SECURITY DILEMMA AND SECURITIZATION IN CHINA'S UYGHUR ISSUE IN XINJIANG PROVINCE
By Charlotte Langridge via securityobserver
The North Western Xinjiang http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang province of CHINA has had a turbulent past. First occupied by the Western Han Dynasty in 104BC and ruled by a series of dynasties and empires in the years after the Han fell. Xinjiang declared independence in the form of the EASTERN TURKISTAN REPUBLIC in the early 20th century, but was brought back under CHINESE rule in 1949 by the Communist Party and on October 1, 1955 the Xinjiang UYGHUR Autonomous Region (XUAR) was born. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people) Troubles in the region are similar to those in TIBET with all the strategic importance for the CHINESE state but without, until recently, the publicity.
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UYGHURS IN XUAR ARE PREDOMINATELY SUNNI MUSLIM
Xinjiang is inhabited by all of CHINA’S 56 ethnic groups, with the UYGHUR population of 9.832 million and the HAN population of 8.363 million comprising the two largest. The UYGHURS in XUAR are predominately Sunni Muslim, following the binding ideologies of Pan-Islamismand Pan-Turkism that make them culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.
The region is of strategic importance for many reasons. It comprises one sixth of China’s land mass, comparable to the size of IRAN, it shares its borders with five Muslim countries: KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, TAJIKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, and PAKISTAN. As such it is a gatekeeper to the countries along the Silk Route and the Islamic Circle. XUAR has vast natural resources: it holds 250 million cubic meters of timber reserves, 38 percent of the nation’s coal reserves, and is CHINA’S second highest oil producing region and highest natural gas producing region. Moreover, it is set to become CHINA’S largest oil and gas production and storage base by 2015, and is therefore of high importance for CHINA’S energy security.
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The CHINESE state has been accused of intensifying its crackdown on the UYGHURS after street protests and an attack on a local border police headquarters that killed 16 police officials in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. On July 5, 2009, the tensions between the majority and minority groups reached a breaking point, erupting into several riots in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. It is estimated, by the CHINESE media, that 197 people were killed, and, according to the BBC, 25 people were sentenced to death.
This article assesses ethnic tensions in the province with reference to two theories: security dilemmas and securitization.
SECURITY DILEMMAS
A security dilemma typically occurs between two states, disposing them to a cyclical condition “in which the self-help attempts of states to look after their security needs tend, regardless of intention, to lead to rising insecurity for others as each interprets its own measures as defensive and measures of others as potentially threatening”. Although the theory was developed to explain state security, it can also be adapted to analyze human security within a state or region. In this situation, we have an “intra-state security dilemma”, referring to the climate of insecurity brooding between the CHINESE state and the UYGHUR population in XUAR rather than between two states with formal armies and defense budgets. Any move towards independence by the UYGHUR decreases the security of the CHINESE state as it risks losing a region of strategic importance. In contrast, any restrictive policy on religion and increased Han immigration decreases the security of the UYGHUR.
If the UYGHUR’S right to practice religion is threatened, their identity is consequently threatened. In terms of religious restrictions there has been progress from the CHINESE government allowing the building of Mosques, and the stipulation of “freedom of religious belief” in state law. Yet, this development is in contradiction with the six prohibitions and three restrictions placed on the door of a Mosque in Keriya, including prohibiting access for government officials, students or youths under 18 of any activity within the Mosque and the restriction of Salaat-ul-Jumma (“Friday prayer”) to only 30 mins. Furthermore, Muslim men may not grow breads and women may not wear veils. This is seen as a direct insult on the culture and identity of the UYGHUR people, resulting in their increased insecurity.
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The policies which threaten UYGHUR identity are serving to increase Beijing’s security. The CHINESE government sees PAN-TURKISM and PAN-ISLAMISM as the basis for separatism in Xinjiang, viewing it as the vehicle for disintegration of the CHINESE state and a source of insecurity. As highlighted above, XUAR is of great strategic importance to CHINA; therefore losing XUAR would severely compromise CHINA’S energy security and economy, as it is highly dependent on energy-intensive industries. Not only is Xinjiang a source of oil and gas, it is also a critical passage route for oil and gas pipelines from RUSSIA and KAZAKHSTAN into CHINA that flow to Central and Eastern CHINA.
