The Explainer: China's Xinjiang Problem
The
chilling warning of the Islamic State issued to the Chinese government of
launching terror attacks has turned spotlight on the ethnic cauldron that’s
engulfing the Xinjiang province in western China. The dangerous conflict
between the native Turkic Uighur and Beijing is symptomatic of the many dangers
that China faces because of its demographic and political policies.
While
Beijing blames the extremist Uighur Muslims for the terrorist violence, the
latter have accused the former of repression and use of excessive force against
them. They also blame the Chinese Government of resorting to demographic means
of subverting the Uighurs by destroying their ethnic identity in their own
ancient land. Also, they have charged the Chinese Government with economic
discrimination. For several years now, the Uighurs have called for secession
from China.
China launches ‘Go West’
policy
Taking a serious view of the Islamists’
call for secession of Xinjiang from China, Beijing has used, and
continues to use, demography as a controlling tool. To this end, they launched
the ‘Go West’ policy to encourage the migration of Han Chinese, which is the
biggest ethnic group in China, to Xinjiang.
The
policy of increasing the presence of the Han Chinese in a traditionally Turkic
Uighur-dominated province has paid rich dividends for Beijing. Such has been the impact of this policy that the Han
Chinese, who constituted a mere 6 per cent of the total Xinjiang population in
1955, now make up about 40 per cent of the total population in Xiajiang!
Economic impact of the ‘Go West’ policy
The sharp
rise in the population of the migrant Han Chinese has led to a massive loss of
economic opportunities for the native Turkic Uighurs. Today, most of the
provincial administrative jobs go to the educated Han Chinese; also, the Han
Chinese own major business and economic resources while the Turkic Uighurs languish
on the margins of the society.
Cultural impact of the ‘Go West’ policy
The
Uighurs are ethnically closer to the Islamic traditions of Central Asia than to
the cultural traditions of the ethnic Chinese groups. However, most Uighurs
practice a moderate form of Islam, unlike the ultra-orthodox Wahabbi type
(brought in from Saudi Arabia by religious extremists), which is followed by
the more radical elements in Central Asia.
In Xinjiang, Beijing keeps a hawk’s eye on the
mosques that dot
the landscape of the massive province. The secret services, Beijing’s eyes and ears, are always on the prowl looking for
secessionist and terror elements. Often, such is the control that Beijing extends
over the mosques that whenever there is violence, they are asked to close down
for an indefinite period.
Muslims are barred from observing fast in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan; in
some extreme cases, people are forced to shave off their beards and ordered not
to wear any garment that makes for public display of their faith (like
burqa/yashmak/hijab).
China and War on Terror
The
September 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. and the subsequent launch of the War on
Terror came in as a shot in the arm for Beijing. Soon after, in a
master-stroke, Beijing labeled the radical Islamists, especially the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) members, in Xinjiang as part of Al-Qaeda
network. As a result, the U.S. and major European nations banned the ETIM. By aligning its local
fight with the international effort against the Islamists, Beijing won the
sanction of the international community in its fight against the extremist
members among the Uighurs.
In fact, Beijing cited the capture of 22 Uighurs, reportedly linked to Al-Qaeda, by
the U.S. as evidence of the growing radicalisation of the Uighurs. However, Beijing suffered
a major embarrassment when the U.S. released these 22 Uighurs, after a long detention period at the Guantanamo Bay prison, when it found that they were not terrorists!
Cutting the ethnic umbilical cord
Over the
years, Beijing has strengthened diplomatic ties , especially economic ties, with
Central Asian nations, which are linguistically and ethnically linked with the
Uighurs.
To this
end, it took initiative to form the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO),
whose members include Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and
Tajikistan (all former Soviet provinces with majority Muslim populations). Over
the years, its diplomacy has paid off as these countries have cut off potential
sources of support for the Uighurs from radical sources in their territories.
The Pakistan Connect
In the
recent past, China also said, for the first time ever, that the Uighur
separatists underwent training in Pakistan’s numerous terrorist training camps.
Given that Pakistan considers China as an all-weather friend, the accusations shocked the Pakistani
establishment. However, this accusation is unlikely to change the relationship
equation between the two countries, though it is widely believed that Pakistani
leaders have been told by their Chinese counterparts in no uncertain terms that
such terror camps which export extremists to fight the Chinese State should be shut down immediately.
My Take
China is increasingly worried over the developments in Xinjiang. It
believes that if the Xinjiang problem is not tackled in the ‘right’ way, it has
the potential to ignite similar fires around its vast peripheral areas.
It is a fact that political rights need economic contentment, because together
they give a sense of belonging and empowerment to all involved. Appropriate
management of the needs and aspirations of varied groups is critical to the
State’s ability to ensure good governance and provision of security. In the
light of this, the major challenge that China today faces is to absorb and resolve the clashes that may arise
between contending interests between the Turkic Uighurs and ethnic Chinese
groups.