While the dust seems to have settled in Xinjiang, fresh sandstorms may threaten to sweep across religio-cultural communities both inside and beyond the western province. The signs are indeed ominous. Al Qaeda jumped into the fray while Turkey, a country friendly with China yet with strong ethnic ties with the Turkic-speaking Uighurs in Xinjiang, became China’s most strident critic.
Xinjiang not only holds one-sixth of China’s territory, one third of oil reserve and 40% of coal, it is also China’s throat through which Central Asia oil and gas pass through to her energy-hungry industrial eastern seaboard. Neighboring the province is politically-sensitive Tibet with its perennial problem of similar ethnic discord. With mounting riot death tolls and reports of heartless terrorist-styled killings, it was no surprise that President Hu had to abandon his scheduled attendance at the G8 in Italy to hurry back home to nip the looming crisis in the bud.
The unrest brims with irony. What sparked all this off were the 800 Uighurs working in a Guangdong factory as part of an affirmative action program providing jobs, board and lodging for minorities hit by the global financial and economic crisis. Other preferential treatments include bonus scores for university entrance and exemptions from China’s One Child Policy.These preferences are denied the local Han Chinese. The exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer is Xinjiang’s richest lady, who made her fortune in Xinjiang and managed to raise 11 children in the process, an obvious beneficiary of China’s minority affirmative action program.
Over the past several decades, rapid economic development has greatly improved the life expectancy, healthcare, education and other Human Development Indices in the province. However, whatever preferential policies have obviously failed to respond to a sense of marginalization, erosion of ethnic and cultural pride, and relative economic, religious and cultural deprivation, as the local ethnic community is swamped by the settlement of millions of Han Chinese, who have risen from 6% to over 40% of the province’s population. In the capital Urumqi, Han Chinese now number over 70 % .They are generally more skilled and educated as well as much better connected with China’s mainstream business networks. They are thus much better placed for most of the jobs and economic opportunities in both the public and private sectors created by the booming energy and infrastructural development in the province.
Matthew D. Moneyhon, J.D. considers the perceived loss of ethnic and cultural identity as the most important of Kriesberg’s Four Conditions of Social Conflict underpinning the disquiet in Xinjiang. (Taming China’s Wild West: Ethnic Conflict in Xinjiang, University of Hawaii, 2003).As the local community has become much more connected with the outside world in terms of the economy as well as improved transport and telecommunications, there are rising ethnic expectations which cannot be satisfied by a few preferential policies.
Moreover, following the collapse of the former USSR, the emergence of new Central Asia states with ethnic ties to the Uighurs has fuelled aspirations for a greater degree of autonomy. While the vast majority of Uighurs are not separatists, there is growing discontent that the majority of the ethnic population have become losers in this rapid development of the West Region. If not handled well, this is an Achilles heel which may risk being exploited to the full by outside forces.
Thus, while the Chinese authorities need to restore law and order and deal firmly with any deliberate acts of terrorism, time is running out for better economic integration of the Uighurs as well as their civic empowerment. Redoubled efforts are needed to provide them with the education and training required to compete better in the changing job market. More activities will need to be organized to promote and celebrate ethnic and cultural diversity. Above all, a much larger measure of genuine autonomy will need to be introduced, especially at the local, township and village levels, supported by open channels of communication for any grievances to be addressed effectively.
The other side of the coin is the need to educate the Han Chinese and indeed the whole nation for a better understanding of the social complexities leading to ethnic discord. Indeed, one of the reasons for the flare-up in Guangdong was an ill-conceived sense of Uighur ‘ingratitude’ despite the government’s preferential policies.
China is a nation of 56 different races and ethnic groups with the Han accounting for 92% of the population. Most of these ethnic groups have been living in relative harmony with each other; otherwise the whole country would have long imploded, let alone growing continuously for all these decades. In the long run, repression and control of ethnic discontent are prone to breed further dissatisfaction and violence. National ethnic harmony and unity will only come about with more enlightened policies designed to embrace a true spirit of multiculturalism and ethnic diversity by promoting economic, religious, cultural, civic and political empowerment of the minorities. Only in this way will the different ethnic groups, especially the Uighurs and the Tibetans, genuinely feel that they are part of the Chinese family as they are proud of their ethnic and cultural differences.
www.andrewleunginternationalconsultants.com