RELIGION AS THE MEANS FOR EXPRESSING ECONOMIC DISCONTENT
As the extractive industry in XUAR grows, so does the economic disparity between the HAN and UYGHUR populations, and large-scale immigration of HAN raises another factor increasing UYGHUR insecurity. Economic disparity and HAN immigration are said to be the true root of UYGHUR insecurity, and religion the means for expressing economic discontent. In addition, Beijing has actively encouraged HAN immigration to XUAR in order to increase stability in the region. Living standards have gradually improved in XUAR, yet most UYGHUR’S feel they have not benefited from the government Reform and Open-up Policyor West Development Campaign.
They feel these were aimed at a transfer of natural gas and oil from the UYGHUR to the HAN. Indeed, increased HAn immigration is a result of the expanding extractive industry in XUAR, and which has increased job availability. For example, the CHINA National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has increased its presence in the area since 2010 with the inception and completion of the Tarim Large Chemical Fertilizer Project in Korla, the CNPC – Urumqi Petrochemical Company xylene aromatics joint device and the South Xinjiang Gasification Project. Investment in the area, by CNPC, has been over 300 billion Yuan. This has resulted in predominantly HAN populated cites, Karamay, Urumqi and Shihezi, seeing their GDP per capita rise at a higher rate than many predominately UYGHUR-populated cities within XINJIANG. The situation will only intensify as power-intensive industries seek to relocate to XINJIANG. In addition to Han immigration, the growing economic disparity is also linked to minority language policy. The amount of jobs available to the UYGHUR population is limited – a direct result of the fact that most UYGHUR do not speak Mandarin, a requirement for a skilled position. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_language
The CHINESE state has reacted to its sense of insecurity by limiting the UYGHUR identity via religious expression and increased HAN immigration to Xinjiang resulting from increasing jobs in an expanding energy production and storage industry. The Uyghur people have reacted to the Chinese state reforms in the form of protest.
UYGHUR ACTIVISTS ALLEGEDLY LINKED TO AL-QAEDA AND EASTERN TURKISTAN ISLAMIC MOVEMENT
Ethnic conflict and UYGHUR protest in XUAR have been securitized by the CHINESE state as terrorism. Securitization symbolizes “the staging of existential issues in politics to lift them above politics. In security discourse, an issue is dramatized and presented as an issue of supreme priority; thus by labeling it as security an agent claims a need for a right to treat it by extraordinary means”.
The nature of securitization legitimizes the use of extraordinary measures. Beijing has picked-up on the motifs and language of the global “war on terror”, and has been seduced by the ‘legislative wildfire’, denoting the proliferation in legislation to better detect, prevent, prosecute and eradicate terrorism, sweeping the globe.
The UYGHUR activists have, as a result, been tarred with the same brush as Al-Qaeda, as the CHINESE regime alleges the EASTERN TURKISTAN Islamic Movement has become an arm of Al-Qaeda, receiving funding and training from them. Along these lines CHINA has attempted to ally with the UNITED STATES in the fight against terrorism, yet Washington has made it clear that non-violent separatist activities cannot be classified as terrorism. Furthermore, a conflation of UYGHUR activists and Al-Qaeda does not seem plausible as most UYGHURS lack interest in Salafist Islam, a prerequisite for involvement with the terrorist organization. In addition, the incidences that have taken place have been the actions of a few unorganized separatists within the large UYGHUR community; most groups do not advocate violence at all. The separatists that have formed are too small, dispersed and faceless, to be a threat to the CHINESE state.
Within the CHINESE media, the UYGHUR people have been framed as a criminal “other”. Projection of the criminal other onto the UYGHUR people creates an instant dividing notion. Violent illegitimate UYGHUR protestors are juxtaposed to peaceful law-abiding HAN citizens and the legitimate CHINESE state in an “us-versus-them” rhetoric. Moreover, by linking UYGHUR protestors to Al-Qaeda, CHINA locates the cause of unrest and projects responsibility for the riots outside the state, diverting attention from its internal social policies.
