Xinjiang, Tibet disharmonise China’s harmony

Tibet and Xinjiang have been gaining the attention of international community in the past few decades for ‘inharmonious reasons’.

Kamna Arora

Visual of burnt cars, smashed stores, protestors with knives and bricks, and blood everywhere in China’s western Xinjiang region have gained attention of the international community of late. These pictures not only disturb observers, but also shatter the claim of the government in Beijing, which is making all possible efforts to project China as a harmonious society. The recent riots in Xinjiang are said to be one of the most violent clashes between authorities and protesters since the Tiananmen Square massacre way back in 1989. The police have reportedly arrested nearly 1,500 suspects in connection with the deadly riots in this north western region, in which at least 192 people were killed and over 1,000 injured. Last week, hundreds of paramilitary police with shields and rifles could be seen patrolling the streets of the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi, where the unrest began. The riots began in Urumqi after reportedly 1,000 to 3,000 protesters assembled at the People`s Square to demand a probe into the June 25 deaths of Muslim Uighur workers at a toy factory during clashes with ethnic Han Chinese in southern China. As per the reports, two Uighurs were attacked in southern Guangdong province and killed as they allegedly abused a Han Chinese woman. According to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, two died in the factory clashes. However, other sources claim that the toll was higher. After ruthlessly beating people, Chinese authorities began targeting the mediums of communication through which the suppressed mob were expressing their anger. Social networking site Twitter and cell phone services were successfully blocked in the region with Internet links either being cut or slowed down. Officially, China calls Xinjiang an autonomous region, just like Tibet. The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region has witnessed clashes in the past too, but the recent riots are definitely the most violent one. Ethnic tension between the native Uighurs, a mostly Muslim Turkic minority group, and Han Chinese has been stirring up for long. Tibet and Xinjiang are two areas where the Chinese iron-fist government lacks control. The regions have been gaining the attention of the international community in the past few decades for ‘inharmonious reasons’. But China continues to project itself as a country where the rifts among the 56 ethnic groups have been narrowed and gap between the rich and poor bridged. However if it were the case, Chinese President Hu Jintao would not have left the G-8 meetings in Italy half way to confront the ethnic problems in Xinjiang. "He has largely failed at this level. It`s an ideal that appears more distant today," Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a China expert at Hong Kong`s Baptist University, told a news agency. "We will have to see if this slogan is still invoked in the same manner in the future. As things are now, it is triggering sarcasm... (The riots) show that China remains a violent country, with serious tensions in society.” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has termed killings in Xinjiang as “genocide”. It is because Muslim Turkey has not only religious, but also linguistic connections with Uighurs. Thousands of Uighur immigrants can be found living in Turkey. Even though they are a part of China, Uighurs find ethnic as well as cultural proximity with other Central Asian nations. In the past, the region has been used as a gateway by the Silk Road caravans, which sent Chinese silk to the Middle East and Europe. Uighurs controlled short-lived East Turkestan Republics in the 1930s and 1940s. The region was brought under the complete control of communist China in 1949. In October 1955, Xinjiang became an "autonomous region" of the People`s Republic of China. Two different regions but similar problems The Chinese government’s stance in the case of Tibet and Xinjiang are similar. In a white paper titled ‘Fifty Years of Democratic Reform in Tibet’, China claimed that Tibet has been an inseparable part of China since ancient times. Notably, there is no full-proof document that can prove the inseparability of Tibet with China. In fact there are some deeds which show the reality as just the opposite. In its first white paper on Xinjiang, Beijing tagged the region as an "inseparable part of the unitary multi-ethnic Chinese nation" since the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC to 24 AD). China accuses the Dalai Lama, who seeks autonomy for Tibetans, and Rebiya Kadeer, who has championed the cause of Uighurs for long, of being terrorists. "She (Kadeer) did as much, or more, than the Dalai Lama and his clique to sow resentment among the ethnic Uighur people and instigate their discontent and hatred towards the government," the People’s Daily charged in an editorial. Both the Dalai Lama and Kadeer have failed to raise their voices in China, as the former shifted base to India and the latter had to hide herself in the US. Notably, increasing population and dominance of the Han Chinese in Lhasa led to the riots last year. And this time as well, Uighurs say the key reasons behind the protests were anger at the repressive Han Chinese, whose population is increasing in the region. Xinjiang has 20 million people, from 13 major ethnic groups. Out of these, eight million are Uighurs. As per official statistics, Han Chinese are far less in numbers, but some analysts believe the numbers underrate recent migration. The riots in Lhasa and Urumqi have made it clear that modernisation does not always reduce minorities’ anger against the Chinese rule, and the government in Beijing must understand this. China`s Politburo has accused the “three forces” of extremism, separatism and terrorism for the unrest in Xinjiang. Both Xinjiang and Tibet are resource-rich and strategically important regions. China can never afford to let these regions slip away, as it will be highly detrimental to its security. Xinjiang, which is nearly the size of Alaska, is one of the world`s remotest regions and is surrounded by deserts. It is China`s Central Asian frontier, which shares borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakstan, Russia and Mongolia. And Tibet mostly shares border with Nepal, and India, which poses conventional threat to China. The question arises as to whether China will be able to defuse the Xinjiang and Tibet time bombs before they rip off the country. It should be noted that both the areas pose varying level of threat to China. Notably, it will be Uighurs not Tibetans, whose anger can provoke Muslim sentiment throughout the Islamic world. Besides Tibetans and Uighurs, there are many followers of the Falun Gong movement, and many Christians who are not allowed to adhere to their beliefs. Communist China is sitting on volatile ethnic divisions. Repressing these divisions will only blast off the myth called harmony, which the Chinese government embraces.