China Offers Work Placements And Mixed Marriage Incentives As Solutions For Its Xinjiang Problems
Forbes, 14 November 2014
Some of the 489 workers from Xinjiang prepare to board as they set off for Guangdong province to start new jobs. (Huang Guobao / Xinhua)
By Eric Meyer – On October 29, 2014 in Urumqi, 489 special travelers climbed on the slow train to Guangdong that takes 50 hours to cross the whole of China diagonally. All of them where Uighurs.They were making this trip in order to start a new life, which was a part of a national plan to spread Uighurs across the country.
The concept had been validated by Xi Jinping at a two-day forum on Xinjiang in May. Local governments were invited to offer young Uighurs work and educational opportunities so as “to enhance mutual understanding”. As one of the wealthiest provinces, Guangdong had committed itself to take 5000 of these individuals up to 2016. This year, a total of 1,000 have departed.
This scheme has been very carefully prepared at both ends of China. A similar attempt had been tried five years ago ended in failure. At that time, in a toy factory in Shaoguan (Guangdong), 800 Uighurs from Shufu (Xinjiang) had been attacked by the rest of the workers, mostly Han Chinese, who accused them of raping two Chinese women. Two Uighurs were killed and 120 were injured in a stampede that occurred during this incident. Protests had then followed in Xinjiang, leading to a very short and extremely violent upheaval in Urumqi that left 200 dead.
So before once again taking up this scheme, the Chinese Government spent five years reflecting on what had gone wrong earlier and trying to fix the problems.
The main step was carefully screening the future migrants in order to weed out notorious extremists. All those accepted for the program then underwent training on ethnic unity, law, and Han Chinese etiquette and manners. From Xinjiang, one local official would accompany 50 of the migrants, who are granted renewable permits to stay as long as they wish.
Concerning the plan’s quality and its chances of working, James Leibold, a foreign scholar with considerable expertise on Xinjiang, believes that many hurdles will have to be overcome on the path to success. For instance, the six Chinese companies who had agreed to accept the Uighur employees probably did not wholeheartedly acquiesce to the plan. They did so only after having their arms twisted and being guaranteed subsidies from the local government. And while the objective is to achieve a degree of mingling among the workers’ “social groups”, local officials will arguably wish to keep them separate, so as to avoid any trouble.
Another strange measure launched two months ago (beginning of September) is the offer by local governments in Xinjiang, such as the one in Qiemo, to give out 10.000 yuan per year for five years to couples in mixed marriages. This is a lot of money in a territory where average income last year totaled 7600 yuan. Adding this grant to the regular income of such a couple could quickly make them rich, at least by local standards.
Another series of benefits go beyond this annual payment. For example, 90% of the medical bills of these mixed couples will be covered by free insurance, and they will also receive housing benefits if the union lasts more than three years. Other perks include exemption from school fees within the county, a 3000 yuan yearly scholarship for their child(ren) reaching college followed by another one of 5600 yuan for those children reaching university.
This scheme, which has also been applied in Tibet, seeks to overcome the divide between Han Chinese and ethnic minorities in order to“increase interethnic contact, exchange and mingling” (交往交流交融) and was officially ratified at the Second Central Xinjiang Work Forum.
But can it work? Probably not, as it confuses some key issues. While it would be more than nice for young eloping people from both ethnic sides to receive such goodies, such benefits certainly cannot alone lead the potential couples to forget about the mistrust and prejudices which exist between Uighurs and Han Chinese. Besides, marriages based completely on money tend to be less durable than one based on true love and respect.
Conclusion: Incentives for mixed marriages, placement of Uighurs throughout Han Chinese regions and the high speed train to Urumqi, are all political investments by China’s rulers to secure peace and harmony among the troubled Uighur ethnic minority group. They leave no doubt about the total commitment of the CCP to solve the problem and succeed at both developing and integrating the Uighurs.
The problem here, however, is twofold. The Uighurs were not consulted on any of these initiatives and none of the measures addresses their core grievance, namely the feeling that they are being deprived of their land and culture. Thus, Beijing’s new palliatives for the Xinjiang problem will at worst fail and at best become just one element of a broader and more effective approach to winning Uighur loyalty. And that comprehensive solution has yet to be advanced.