Economist - Is China fraying?

Racial killings and heavy-handed policing stir up a repressed and dangerous province

IT BEGAN as a protest about a brawl at the other end of the country; it became China’s bloodiest incident of civil unrest since the massacre that ended the Tiananmen Square protests 20 years ago. The ethnic Uighurs in the far western city of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, accused Han Chinese factory workers in the southern province of Guangdong of racial violence against Uighur co-workers. By the time Urumqi’s Uighurs had finished venting their anger, more than 150 people were dead and hundreds more injured.

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Under the constrain of one China

After the Tibet unrest in 2008, rioting in Xinjiang snore out in June 2009. The Beijing government has been busy handling these events. Learning from previous experiences, Beijing government has been increasingly able to manipulate the international media in order to control opinion toward China. However, the fundamental cause of these events is the Beijing government’s paranoid concept of one China.

It is important to notice that China was never a one nation state. It includes several ethnic groups including Han Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Uighur, etc. On the surface, China gives Tibetans and Uighurs the right of self-rule. In fact, the unequal socioeconomic state between Han Chinese and these minorities usually gives Han Chinese a dominant position. Ignoring their differences and strongly holding them together are what China is trying to do.

There are two main reasons explain why China strongly opposes to the independence of Xinjing and Tibet. First, although both Tibet and Xinjiang are composed mainly of mountains and deserts, they account for 40% of China’s territory. This is not to mention their enormous strategic importance on the border of South and Central Asia.

Secondly, to stop Xinjing and Tibet from going independence implies the Beijing government’s similar attitude toward Taiwan, since the Beijing government considers Taiwan as a part of China. Maintaining a total consistency in One China policy fits well with China’s best interests.

Following the growth of its economy, China has gained an increasingly important role in the world. Even the US has a lot of issues that they need to work with China. Therefore, when China describes the Xinjiang unrest as an outside threat and connects its internal problems with a global agenda like anti-terrorism, they can claim legitimacy is cracked down on disorder.