Comments on: Riots in Xinjiang

By: jr

jr — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:35:13 +0000

“..some evil Uiqhurs..”

Jane, your use of this emotive language tells it all.

no doubt, some “evil” people exist in every group.

By: Jane

Jane — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:35:31 +0000

Nonsense, those Uiqhurs are treated very well in Xinjiang, they are first citizen in Xinjiang, Han Chinese are the second one. Han Chinse treat Uiqhurs as their brotherhoods, but some evil Uiqhurs always make troubles.

By: jr

jr — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:30:08 +0000

2129 on July 6, David Jones.

“There seems to be a common tone to all news reports regarding the Han Chinese that seems to encourage negative portrayal.”

the Han are used as settlers in Xinjiang as well as Tibet to “make up” the Chinese numbers in the respective indigenous populations.

while the fault, unarguably, lies with the government, you cannot blame the Uighur and Tibetan people for their reaction to the forced influx of Han-Chinese.

By: jr

jr — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:17:57 +0000

LH opense her post with “It’s been brewing for nearly two weeks.”.

tosh.

even before the 2008 Olympic Games you, and other news media, reported about the strained relations in the region.

this selective ‘picking the topic of the day to get a headline’ stuff that purports to be journalism is, IMO, a significant problem.

By: David Jones

David Jones — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:29:52 +0000

I have visited Urumqi twice in the last three years. Urumqi and Xinjiang province has been the most historically interesting of all the provinces I have travelled in China.

I disagree with western news coverage that Xinjiang province is the ethnic home of only Uighurs. This is not true and the province as well as Urumqi is home to many ethnic groups that provide the rich history and diversity of the province. I experienced meeting friendly people from all the ethnic groups and did not feel that Han Chinese were arrogant or treated other groups with distaste. People simply got on with living their lives. I did not witness discrimination or oppression towards Uighurs and neither to any of the other ethnic groups. It is a shame that Urumqi is now headline news that gives the impression that it is a communist controlled freedom oppressed region of China, which is not what I experienced. There seems to be a common tone to all news reports regarding the Han Chinese that seems to encourage negative portrayal.

I have only very good memories of Urumqi and Xinjiang and wish to return to this area of China in the future.

By: Ron White

Ron White — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:08:26 +0000

Alas, Lindsey is all too right. I visited Urumqi for an educational conference a couple of years ago, and was dispirited by the way that the Uighurs had been marginalized in their own land. I and several other foreign visitors were also shocked by the anti Uiqhur jokes which some of our Han colleagues exchanged. The Urumqi museum (which, ironically, contains ancient relics showing that even the Uighurs had Caucasoid predecessors in the region) contains exhibits of 9 ethnic minorities from the region, these peoples being assigned a stage army role which conveniently and safely removes their culture from lived experience to side show. Pity the Uighurs (or, indeed, any one of China’s scores of ethnic minorities). Beijing cannot tolerate difference or what is perceived as being divided loyalties.