All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
Resistance, repression, and the cycle of violence in the Uyghur Struggle
On Tuesday, September 26, 2014 a Chinese court convicted Ilham Tohti, a Uyghur economics professor, to a life sentence on charges of separatism in a disgracefully political trial. Amnesty International’s China researcher William Nee wrote, “This shameful judgment has no basis in reality.
Ilham Tohti’s Statement after Receiving a Life Sentence for Allegedly “Separatist” Crimes
Following a two-day trial, Ilham Tohti was given a life sentence on charges of “separatism”. The day after he was sentenced, he wrote this statement from prison.
China begins trial of Ilham Tohti
Chinese authorities began trying the Uighur academic Ilham Tohti on charges of “separatism” on Wednesday morning, in what human rights groups have called a “travesty of justice”.
Xinjiang Unsettled
When you travel in Xinjiang, you see two communities living side-by-side but rarely interacting. Relations between Uighurs and Han Chinese have soured to the point where little dialogue seems possible. The 2009 Urumqi riots, in which a Uighur mob went on a killing spree that ultimately resulted in at least 194, mainly Han, deaths, was a turning point. Beijng’s “strike hard” policy in the aftermath of the riots, which continues to this day, has only created more resentment, hatred, and misunderstanding. On top of economic alienation, Uighurs feel culturally threatened. The shutdown of Uighur language schools and websites and the new rules curtailing the practice of Islam have only reinforced the sense of a Uighur identity, which wasn’t as strong a few decades ago.
Beyond the Dalai Lama: An Interview with Woeser and Wang Lixiong
An interview with Tsering Woeser and Wang Lixiong, an activist couple who have devoted themselves to chronicling ethnic unrest in China, and to finding solutions to it. Woeser, a Tibetan poet, was widely read in China until her books were banned in 2003 and her Chinese blog shut down in 2006.
Wang Lixiong and Woeser: A Way Out of China’s Ethnic Unrest?
Why has the Chinese government relied so much on suppression in Tibet and Xinjiang? “Simply put, it’s due to their politics, but they can’t say that. They say it’s due to hostile forces.”
In Pictures: The Uyghurs of Xinjiang
A de facto state of emergency has been put in place in Xinjiang and a heavy military presence could be seen in both the provincial capital of Urumqi and the Uyghur’s cultural capital of Kashgar located in the south of the province.
In One Xinjiang City, Beards and Muslim Headscarves Banned From Buses
A city in China’s remote western Xinjiang region has temporarily banned men with beards and women with Muslim headscarves from taking public buses. The extreme security measure — to be implemented for the duration of a sports competition slated to kick off in northern Xinjiang’s Karamay city on August 8 — is the latest example of the kind of religious intolerance that some say has fuelled growing anti-government feelings and radicalized the region’s Muslims, particularly the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority concentrated primarily in Xinjiang. The QQ news portal and other Chinese news sites that picked up the report also ran a graphic showing the "five abnormal styles" that weren’t allowed on Karamay public transport. It showed pictures of women in full and partial veils, headscarves, and men with full beards and even a modest goatee.
Welcome to Uighur Web—Now Watch What You Say
China’s Internet is vast, with millions of sites and more than 618 million users. But nested within that universe is a tiny virtual community comprising just a few thousand websites where China’s Uighur gather online to communicate in their own language and script. This is the Uighur web. The space can be defined as the Internet as it exists within the borders of Xinjiang. It can also be seen as the Uighur-focused Internet perused by Uighurs across China. In both cases, content and access are tightly controlled.
Punching a Hole in the Great Firewall
China has “one of the most pervasive and sophisticated regimes of Internet filtering and information control in the world,” according to the OpenNet Initiative. The Ministry of Public Security’s censorship and surveillance system, formally called the Golden Shield and colloquially known as the Great Firewall, blocks access to thousands of websites focusing on what authorities deem politically “sensitive” issues or individuals (such as the Dalai Lama), or offer unfiltered discussions.
Are Ethnic Tensions on the Rise in China?
On December 31, President Xi Jinping appeared on CCTV and extended his “New Year’s wishes to Chinese of all ethnic groups.” On January 15, Beijing officials detained Ilham Tohti, a leading Uighur economist and subsequently accused him of “separtist offenses”; a fresh report shows arrests of Uighurs for “endangering state security” in Xinjiang rose sharply last year; and the number of Tibetans who have taken their own lives in public protest against Chinese rule has recently surpassed 120 since February 2009.
Beijing Criticized For Arbitrary Detention of Uyghur Scholar
Uyghur advocacy groups have criticised Chinese authorities over the arbitrary detention of outspoken Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, saying it signaled President Xi Jinping's new hardline approach in Xinjiang.
Why the Carrot isn’t Working, Either
The Chinese government thinks it can thwart unrest among ethnic minorities by raising their incomes. But prosperity doesn't buy loyalty.
The Strangers: Blood and Fear in Xinjiang
In the winter of 2009, I was spending my weekends in the northeast Chinese city of Tangshan, and eating most of my food from the far-western province of Xinjiang. There was something unfamiliar about the place I usually ate at in Tangshan; the waiters were young children. Two solemn little girls of about eight, wearing Muslim headscarves, would take my order and relay it to the kitchen, occasionally joined by their plump-cheeked older brother. After we had gotten on familiar terms—I let them play on my laptop—I asked the girls when they started working as waitresses. “In July,” they said. It wasn’t surprising that the restaurant might have wanted a friendlier face at that point. That was the time that a Uighur mob had tried to murder one of my friends.
Ethnic Policy in China: Is Reform Inevitable
Following significant interethnic violence beginning in 2008, Chinese intellectuals and policymakers are now engaged in unprecedented debate over the future direction of their country's ethnic policies. This study attempts to gauge current Chinese opinion on this once-secretive and still highly sensitive area of national policy. Leading public intellectuals, as well as some party officials, now openly call for new measures strengthening national integration at the expense of minority rights and autonomy. Adjustments in rhetoric and policy emphasis are expected as the party-state attempts to strengthen interethnic cohesiveness as a part of its larger agenda of stability maintenance.
China’s Wild West: A Cautionary Tale of Ethnic Conflict and Development
While the international media has extensively analyzed the demonstrations and street clashes in Turkey, Brazil and Egypt over the last several weeks, what is happening in China’s Xinjiang may be no less significant to future geopolitics.
Chinese Police Shoot Dead Seven Uyghurs in Kashgar
Seven ethnic minority Uyghurs have been shot dead by police in separate clashes in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang and nine others detained for protesting against some of the killings, an exile Uyghur group said on Monday. The shootings underscore a trend of increasing violence in Xinjiang, where the Muslim Uyghurs complain of discrimination and religious controls under Beijing’s rule.
Ministry of Truth: Xinjiang Violence
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.”
Behind Cry for Help From China Labor Camp
The cry for help, a neatly folded letter stuffed inside a package of Halloween decorations sold at Kmart, traveled 5,000 miles from China into the hands of a mother of two in Oregon. Scrawling in wobbly English on a sheet of onionskin paper, the writer said he was imprisoned at a labor camp in this northeastern Chinese town, where he said inmates toiled seven days a week, their 15-hour days haunted by sadistic guards.
Present-Day Ethnic Problems in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region: Overview and Recommendations
Written by now-imprisoned Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti, this article analyzes the underlying causes of ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, and offers recommendations for protecting the basic rights of Xinjiang’s citizens.