SECURITIZATION
By securitizing ethnic conflict in XUAR as terrorism the CHINESE state has sought to legitimize its use of “strike hard” campaigns and anti-terror legislation against the UYGHUR minority. For example, XUAR officials pledge to accelerate trails, increase criminal investigations, and conduct 24-hour police patrols, identity checks and street searches following the deployment of an elite counter-terrorism unit in Kashgar and Hotan. As a result of the legitimization of such discourse, the presence of human rights action and legislation has become increasingly scarce. Amnesty International throws doubt onto the legitimacy of many trials conducted in the wake of the July 2009 protests, and they claim many UYGHUR’S were given harsh sentences for “endangering state security” when they did nothing more than grant an interview to the media. Since July 2009 the CHINESE state has not allowed independent investigation into the events that occurred including the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters. The situation of decreasing human rights and increasing “strike hard” policies only contributes to the atmosphere of insecurity felt by the UYGHUR people.
UYGHUR – XUAR REGION OF GEO-STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE FOR CHINA
Ethnic conflict in XUAR is a contentious issue; there are causes for conflict on both sides. The region is of geostrategic importance to the Chinese state, with its access routes and vast natural resources. Furthermore, the secession of XINJIANG may lead TIBET and Inner MONGOLIA to follow as they too have histories of ethnic conflict; therefore the possibility of an independent XINJIANG greatly heightens the insecurity and threatens the integrity of the CHINESE state.
Having said this, the UYGHUR people also have great cause for their sense of insecurity. Integral parts of their identity are being attacked by the CHINESE government, namely their right to religious freedom. The minority language polices are also effecting the UYGHUR’S ability to obtain and retain skilled jobs, and as a result they are not experiencing the same rise in GDP per capita as their HAN counterparts. Furthermore, the CHINESE state has sought to frame the UYGHUR as foreign terrorists in order to legitimize their “strike hard” policies, bringing its legitimacy and its respect for human rights severely into question.
THE UYGHUR HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT LAUNCHES NEW CHINESE LANGUAGE WEBSITE
By The Uyghur American Association
The UYGHUR Human Rights Project (UHRP) is proud to unveil its new website in the Chinese language, which it hopes will build bridges between the UYGHUR and CHINESE communities as they strive to bring democratic reform to CHINA. UHRP believes a CHINESE language website will help to draw connections between the struggle for UYGHUR human rights and broader CHINESE democracy activism.
"The UHRP-CHINESE website is an important development in the UYGHUR movement for freedom, democracy and human rights," said UHRP director Alim Seytoff in a statement from Washington, DC. "It is a first-of-its-kind initiative to bring together research, original writing and news on the human rights issues that directly affect the UYGHUR and CHINESE people. UHRP hopes that through educating the CHINESE public on the plight of the UYGHUR, we will be able to counteract the demonizing effects of CHINESE government propaganda and seek meaningful solutions to the EAST TURKESTAN issue."
Regarding UHRP's new Chinese language website, Chang Chiu, Program Officer for ASIA
at the National Endowment for Democracy said:"The National Endowment for Democracy is pleased to congratulate and support the launch of the UYGHUR Human Rights Project's new CHINESE language website. The UYGHUR Human Rights Project is making an important effort to make its materials available to a CHINESE language audience. This website will help to promote greater understanding in CHINA of the unacceptable human rights conditions faced by the UYGHUR people."
CHINESE democracy and human rights activists also extended their support to UHRP's initiative to engage the Mandarin speaking community.
Yu Dahai, publisher of Beijing Spring magazine, commented:"Congratulations to the UYGHUR Human Rights Project on the launch of your CHINESE website! I believe this website will not only improve the human rights situation of the UYGHUR’S, but will also make an outstanding contribution to promote understanding and friendship between UYGHUR’S and HAN CHINESE."
Hu Ping, prominent writer and democracy activist, added:"Congratulations to the UYGHUR Human Rights Project on your new CHINESE language website—it will enable more CHINESE to hear your voice."
The new CHINESE language website focuses on the human rights research produced by UHRP, and will provide readers with the latest news affecting UYGHUR’S in EAST TURKESTAN. The site not only features UHRP's press releaseson recent developments in EAST TURKESTAN, but also its comprehensive reports on UYGHUR political, economic, social and cultural rights. In addition, the site links to UHRP's blog, through which UHRP plans to present commentary on UYGHUR-related issues from CHINESE, UYGHUR and Western contributors, in addition to staff members.
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