Autonomy in Xinjiang
As the Chinese Communist Party began to take full control of China in 1949, the Chinese communist leadership opted for a system of theoretical self-rule or autonomy by non-Han peoples at local and regional levels, under over-arching control of the Chinese Communist Party.
As they consolidated control over parts of Xinjiang, in the spring of 1953 Chinese authorities began establishing ‘autonomous’ areas, starting at the lowest levels of the administrative hierarchy and gradually moving up to the prefectural level by 1954. In 1955 the process reached the provincial level and the province was renamed the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
In practice, ‘autonomy’ in this system meant that representatives of the various recognised nationalities serve on local representative bodies (not popularly elected) and as functionaries and officials in government offices. While the chairmen of each autonomous area were members of the nationality with a demographic plurality in that area, the ranking vice-chairmen were Han Party members, and each ‘autonomous’ unit remained answerable to central authorities and to the Party, whose Xinjiang department heads were almost all Han.
Moreover, the power of any minority groups is further limited by the nesting of autonomous counties of one nationality within prefectures of another, the whole arrangement lying within the Uyghur autonomous region. As a result, in practice, the system of local and regional autonomous areas, although it placed members of the various recognised ethnic groups at each level of government in Xinjiang, does not provide what most people would understand to be ‘autonomy.’
Key Reading
Eurasian Crossroads by James Millward (Latest edition published 2021)
A comprehensive history of Xinjiang, this book contains an in-depth discussion of how regional autonomy works in China and the political underpinnings of the autonomous system.
Autonomy in Xinjiang: Han Nationalist Imperatives and Uyghur Discontent by Gardner Bovingdon (2004)
This paper analyzes the sources of Uyghur discontent and ethnonational conflict in Xinjiang since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, arguing that while conflict in the region has had several causes, the system of “regional autonomy” operating in Xinjiang must be seen as a principal source of the unrest.
China: Minority Exclusion, Marginalization and Rising Tensions by Minority Rights (2007)
This report explores how China’s overarching agenda for ‘unity’, under the guise of ‘development’ and ‘security’, is having a particularly grave impact on its minority communities, including the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Present-Day Ethnic Problems in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region: Overview and Recommendations by Ilham Tohti (2013)
This document is a translation of an article written by Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, an Associate Professor of Economics at Minzu University of China, in response to a 2011 request from high-level officials in the Chinese government. The original document was censored and Tohti was later sentenced to life in prison in September, 2014, on charges of separatism.
In it, the author examines nine areas of social, political, economic and religious life in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, analyzes the underlying causes of ethnic tensions there, and offers recommendations for reducing ethnic strife and protecting the basic rights of Xinjiang’s citizens.