This week sees “a really solemn and horrible anniversary of the day when Uighurs in Urumqi went on the streets to have a peaceful protest and, unfortunately, were met with deadly live fire, which has been documented now in some new reports that are making clear the Chinese government is covering up what had happened,” said the National Endowment for Democracy’s Louisa Greve.

In an attempt to identify dissent and pre-empt early signs of unrest, Beijing is developing a grassroots network of officials across the largely Muslim frontier region of Xinjiang (also known as East Turkestan). It is pairing efforts to culturally assimilate the Uighurs with job creation programs and economic development initiatives which, analysts suggest, are unlikely to satisfy local grievances.

Beijing hopes that economic development will generate inter-ethnic harmony between Uighurs and Han Chinese. But observers suggest that the oil industry-generated boom around the Xinjiang city of Karamay is not easily replicated as Han Chinese migrants faced no resistance there from a tiny Uighur population.

“How can you use the same model in places with hundreds of thousands of Uighur residents?” says Ilham Tohti, an economist at Beijing’s Minzu University.

Economic development is unlikely to generate political dividends for decades, analysts argue.

The region’s education system disadvantages Uighurs. “Chinese high schools are run for just a few thousand Han Chinese, whereas districts with hundreds of thousands of Uighurs have only one high school,” says Tohti.

The Uighurs’ plight deserves greater attention from the international community, writes Carl Gershman, president of the National Endowment for Democracy.

“Chinese democrats and the Uighur minority are threatened by the extreme nationalism that the Beijing government incites to gain legitimacy in the absence of democratic authority derived from popular consent,” he writes. “The dialogue they have begun in exile needs to resonate in China through the extensive communication channels that the regime cannot altogether block, thereby countering nationalist hatred and reinforcing a common commitment to nonviolence and a different future for China.”

The international community should also support calls for an independent international investigation into the events of last July and the opening of a genuine dialogue with Beijing.

http://www.demdigest.net/blog/regions/beijing-strives-to-win-uighur-hearts-and-minds.html