How China Wins and Loses Xinjiang

If this author is so smart, you should read this article published on Times

“Search for Han Chinese sister whose family were butchered by Uighurs”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6677379.ece

“We saw hundreds of Uighurs running down the street on the afternoon of July 5. About ten suddenly rushed into the store. They began to hit the people inside, even the old mother, with bricks and stones. They tried to run outside. Then they were dragged back inside.

“There were terrible screams. Just wordless screams. But then very quickly they fell silent.”

“He found no survivors, only four bodies. He has yet to discover the fate of his sister. ”

This was once a tight-netted family of 5 with a boy of age 13.

The augument that Chinese society is becoming more volatile or unstable because of the Urumqi Riot or some ethnic falt lines (between Han Chinese and Uighur muslim thugs or tibetan monks) is utterly false. Quite on the contrary, the ughiurs thugs' barbaric butchering of (even a single) Han's family will be the rally cry that binds the Han Chinese society together -- just as the single barbaric tibetan attack on the handicapped Chinese athlete in Paris last year. An unjust, barbaric attack on a single Chinese will be taken as an attack on the entire Chinese Nation - it is the equivalent of the NATO Arcticle 5, multiplying by a billion times.

Yes, China is more diverse than many westerner think -- China is a continent that contains great diversity -- even among the 92% Han Chinese. For example, as a Chinese American fluent in Mandarin I could barely understand the dialects of southern Chinese. However, on the other hand, most westerners fail to understand that China is not a "nation state" in the traditional european sense, but a "civilization state". What has always bound the Chinese Nation together for the past 5000 years is the deep-rooted and irradicable sense of belonging to a "superior" civilization -- the Chinese Civilization.

Chinese society has its historically, highly distinctive position on race, where about 92 per cent of the population believe that they are of one race, and therefore, from which is the lack of a conception of, or respect for, difference that flows from other minorities. The deep sense of China as a unitary civilisation, together with a pervasive belief in Han superiority, leaves little room for the claims of other cultural groups. That is where most westerners fail to understand that Chinese draw our deep-rooted sense of belonging and identification not from some religions, nation states, dialects, founding father principles or universal human rights, but from our ancient history, culture and civilization. For the majority of Chinese, no matter where he is and what citizenship he has -- mainland, taiwan, hongkong, or european or American -- he is, first, last and always, a Chinese. Ask a New York Chinese restaurant dish washer who he thinks he is, he will probably tell you, proudly, Chinese.

Han Chinese Dynasty comes and goes every several hundred years or so for the past 5000 years. Chinese probably have endured more civil wars and internal turmoils than any other civilization. However, whenever faced with an existential threat, attack or challenge to the "superior" Chinese way of life, the entire Chinese Nation has always rallied around the flag of Chinese Nationalism. That is why no other unitary civilization state, except China, has survived the entire 5000 years' human history.

The witless, end-of-history triumphalism that shaped western attitudes in the post-Cold War era is always good for a belly laugh and is nowhere more misplaced than in regard to China. History is on the move again – and it is not the delusional, teleological, self-congratulating history dreamt up by either the dimwitted, self-righteous neocons on the right or the naive,self-glorifying liberal rationalists on the left, which somehow always meets with themselves as the winners in the middle. The 21st century Pax Sinica is the real thing, a world-changing event that marks the end of dominance of western civilizaton.

This is the ultimate. This is the clash of the wild dogs. Chinese versus Muslims.

It is so typical of China that they want to grab every bodies rights every time, and they could not care a penny in slaughtering thousands of innocent people, as long as it concerns the interests of a greater China.

It is so typical of Islam that all most everywhere that Muslims are a majority they behave like criminals, and all most everywhere that Muslims are a minority, they behave like irritants

The extremely important point is, the West should analyze this extremely valuable laboratory study of Chinese versus Muslims. Don’t you think we can then formulate a policy in dealing with Islam at least ( as China is not a threat to the entire civilized world, only a threat to its indigenous population )

I am an ethic Han born in China. The author is objective and his comments are mostly on target. As the author mentioned that CCP/the government is suspicious of all religions and will try everything to minimize the religious influence. However, I don't believe it singles out Islam for suppression. After 9-11, the government may have over-reacted to the terrorist/separatist threats. While I think that action to put a big TV screen opposite the Mosque is 50% intentional and 50% insensitive I don't believe to serve meal in school during the Ramadan purposed offense.

Like last year’s Lhasa riots, the root of racial tension that exploded in July 5 in Urumqi is mainly a consequence of economic inequality between immigrants (Hans and Huis) and locals (Tibetans and Uighurs). The Chinese government has tried to promote development in minority areas, but it failed critically in 2 issues, IMO: rigid power control and failed mandarin education. Minorities should have more presentations in the regional autonomous governments, and the managements on minority affairs should mostly handled by minority officials. I don’t see the central government’s minority policies are aimed to assimilate minorities. In contrary, it has invested heavily not only in economic development, but also in cultural reservations in minority regions, particularly Tibet and Xinjiang (compared with it did in Han dominated areas). However, the insensitivity and ignorance of local officials executing minority policies erase all such efforts and perceived by minorities as insulting and disrespectful. Failure in mandarin education results in minorities having less chance to get government and corporate jobs and difficulties in doing business with government and corporate due to lack of necessary language skills. When the minorities are suspicious about government's intention, pushing for mandarin education is viewed as evidence that the government tries to wipeout minority cultures, and is met great resistance (the government mandate schools in minority regions INCLUDE mandarin teaching, not replace minority languages with mandarin as many Western media claimed).