Inside the Asylum

On July 7th and again on July 8th I singled out the communist party official Li Zhi for making a bad situation worse in Xinjiang. It seems someone in China was paying attention ... probably just to his incendiary incompetence and not to this blog, but hey, who knows? Anyway, Li Zhi has just been sacked. Ha.

This may say something good about the people in charge in Beijing. Unfortunately they waited this long, and I'm sure that contributed to the latest round of unrest ... and that is probably the real reason he's gone ... Beijing doesn't care if an official is harsh, but they do care if he can't maintain order.

Some interesting analysis from the Times of India.

Earlier, I posted about the Uighurs who got sent to Palau, and how China has suddenly been making nice with all the island nations in the region ... well, another group got sent to the Bahamas, and, hey, what do you know ...

China reaffirms commitment to boost economic cooperation with Bahamas... [said] visiting top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo during his talks with Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham. Wu said China attaches great importance to the relations with the Bahamas and considers the country an important partner in the Caribbean region.

Of course, this way Obama doesn't have to take responsibility for whatever happens to the Uighurs in the future ... after all, he let them leave Gitmo.

I don't know what the Japanese are up to, but if there's one thing any country could do right now to annoy the Chinese, it's grant a visa to Uighur separatist Rebiya Kadeer. Heck, even the Turks have turned down her last two visa applications lest they annoy the Middle Kingdom. Rightly or wrongly, the Chinese have heaped all the blame for the nastiness in Xinjiang onto her shoulders ... and now of all times, the Japanese grant her a visa. It sure seems like there has to be something going on here ... the Japanese sending a message to the Chinese about something ... but what? If nothing else, it's certainly succeeded in getting under the Beijing's skin:

"We express strong dissatisfaction with the Japanese government for insisting on allowing Rebiya to visit Japan to engage in anti-China separatist activities despite China's repeated and serious representations," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement issued on Monday.

Published in Turkish media:

After 9/11, the Arabs have increasingly reached out to China investing heavily in its exploding industries and markets. China’s direct trade with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and other Arab states has multiplied incredibly fast over the past couple of years. All this could change if China does not change its ways of treating its Muslims. And if festering wounds in Xinjiang are not treated soon, Beijing could have a problem on its hands that would make the Tiananmen Square carnage look like a picnic.

Yes, it's possible that Arabs and Muslims may change their attitude to China, but let's face it ... it's not all that likely. If the Chinese were Jewish, that would be a different story.

The Chinese should be liberals ... they think you can solve every problem by passing a law against it.

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region would accelerate local legislation against separatism, said the region's top lawmaker on Sunday.

That'll certainly get rid of all ethnic tension, and make all Uighurs happy to be part of China. Just to make sure the Uighurs get the point:

A most urgent problem to be solved was the lack of law booklets in ethnic minority languages, he said. The region had organized experts to do the translation work and the booklets would soon be distributed to farmers and herdsmen across the region, he added.

You see, that was the problem. The Uighurs didn't know they shouldn't riot against the Han Chinese, because the relevant laws weren't widely available in Uighur. If only all problems were solved this easily.

Anti-Chinese sympathies for the Turks in Xinjiang seem to be running deep in Turkey. But the Industry Ministry promptly repudiates his comments as "his personal opinion".

Industry Minister Nihat Ergün... now says the government has no such official position, and that it is up to consumers themselves to decide whether or not to buy goods from China.

My previous post noting that Turkey wants the UN to discuss the violence in Xinjiang got me searching for a Turkish viewpoint on what's been going on. Here it is: First off, something I didn't know, but shouldn't have comes as a surprise.

Many Uighurs fleeing from Chinese oppression have taken refuge in Turkey over the years and that these refugees are in close touch with ultra-nationalist and Pan-Turkic groups capable of creating serious political unrest the country.

And then there's this:

Demonstrators earlier this week scuffled with police outside the Chinese embassy, and such public outpourings of sympathy can be expected to continue in the coming days and weeks depending on how the situation unfolds. Chinese brutality is of course well known around the world...

