterterrorism measures. Some, including

Bequelin, say China's anti-separatist campaign actually provokes more resentment, which can
lead to more terrorism. But other Western outlets say China's counterterrorism measures have
been relatively successful. A review of U.S. State Department documents shows a decrease in
Uighur-related terrorism since the end of the 1990s.

Tough Neighborhood

Xinjiang shares a border with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,

Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Because of the Uighurs'
cultural ties to its neighbors, China has been concerned that Central Asian states may back a
separatist movement in Xinjiang. According to Nathan, these fears are fueled by the fact that the
Soviet Union successfully backed a Uighur separatist movement in the 1940s. To keep Central
Asian states from fomenting trouble in Xinjiang, China has cultivated close diplomatic ties with
its neighbors, most notably through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. According to
Bequelin, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was created "to ensure the support of Central
Asian states," and to "prevent any emergence of linkages between Uighur communities in these
countries and Xinjiang."

Many experts believe China's diplomatic efforts have been successful. Adam Segal, senior fellow
for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, says China's neighbors "are now fighting
their own Muslim fundamentalist groups," which makes them more sympathetic to China's
plight. According to the U.S. State Department, Uzbekistan extradited a Canadian citizen of
Uighur ethnicity to China in August 2006, where he was convicted for alleged involvement in
ETIM activities. Nathan says cases like these are evidence that China's neighbors are cooperating
with China's anti-secessionist policies. In contrast, the United States refused to hand over five
Uighurs who had been captured by U.S. forces in Pakistan in 2001, despite Chinese calls to do
so. After their release from Guantanamo Bay in May 2006, the Uighurs were instead transferred
to Albania. In June 2009, four Uighurs who had been detained at Guantanamo were resettled in
Bermuda. The remaining thirteen Uighur detainees will be resettled in Palau.

None of China's neighbors have expressed official support for the Uighurs, but the region's
porous borders still worry Chinese officials. In the 1980s and 1990s, many Uighurs traveled into
Pakistan and Afghanistan, where they were exposed to Islamic extremism. "Some enrolled in
madrassas, some enrolled with [the anti-Taliban opposition force] the Northern Alliance, some
enrolled with the Taliban, some enrolled with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan," says
Bequelin. Chinese officials worry that militants who slip in and out of Xinjiang can promote
anti-state activity.

International Disinterest

In the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008, protests in Tibet reaped international attention.
But protests in Xinjiang (IHT) went relatively unnoticed. "People aren't threatening to boycott
the Olympic opening ceremony for the Uighurs," says Segal. Because Tibet gets more global
attention than Xinjiang, some reporters have referred to Xinjiang as "China's other Tibet" (al-
Jazeera).

International interest in Xinjiang is muted for a variety of reasons. According to Nathan, the
Uighur community lacks an effective leader. "For the Uighurs, their most prominent
spokesperson is Rebiya Kadeer in Washington, who really doesn't have the infrastructure and the
Nobel Prize that the Dalai Lama has," he says. Bequelin adds that the Chinese government has
effectively branded Uighur separatists as terrorists, which has reduced international sympathy for
their mission. Amidst international apathy, most experts say the human rights situation in
Xinjiang is likely to get worse before it gets better. "There's no international pressure to change
policy in Xinjiang right now," says Segal. "So why would China make any changes?"