Nikkei, 2 October 2015

By Tetsuya Abe – The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in western China on Thursday marked the 60th anniversary of its establishment. Beijing emphasizes the benefits that it believes the region enjoys from a “high degree of autonomy” and economic development pushed by the central government. But ethnic conflict between Uighurs and Han Chinese might flare up again any time.

“In the past 60 years, Xinjiang has surged high and swept forward in history,” proclaimed Yu Zhengsheng, the fourth highest ranking figure in the ruling Chinese Communist Party in charge of religious groups and ethnic minorities. Yu was speaking at the anniversary event in Xinjiang People’s Hall, in the regional capital of Urumqi. He boasted that “glorious achievements have attracted worldwide attention.”

No matter how he presents the official party line, most ethnic Uighurs seem to resent Beijing’s clampdown on their religion and culture and its sinicization policies. People in the region, for example, are forced to use the Chinese language. More and more Uighurs are fleeing overseas.

In Thailand, local authorities suspect a recent bombing in Bangkok has something to do with illegal Uighur migrants into the country. China’s problems with Uighurs have begun to cause ripples overseas.

Information control

A 19-year-old Uighur girl came to Beijing in September to enter Minzu University of China. She is learning Chinese on the university’s preparatory course.

In Kashgar — the western part of the autonomous region — from which she hails, Uighurs make up 90% of all residents. However, she belongs to the generation of Uighurs that have been affected most by Beijing’s sinicization policies.

“I have never offered up a prayer,” she said. She was born into a relatively wealthy civil-servant family. Households of civil servants are banned from conducting religious acts. She has grown up without learning anything about what has happened to Uighurs in the autonomous region and across the world, probably because of information control by the Chinese government.

Ban on beards

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region was established in 1955 when the People’s Liberation Army marched into Xinjiang after winning the civil war against the Kuomintang-led government. As Yu mentioned in his speech, gross domestic product in the region is now 115.6 times that of 1955. However, a large number of Han Chinese have settled there since then, and the ethnic Uighurs as a percentage of the population have fallen below 50%. In reality, the region is effectively ruled by the Communist leadership, belying its “autonomous” title.

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Policy-Politics/Xinjiang-reaches-60-years-of-autonomy