Beijing's plans for Xinjiang province

6-23-2017     

6-23-2017     Chen Quanguo (shown; photo at SCMP, 1-3-17), new Party Secretary for Xinjiang, now plans to bring millions of tourists to Xinjiang in order to "dilute" the Uyghur characteristics.  In a "White Paper on Xinjiang" recently published by Beijing, the Communist Party hides its failure by saying: “Legitimate rights of religious organisations have been effectively safeguarded. Xinjiang has published translations of the religious classics of Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity in multiple languages,” adding 1.76 million copies of the Quran have been printed and distributed.

Once in Urumqi, Chen immediately started applying the formula that he used in Tibet to Xinjiang.  But what is this recipe?

First, Chen transformed the Roof of the World into a vast Disneyland. In 2006, the arrival of the train on the plateau changed everything for Beijing and unfortunately for the Tibetans. Wave after wave of Chinese tourists could be poured into Tibet to experience the "Paradise on Earth" with its blue sky, pristine lakes and rivers, its luxuriant forests and deep canyons (the latter in Southern Tibet).

In 2016, 25 million tourists, mainly from the Mainland, are said to have visited the Land of Snows. For this, infrastructure needed to be developed, airports opened, four-way highways constructed, hotels and entertainment parks built; this was done in Tibet on a war-footing.

In passing, the Tibetan intangible heritage had to be preserved, often with Chinese characteristics.  The same formula has now to be replicated in Xinjiang.

Second, in order to "stabilise" the plateau, Chen imposed restrictions on the local population like never before.  Similar policies will be used in Xinjiang.  Human Rights Watch (HRW), an organisation based in the US, just released a "glossary" of special slogans or "formulations" (tifa) used by the Chinese officials and the media when referring to party policies on the plateau.

HRW explains:  “China’s authorities place extraordinary emphasis on the importance of ‘propaganda’ in sustaining their rule. This phenomenon is particularly evident in Tibet, where there has been a long history of human rights violations, extreme hostility towards political rights, and heavy restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and access to information.”

"Poetic" tifas such as Social Management, Comprehensive Rectification, Preventive Control, Eliminate-Unseen-Threats, Nets-in-the-Sky-Traps-on-the-Ground or Copper-Ramparts-Iron Walls, are recurrently used. The latter one for example, translates into “an impenetrable public security defense network consisting of citizen patrols, border security posts, police checkposts, surveillance systems, internet controls, identity card monitoring, travel restrictions, informant networks, and other mechanisms.”

The implementation of these tifas, which originated during Chen’s tenure in Tibet, is often dreadful... but efficient for Beijing….

But on the ground the situation is different.  To take just one example, Beijing has decided to collect DNA samples from all Xinjiang’s residents. This week Xinhua reported China's decision to dispatch 10,000 teachers to the restive Xinjiang UAR and Tibet AR “to support local education could help solve the educational problems.”  Language, in Tibet or Xinjiang, is an instrument of assimilation.

Chen is also working hard to improve the infrastructure.  Last week, Xinhua announced the construction of 10 new airports to be built in Xinjiang by 2020; further, six older airports will be renovated and expanded.  https://www.dailyo.in/politics/china-tibet-xinjiang-uyghurs-belt-and-road-initiative-obor/story/1/17965.html

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3-28-2017  In 2014, the Chinese authorities had asked the Muslim students to not observe the fast in the month of Ramadan, a month of fasting in Islam.  Like Tibet, the percentage of Han Chinese has increased in the past few decades.

Like Tibet Xinjiang is also has reserves of many minerals.  The Chinese have been exploiting the region’s rich resources but the locals have not really benefitted from it.

The Chinese authorities have put to use the same oppressive policies with Uyghurs like they have been doing with Tibet.  But what warrants attention here is the scale of oppression.  Everything that they have done in Tibet is magnified here.  http://www.tibetanjournal.com/china-extending-tibet-policies-muslims-uyghur/

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