CHINA AND THE UYGHURS by MORRIS ROSSABI

Author:MORRIS ROSSABI
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
Published: 2021-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

UYGHUR PROTESTS START IN 1990

The relative calm after the Cultural Revolution began to unravel in 1989, the same year as the Tiananmen incident during which the PRC clamped down on students and others in Beijing’s main square. Peace in both the central part of the country and in Xinjiang had concealed dissatisfaction. The funeral in April of 1989 of Hu Yaobang, the moderate leader, had prompted tens of thousands to organize a march to Tiananmen, the principal square in Beijing, to protest his earlier dismissal from office in 1987. This demonstration would evolve into an occupation of the square in Tiananmen for a month and a half until the army and police cracked down on June 4. Government forces killed quite a number of protestors and observers in clearing the square. Hu’s death had also reverberated in Xinjiang because he had been the principal supporter and architect of the new policies for Uyghurs and other non-Han. An indication of the dissatisfaction of some Uyghurs was that one of the leaders of the Tiananmen square students was the Uyghur Wu’erkaixi (1968–), a student at Beijing Normal University who eventually migrated to Taiwan.

In Xinjiang itself, the non-Han had complaints despite the policy of reform since the Cultural Revolution. They noted that they had lower wages than the Han and had only limited access to high-level jobs because of a “glass ceiling.” They protested that some of the bingtuan controlled the most skilled and highest paying jobs in energy and mineral and natural resource extraction. Their rate of unemployment was also higher than those of the Han. Han employers countered that many positions required knowledge of the Chinese language, which ruled out many Uyghurs. Employers argued that they did not discriminate and that the non-Han often did not possess the education for employment that required advanced skills. The government asserted that its policy of affirmative action in education and employment was designed to remedy such difficulties. Finally, the government argued that it had invested considerable sums in energy and infrastructure projects in Xinjiang in order to bolster employment. Yet some Uyghurs and other non-Han did not find these arguments persuasive. They asserted that discrimination, pure and simple, prevented their economic advancement. As in the past, they were concerned about the continuing Han migration and the expanding role of Han in the economy and the system of justice.

Social and religious, not economic or educational, issues actually led to violence. Although the government had devised a one child per family policy in 1980, it had not been applied to the Uyghurs and other minorities. By the late 1980s, however, the central authorities sought to limit the so-called national minorities to two or three children, which the Uyghurs considered to be a threat to their survival. At the same time, the government began to perceive Islam as a subversive force promoting what it called “splittism,” or separation from China to organize an independent state. The establishment of mosques or meeting places that did not register with the government concerned the state and Communist Party authorities in Xinjiang.

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