China. Hetian. The uncomfortable co-existence of Han and Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province. May 2009
This week’s photo comes from a region of China that has shot straight into the headlines over the past 24 hours. The region is Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province . In Chinese, its name means “new land” or “new frontier” and it is one of the most exciting, beautiful and interesting provinces in the whole of the country, however it is also one of the country’s most volatile.
Last night, clashes broke out on the streets of the province’s capital, Urumqi, between crowds of Uyghurs (the province’s Turkic ethnic group) and the police. Initial reports stated only 3 people had died, but reports are now saying that at least 140 have been killed. Violence and unrest are not new to the province. Just last year, eight people were killed in a series of bomb attacks, launched by supposed separatist militants at local police in the town of Kuqa in the south of Xinjiang. This new wave of violence is not a surprise to China watchers as tensions in the province have continued to simmer and occasionally, like last night, started to boil over.
The tensions stem from the uneasy co-existence between the Uyghur ethnic groups of the region and the Han Chinese, whose numbers increase in the province year-on-year. Historically there have been clashes between the two groups as a result of their differences in terms of religion and politics, pushing them further apart and causing a level of distrust and dislike between the two groups. Separatist groups in the region and their alleged links to the Taleban (China borders Afghanistan and Pakistan) have given the authorities the excuse to clamp down on the region since September 11th and the ‘war on terror’ , enabling them to keep a watchful eye on the Muslim Uyghur population.
I spent two weeks in Xinjiang in May, during my coverage of ‘China’s Growing Sands’. What I discovered was a unique land so different to the east of the country, that it was easy to forget that you were in China. The influence of Islam in the province has created a special culture, which in many ways seems completely separated from the rest of the country. Also, depending on where you are in the province, you can palpably feel the divide between the two groups. In the eastern city of Korla for example, the town is dominated by Han (with a ratio of Han to Uyghur at about 4:1), a result of the increasing exploitation of oil in the region, drawing Han from the east, to capitalise on the financial opportunities in the city. Travelling to the south of the province, approaching the borders with Pakistan and Nepal, the balance is switched with Uyghurs becoming the majority and Han the minority.
For most of the world, unrest in China has always recently been associated with other areas of the country , however the recent unrest in Xinjiang should remind the world there is yet another region of instability in China.
Covering nearly one-sixth of China’s land area, bordering 8 countries and sitting on vast oil reserves, Xinjiang is not a province that China is going to give up lightly or a place where it will allow instability to grow. For the people of Xinjiang, both Uyghur and Han, these are dangerous and worrying times.
