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Xinjiang, China
As a barren and vast outpost of Central Asia, the
autonomous region of Xinjiang is located in China's
northwest corner. The influx of Han Chinese has been
extensive in recent decades as the extraction of oil and
gas in the resource-rich region, for example, has
increased. Tensions have arisen between the Han Chinese
and resident Uighurs, who have been disadvantaged in
economic development and feel that they are being
prevented from practicing their religion Islam. After
the Uighur separatists performed a series of acts of
terror, the Uyghurs' possibilities to exercise their
rights were further restricted.
Geography and population
The Autonomous Region of Xinjiang (Sinkiang) is
located in the northwest of China. With an area more
than three times the size of Sweden, the region makes up
a sixth of China. More than 90 percent of the area
consists of mountains, deserts and difficult terrain.
Of Xinjiang's approximately 21 million residents
(census 2010), most of the Turkish-speaking, Muslim
ethnic groups belong, of which Uighurs - one of China's
55 officially recognized minority people - is the
largest with 8-10 million. Chinese immigration in the
region has been strong in recent decades and just over
40 percent are estimated to be male Chinese. A few years
into the 2010s, China's leadership announced that
Uighurs would begin to move to provinces in China's
interior, as a way to increase integration with Han
Chinese and reduce Xinjiang's separatist efforts.
History and politics
The Uighurs in Xinjiang have often felt a greater
ethnic and cultural affiliation with their Central Asian
neighbors and strived for independence. In the early
2000s, several terrorist attacks, both in Xinjiang and
other parts of the country, were blamed on Muslim
"terrorists". From mid-2010, Beijing has tightened
surveillance in the region and launched a campaign
against "extremism" that has been heavily criticized in
the outside world.
Historically, Xinjiang has been an important link
between east and west. Here the desert caravans passed
with monks and traders on the mythical Silk Road. On
several occasions throughout history, Uyghurs have tried
to create a Muslim East Turkestan, but since the
takeover of the Communist forces in China in 1949,
Xinjiang has been incorporated into the People's
Republic. However, not all Uighurs have accepted the
Chinese regime, which is partly due to the fact that
they often did not receive the income from Xinjiang's
rich natural resources to the same extent as the native
Chinese. The dissatisfaction has been compounded by the
fact that the Chinese leadership restricted the Uyghurs
and other Muslim minorities' opportunities to practice
their religion.
Following the terrorist act in the United States in
September 2001, the Beijing Central Government accused
Uighur separatists in the region of staying in touch
with the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The regime thus
wanted to legitimize the fight against Xinjiang
separatists as part of the US-led global "war on
terrorism". In 2002, the UN labeled the separatist
organization the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a
terrorist movement.
In 2005, the Chinese authorities launched a tough
campaign to eradicate "the three evil things":
terrorism, separatism and religious extremism. But
violence and unrest continued. In 2007, 18 suspected
terrorists were killed in a police raid against a
suspected terrorist training camp and in 2008, 16 police
officers were killed in an attack in the city of Kashgar.
Extremist Uighur groups were suspected of being behind
the act.
In the summer of 2009, extensive clashes broke out
between Uighurs and Han Chinese in the city of Ürümqi.
About 200 people were killed and nearly 1,700 were
injured. The unrest began with around 3,000 Uighurs
protesting conflicts several weeks earlier in a factory
in southeastern China that resulted in the death of two
Uighurs. More than 1,400 people were arrested by the
police. 200 of them were later brought to trial for
participation in the riots. Following the riots in
Ürümqi, the Chinese regime responded by tightening
surveillance in the region.
During the first half of the 2010, several attacks
occurred, which according to the authorities had been
carried out by Uighur separatists. Violence also took
place outside Xinjiang. In the fall of 2013, a car of
Uighurs drove into a crowd of tourists at Tiananmen
Square in Beijing, and in the spring of 2014, 31 people
were killed in a knife attack by five Uighurs at Kunming
Railway Station in southwestern China. In Xinjiang, an
attack in Ürümqi when cars drove straight into a market
square with Han Chinese led to 39 people losing their
lives. The perpetrators were Uighurs according to the
authorities.
Security forces continued at the same time as the
strike against Uighurs. In the summer of 2014, some 60
"terrorists" and a large number of civilians were killed
in connection with such a strike. China's leadership
claims that movements outside the country with links to
extreme Islamist movements are behind the violence in
Xinjiang and elsewhere in the country. Some analysts
believe that the authorities are exaggerating the threat
to have an excuse to strike against Uighur opposition.
Following the 2014 attacks, the Beijing government
switched to a new, broader tactic aimed at stopping all
"extremism" in the region in order to maintain stability
and order. The primary means to achieve this was to try
to assimilate Uighurs and other ethnic minorities. This
meant counteracting various forms of religious and
cultural expression even more than before. The
possibilities for Uyghurs to use Uyghur in society were
tightened and it was forbidden to teach Uyghur in the
school. In addition, the police's grip on the region was
further strengthened and various forms of surveillance
were implemented such as camera surveillance and face
recognition technology.
From 2016, regular Uighurs who had shown signs of
some "abnormal behavior", such as reading a lot in the
Qur'an or dressing in an Islamic manner, began to be
taken to special so-called retraining camps where they
could be locked up for a year or longer without any
legal investigation. Reports that leaked from these
camps to the outside world towards the end of the 2010s
testified to difficult conditions and abuse. According
to human rights organizations, including Human Rights
Watch, nearly one million Uighurs and other ethnic
minorities were detained in such camps.
China's detention camps have been severely criticized
by human rights organizations and admitted to the UN.
When the UN Human Rights Council met in the summer of
2019, 22 countries wrote a joint letter demanding that
the blockade in camps and abuses be stopped. In the fall
of 2019, the United States imposed restrictions on
obtaining visas for Chinese regime officials linked to
the detention of Uighurs and other minorities in
Xinjiang. Chinese companies that, for example, provide
the security service with technical monitoring
equipment, were also blacklisted.
The Chinese leadership initially denied the existence
of the camps, but after a while changed strategy by
claiming that it was in fact a form of boarding school
providing training in various professions and in Chinese
as a way to prevent terrorism and extremism from
becoming attached among vulnerable groups. Many Uyghurs
find it difficult to get a job, and the dominance of the
Chinese by the Chinese continues to be high, which
ignites tensions between the two ethnic groups.
Economy
Xinjiang is rich in natural resources. Here are
several important minerals such as coal, iron, zinc,
chromium and nickel and, not least, China's largest
reserves of oil and natural gas. Agriculture also plays
an important economic role with, among other things,
large cotton and lavender crops. Sheep management is
widespread and the region produces wool for the rest of
the country. For several years, major investments have
been made in developing industries and expanding
infrastructure in the region.
Xinjiang's geographical location on the northwestern
border of China has meant that the region has long been
of great importance for China's trade westward with
other Asian countries and Europe. The city of Kashgar
was an important hub for trade along the historic Silk
Road as camel caravans carried goods back and forth
between China and Europe. Today, the city and the entire
Xinjiang region are an important link in China's new
so-called Silk Road Initiative (BRI). The huge prestige
project was launched in 2013 and will link and build
transport routes, gas pipelines, power plants, ports and
more to facilitate trade and transport between Asia,
Europe and Africa, across both land and sea. From
Kashgar, one of the Silk Road Initiative's so-called
economic corridors runs to Pakistan and two more such
corridors start from Xinjiang. As part of this, Beijing
has invested considerable resources in infrastructure
investments in the region. These include highways and
lines for high-speed trains. |