The government of Turkey called the Chinese Charge d’Affaires to the foreign ministry to ask for information about the events, but so far the Turkish government is playing a cautious game. It doesn't want to alienate China, but it's under serious domestic pressure to be more forceful on this issue. At the moment, the approach to the UN seems to be their idea of a careful middle course. In the past they've bowed to Chinese pressure and refused to issue a visa to Rabia Kader (who lives in the US), who China is seeking to blame for all the violence in their typical move of blaming "outside forces." If Turkey decides to reverse this policy and lets her visit, that will be a pretty clear signal that the Turks have decided to up the ante ... if they refuse a visa application again, then we'll know that they plan to continue on the cautious path. And that also leaves us with our new term of the week: "Pan-Turkic groups". I didn't know there were such things ... but again, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

This is kind of interesting. Turkey, the western-most nation of the Turkic family of nations, has decided to enter the fray on behalf of their eastern-most compatriots.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday said Turkey would ask the UN body to discuss ways of ending the violence in northwest China's Xinjiang region.

Naturally, China objects strongly, saying

This is purely China's internal affair.

Still, it does bring out the point that the Uighurs are not even slightly related to the Han Chinese either ethnically, religiously, or linguistically, and do have a close affinity with the various Central Asian republics stretching in a line to Turkey.

Does anyone think the Chinese have forgotten about those Uighurs who Obama sent to Palau? Especially now with them getting all uptight about Uighur separatism and terrorism? Well, the Chinese continue their charm offensive in the Pacific, this time getting all chummy with the Federated States of Micronesia. You see, it's the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Catch that ... twentieth. That means that until 1989, they recognized Taiwan. Then they switched. Of course, those Uighurs in Palau are safe from China, since Palau currently recognizes Taiwan. It's not as if Pacific Islands ever change diplomatic allegiance for monetary incentives ...

China and Micronesia Wednesday vowed to step up bilateral ties and cooperation... Jia said China was committed to working with Micronesia to intensify high-level official exchanges and cooperation.

To make the Chinese happy,

Micronesia backed China's efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security and appreciated China's long-term support for Micronesia's development, Alik said.

Safeguarding "national sovereignty, territorial integrity and national security". Oh yeah ... coming just days after the nastiness in Xinjiang, that couldn't be related ... What's Palau got to do with all this? Well, they just happen to be immediate neighbors of the Federated States of Micronesia, and part of the wider grouping of islands collectively known as Micronesia. Those Uighurs who were sent from Gitmo to Palau? I think the saying "out of the frying pan and into the fire" was invented for these guys. Of course, now Obama doesn't have to accept responsibility for it any more... Hope and Change!

The Chinese are losing in Xinjiang. They're not losing the armed war, because they have a massive advantage in numbers and equipment, but they're rapidly losing any hope of winning the hearts and minds of the Uighur people. The Chinese have generally been pretty smart with this kind of thing, with their "go west" economic development campaign etc ... realizing that their best way to consolidate their hold on these far-flung and only semi-Chinese provinces is to provide a better life for the people. As events recently in Tibet and now Xinjiang have shown, they haven't succeeded. Local Communist Party chief Li Zhi demonstrates exactly why they've been losing. Despite lots of rhetoric about how Chinese is a multi-ethnic country with 56 nationalities (see here for a list), the latest events show that there's a stark contrast between Han Chinese and other ethnic minorities such as the Uighurs. I've mentioned Li in a previous post, showing another example of how he's taking a bad situation and making it worse. He continues in a similar vein. He told:

a televised news conference that many people had been arrested, including students. "To those who committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them," he said, adding government forces would crack down on any security risk.

As I predicted, the Chinese could be relied upon to respond with a heavy hand, which is only going to make things worse in Xinjiang.

AP reports:

For much of the afternoon, a mob of 1,000 mostly young Han Chinese holding cleavers and clubs and chanting "Defend the country" tore through streets trying to get to a Uighur neighborhood until they were repulsed by police firing tear gas.

How did the local Chinese authorities respond to this? By urging them to go home, and trying to maintain an even hand while they sort out what happened? Not exactly ...

