The Uighur Sanction

In the People’s Republic of China , there is one time zone, even though the country is big enough to have three or even four such zones. Makes life tough when people still like to abide by noon at the time when the sun is highest in the sky, and dusk and dawn falling in the rationally expected evening and morning periods. But that’s the way Chairman Mao designed it, and that’s t he way “one China ” is today. Unless you are not ethnically “Han” Chinese (92% of mainland is Han), and particularly if you are of Muslim (Turkic-speaking) ethnicity and live in the distant and western (oil rich) province of Xinjiang . There are about 8 million Uighurs (that Muslim minority, pronounced “wee-ghurr”) in China today.

The Uighurs and the Han don’t mix much in Xinjiang, and they can see which way your sensibilities lie by just looking at your watch. If you are on Beijing time, you are clearly pro-Han, and if you are two hours earlier, you observe the unofficial time followed by the Uighurs. They don’t like each other much; the PRC kind of looks at the Uighurs as part of the Muslim world they really don’t trust… actually they don’t trust much of any religious group. If you happen to be setting a meeting at that rare moment where a Han and a Uighur might join in, you literally have to give two times – two hours apart. If you ask a Uighur what time it is, you will get Uighur time, and the opposite is true if you ask an ethnic Han.

It all sounds pretty silly, except for one little tiny detail. The riots. The killings. Militant Uighur separatists have always played hob with the PRC authorities (four of the U.S. detainees at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba are Uighurs), and the locals truly do not like being treated like second class citizens under Han rule. It got ugly when a brawl took hold on June 25^th in a local toy factory that employed both Han and Uighur personnel. Reports that at least two Uighurs died in that mêlée were officially recorded, but skeptics suspect more victims; over 100 were reportedly injured.

What started out as a peaceful protest in the provincial capital Urumqi , 300 Uighurs seeking a greater governmental inquiry into the deadly fight, rapidly spiraled out of control. The casualty reports are staggering for China : 156 killed (which could be higher, depending on the source of the information) and 846 injured according to official reports; the statistics significantly eclipse the death toll (19) among Han Chinese from an uprising in Tibet last year.

The July 5^th New York Times: “Nearly 1,000 protesters from a Muslim ethnic group rioted in China's far west, overturning barricades, attacking bystanders and clashing with police in violence that killed at least three people, including a policeman, state media and witnesses said.” The clashes have apparently erupted in nearby Kashgar as well. Needless to say, the PRC authorities have clearly stated that the situation is very much under control. What a surprise?!

Until the next time. China has heterogeneity working for it; imagine the U.S. with 92% anything. But the vision of the iron hand, always under control, falters under such moments of violent insurrection. So maybe your vision of China changes a little bit. Like the Watt riots in the 60s here in the U.S…. or different somehow? And maybe a people who just don’t fit in with the Chinese vision of themselves… well, it’s a part of China ’s own struggle with her identity.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I thought you might want to know.