Uighur unrest threatens Beijing rulers’ biggest party for a decade

Uighur unrest threatens Beijing rulers’ biggest party for a decade
Jane Macartney: Analysis

Riots in the restive, mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang could hardly have come at a worse time for Beijing as the Government prepares to celebrate its biggest party for a decade.

Nothing must rain on its parade. After all, the planned march past the capital’s famed Gate of Heavenly Peace — Tiananmen — where Chairman Mao declared the founding of the People’s Republic on October 1, 1949, is to be trumpeted as a moment of national unity and patriotic pride. Signs that minority Turkic-speaking Uighurs in the far West are disgruntled contradict all the official messages of harmony and ethnic unity.

Propaganda mandarins will have to move into overdrive to calm fraying tempers in the far West, while security forces will be beefed up in troublespots — such as Xinjiang and Tibet — where local people with grievances might try to spoil the fun. After all, this is a moment when the nation’s 1.3 billion people must be seen, above all, to be happy and living together as one. Unrest threatens to jeopardise the whole fiesta.

Security officials will start to see conspiracies behind the riot. They will attribute the unrest to outside influences, to a small minority with ulterior motives.
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The chances are almost zero that the authorities will try to investigate why the Uighurs in this case, or the Tibetans last year, feel aggrieved.

Such analysis is at odds with the knee-jerk response to send in yet more troops and security reinforcements. They can afford to take no chances. With such an important anniversary looming, they will assess that this is no time to try to address possible grievances.

It is easier to attribute the troubles to a plot, implement a crackdown that will cow the populace and assure that no one dares to make trouble. They then have only to wait for the next outburst of ethnic strife, which will surely come.

* Have your say

xinjiang is chinese version of Eastern Turkestan but Turks was originally were in china so present china thinks that they can run the Turkick region buy them selves.If this region and Tibet becomes unstable it could like in the past histroy present china.Turks left china 1000AD and moved towards

suleyman tosun Beng, london, united kingdom

China ruled Xinjiang on and off. Look at the map of the Tang Dynasty. Why are the turks in Europe? Cause the Tang kicked them out of the steppe and triggered a massive Turkish migration to the west. The middle kingdom never directly ruled Tibet though.

James, Toronto, Canada

Xinjiang, like Tibet, is not part of Han China. Han China's historical boundary is defined by the Great Wall of China. Both Xinjaing and Tibet lie beyond the wall.
Unlike Tibet, Xinjiang is not a celebrity cause, even though it has just as much legitamacy to independence as Tibet, if not more!

Dr Albert Schadenfreude, London, United Kingdom