Intel Brief: Chinese repression of Uighurs

Despite historical, ideological and practical differences with Russia, China is mirroring one of its more problematic policies, an action unnoticed by the international community: the relocation of ethnic Chinese into Uighur-dominated Xinjiang.

Just as oil-rich Kazakhstan was settled by massive influxes of ethnic Russians during the Soviet period, which by the 1990s numbered nearly 60 percent of that nation's population, ethnic Chinese are settling in Xinjiang, an autonomous northeastern province in China inhabited mostly by Uighur Muslims, at a rate of 7,000 per day.

The area, also known as East Turkestan, borders Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan as well as Russia.

When China officially annexed Xinjiang in 1949, there were 300,000 ethnic Chinese in the region. But in 2006, official Chinese statistics indicated that the region's population comprised 8.7 million Uighurs and 7.5 million ethnic Chinese.

Increasing repression by the Chinese state has driven the traditionally peaceful and secular Uighur Muslims to identify deeper with their faith: It has also driven them to poverty and possible rebellion. Many observers predict a violent reaction in the wake of China's relocation policy in the region.

War on terror or war on Uighurs?

Under the banner of anti-terrorism and anti-separatism, China has embarked on a policy of suppressing religious freedom.

Government regulations intended to "manage religion and guide it in being subordinate to the central task of economic construction, the unification of the motherland, and the objective of national unity" were instituted in 2000.

During the past decade, "re-education" camps have appeared in the region, containing thousands of Uighurs suspected of "separatism" and "extremism." Crimes that can land one in such a prison or justify torture or execution include teaching religious practices to minors; holding unauthorized religious ceremonies or celebrating holidays; dressing in an "Islamic" fashion; wearing a beard; or reading banned versions of the Koran.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US and subsequent events in Spain and the UK have enabled China to cloak these repressive actions as part of their cooperative efforts in the global war on terror, which has in turn enabled them to go uncontested in the West.

Access to natural resources important factor

Xinjiang is known to contain vast gas and oil fields as well as huge deposits of gold, coal and iron ore. Access to oil and its necessary transit routes also provide impetus for Chinese repression. According to Sun Longde, president of the PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Company in Xinjiang, a subsidiary of state-owned PetroChina, "The Tarim River Basin [in Xinjiang] alone is expected to produce about 750 million barrels of oil by 2010." Longde notes that this is almost equal to China's total 2006 oil imports.

Virtually all the workers in the Xinjiang oil industry are imported Han Chinese, another frustration for Uighurs as they watch nearly 85 percent of oil revenues from their province flow to Beijing. Local government officials state that 65 percent of these funds flow back in the form of transfers for building local infrastructure, but the roads and bridges are mainly used for transporting local resources out and for construction of an oil pipeline to Shanghai that is scheduled to be fully operational by 2010.

Soil conditions in the region are ideal for growing cotton, a traditional Uighur crop. Even though many cotton farms are still owned by Uighur farmers, ethnic Chinese are increasingly taking them over. They also have greater access to the Chinese commodities market and state management agencies and are beginning to dominate this industry.

The Uighurs, as Turkic-speaking Muslims, have always had a wide cultural, linguistic and geographic divide from their Chinese counterparts. However, the area's natural resources, so necessary for China's continued industrial growth, have made the region a far more valuable conquest target in recent years. These historical differences are likely to greatly diminish in coming generations with the Chinese relocation policy at the expense of the Uighur national identity.

Traditionally, nationalist groups such as the East Turkestan Independence Movement (ETIM) have focused on stemming the loss of Uighur culture. However, al-Qaida's funding and training of such groups for the past decade has provided an impetus to begin emphasizing Islamic elements in their ideology to attract more aid. This enables China to label ETIM members and the Uighurs at large "terrorists." It also allows the US to ignore their struggles.

The US government is aware of the situation in Xinjiang. However, unlike the Uighurs' next door neighbor Tibet, for which the US Congress passed the Tibetan Policy Act, the US has taken no concrete actions in support of the Uighurs. Congress has held half a dozen hearings on the Uighur issue in the past five years and US President George W Bush has met once with an Uighur human rights activist and Nobel Prize nominee.

There is great concern in China that the ETIM will use the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an ideal occasion to bring their struggle to international attention. Although it would be insurmountably difficult to transport significant arms caches to the capital, an attack on the oil infrastructure while the spotlight is on China would bring attention to the movement.

In June 2007, a large supply of explosives and arms was discovered in Xinjiang with clear ties to the ETIM. As a result, detentions and crackdowns on even small public gatherings have increased over the past year.

History in danger of repeating itself

China's conduct toward its Uighur population is clearly akin to treatment of Jews in post-WW I Germany and Armenians during the Ottoman Empire. The obvious similarities are the Uighurs' minority religion, language and culture as well as their non-Asiatic, Turkic appearance. Historically, however, their victimization may reach back, like the Jews and the Armenians, to the Uighurs' traditional role as the region's moneylenders in China at the height of the Silk Road's prominence in AD 600-900 (Thubron, Colin. “Shadow of the Silk Road.” HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY: 2007).

Despite the lessons of history, it is highly likely that China will continue its counterproductive policies and drive increasing numbers of moderate, peaceful Uighurs into self-radicalization and affiliation with groups that promise the equipment and training to deliver them from the perceived Chinese threat to their economy and their national and cultural identity.