On Tuesday, some among the Han Chinese mob retreating from the tear gas were met by Urumqi's Communist Party leader Li Zhi, who climbed atop a police vehicle and started chanting with the crowd. Li pumped his fists, beat his chest, and urged the crowd to strike down Kadeer, the 62-year-old Uighur leader.

That'll help.

As predicted, the Chinese response has been pretty heavy handed, and this is only the beginning.

Authorities in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, had sent more than 20,000 armed police, special police, firefighters and troops to quell Sunday's unrest, a source with the city's police department said Monday.

Chinese authorities usually take a while to come to a consensus about how they ought to respond to something unexpected. Typically, it takes about a week, though in a case like this I would expect it to be shorter than that. Then all media organs start trumpeting whatever the party has determined. Right now, we're still in that precious window that often occurs in Chinese media. Since there's no clear direction from the center, the media can pretty much report what is going on. Wait a few days, and you'll see the difference.

In addition, Xinhua reports

More than 700 suspects had been detained by Monday evening.

and provides a hint that the troubles may be spreading out of the provincial capital of Urumqi.

Police have got clues that some people were trying to organize more unrests in Kashi City, Yili Kazak Prefecture and Aksu City.

As I said before, this is all coming out of Chinese state media, so you can't necessarily trust it. However, I think it unlikely that they would exaggerate the death toll, nor would they claim there was unrest in places that were calm. Naturally there are no figures on how the deaths occurred. It's implied that they were all killed by the rioters, but how many were shot by the police/Chinese military, and how many were victims of mob violence? One of the Youtube clips I watched didn't show anything much in the view, but there sure were a lot of noises in the background that sounded like shots. All were single shots, and I didn't hear any automatic weapons.

Here's a clip from Youtube taken off CCTV (China Central TV). Naturally it only shows injured Han Chinese and rioting Uighurs. Funny how there are no Uighur casualties ... Some of the footage is fairly graphic.

This just in:

The death toll has risen to 140 following Sunday night's riot in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the regional government said Monday. Fifty-seven people were confirmed dead on the scene and all the others died later at hospital, a spokesman of the regional government said at a press conference on Monday. He said the death toll would still be climbing.

A quick bit of history for those who don't know where Xinjiang is, and why this violence is occurring. Xinjiang, also known as East Turkistan, was one of the last pieces of territory to be incorporated into mainland China. It's "native" people are the Turkic Uighurs, who also happen to be Muslim. Given a choice, many of them would dearly like to break away and become a new Central Asian Republic, but of course the Chinese have no intention of allowing that to happen. Just like in Tibet, China has been encouraging Han Chinese to migrate to the province to try to strengthen their hold on the territory. They also generally allow the practice of Islam, but only within the strictures of the State structure, much as they tolerate various other groups such as Catholicism (minus the Vatican, mind you!)

I've not been to Xinjiang personally, but from people I know who have, it's not uncommon to see Han police pushing around Uighurs, and foreign tourists who look anything like a Turk are well advised to have their foreign passports well in hand to immediately identify themselves as not local Uighurs. There's a lot of hostility the other way too. It's the kind of place where most of the Uighurs can speak some Mandarin, but won't want to, and if that's the only means you've got for communication, you better be apologetic about it. The person telling me one such tale said one conversation he had in Mandarin started like this: old Uighur man: "You're not Han?" man: "No, I'm not Han" old Uighur: "Good. The Han are no good. You're sure you're not Han?" "Yes, I'm not Han." "Good." You get the general picture.

When Sept 11 rolled around, the Chinese immediately jumped on the "terrorist" bandwagon, and labeled all separatists as terrorists instead of their former labels. You may remember that there were a bunch of Uighurs at Gitmo who recently got released to various tropical islands ... I posted about that earlier, and the likelihood that the Chinese will eventually get their hands on them.

Here are photos of the violence in Urumqi. More photos at the link. (text in Chinese, sorry.)

In the last post I reported on troubles in Xinjiang. It's bigger than I thought, and may well get bigger yet. Xinhua reports:

The violence in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has left 129 people dead and injured 816 others, the regional public security department said Monday.