China's Uyghurs: A turbulent history

China's Uyghurs: A turbulent history
Global News
Published: Monday, July 6, 2009
Chinese soldiers march in formation as they patrol the streets in Xinjiang, China on Monday.

Ethnic violence in China has reached its highest level in 40 years, but the relationship between the Uyghur minority and the Chinese government has always been a tempestuous one.

About 20 million people live in the Xingjiang region in western China, including most of China’s eight million Turkic-speaking Muslim Uyghurs. The region has gone back and forth between Chinese control and autonomous rule.

Turkic groups in Xingjiang declared independence in 1933, declaring the region the Islamic Republic of East Turkestan. But the region wouldn’t be autonomous for long, as China took control of the region the next year.

It wasn’t until 1944 when the region declared independence again, under the protection of the Soviet Union. But independence would again be short-lived, as the Chinese Communist party declared it a Chinese province in 1949.

The region was classified as an “autonomous region” of China in 1955, but many Uyghurs want to recreate in the independent Uyghur state.

Vast mineral and oil resources in Xingjiang have brought streams of migrant workers to the region made up mostly of the ethnic Han majority. Ethnic Hans and Uyghurs now compete for limited jobs and resources.

Further exacerbating the tension between the two groups is the level of inequality between them. Some observers blame unfair hiring practices, as Uyghurs are overlooked in favour of Han for more prominent positions, such as in the civil service.

Over the last several decades, separatist groups like the East Turkestan Islamic Movement have attacked the Chinese government. China, the U.S. and the UN all label the group a terrorist organization.

The Chinese government has linked the ETIM to al-Qaeda and has justified its actions against the group as part of the “war on terror.” Other experts disagree about the level of danger posed by Uyghur militant groups.

Huseyin Celil

Canadian citizen Huseyin Celil was arrested on terrorism charges in March 2007 while visiting his wife’s family in Uzbekistan. An ethnic Uyghur, he was extradited to China and sentenced to life in prison.

Celil was accused by the Chinese government of helping assassinate a political leader in Kyryzstan in 1994. He was arrested and imprisoned, but he escaped in 2000.

Celil applied for refugee status in Turkey in 2001, and made his way to Canada. He obtained his citizenship in 2005 and moved to Burlington, Ont.

His most recent imprisonment in China came amidst protests from the Canadian government, which maintains that Chinese authorities have not provided evidence of wrongdoing.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he has raised the issue with Chinese president Hu Jintao, and his family has vowed to continue to work towards his release.

But aside from incidents such as Celil’s, the plight of the Muslim Uyghurs has gone largely unnoticed by the media in recent years. Tibetan protesters garnered international attention in 2008 during the run-up to the Beijing Games, while demonstrations in Xingjiang were mostly ignored.