Column:

Tibet not the only region seeking independence

By Phil Klopfenstein

Published Oct. 23, 2009

I think many of us have heard of the "Free Tibet" movement. The Dalai Lama has become a world icon, and Tibet, a region of western China hoping for independence, is even better known than many sovereign nations. A few years ago I had a friend who received membership to some sort of "Free Tibet" organization for a birthday present. His enthusiasm for the gift was significantly less than that of the gift-giver.

Tibet is not the only western region of China seeking independence. There is also East Turkestan. Haven't heard of it? How about under the name Xinjiang province of China? What if I say Uyghurs? Now some people are starting to recognize names. Uyghurs are a Turkic people, related to their Turkic neighbors in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, but not related to the Han Chinese who govern and oppress them.

The Han Chinese refer to East Turkestan as "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region." "Xinjiang" translates into "New Dominion" — a bit of an insult to this former sovereign state. And the designation of "autonomous" (which China also grants to Tibet) is also misleading, reminiscent of the Soviet Union's token "autonomous republics."

In this "autonomous region," the indigenous Uyghurs suffer Han Chinese incursions. The Chinese government has begun the Western Big Development Project, which at first glance appears to be an effort to improve economic output and development of East Turkestan and other regions containing significant non-Han populations. But upon closer inspection, this program reveals itself as efforts to aggressively diffuse Han populations, values and economic domination into these regions in efforts to complicate efforts at self-determinism and separatism. The incoming Han also enjoy their exploitations of East Turkestan's mineral-rich landscape. As a result of this program, Uyghurs now face discrimination in education and employment, living as second-class citizens in what was once their own country.

And some might have heard of The People's Republic of China's aversion to religion within its borders. The religious repression that has become common in China has caused outcry in the case of Tibet, sending the Dalai Lama into exile. East Turkestan is not so fortunate as to have a charismatic world-renowned leader make its case known. The Uyghurs, a Muslim people, have had to face violent crackdowns restricting public gatherings, religious ceremonies and even private prayers. Religious leaders have been forced to undergo "re-education trainings" administered by the Chinese government. All of these are characterized as human rights abuses of an authoritarian state against an indigenous minority population.

And did I mention East Turkestan also serves as China's atomic bomb testing site? Fall-out from these tests has resulted in wide-scale water contamination as well as cancer and birth defects among the Uyghur population. And the Chinese policy of a one-child-to-one-family ratio applies even in the far west of East Turkestan, where population density is considerably lower than among the Han of the east, in China Proper.

Certainly these are not the characteristics of an autonomous region, quite an insulting term considering the oppressive conditions the Chinese government enforces on the Uyghurs of East Turkestan. This kind of treatment deserves a world-wide outcry, and the Uyghur people deserve to have their culture, autonomy and basic human rights defended.