LAST Sunday saw in Urumqi (Xinjiang) the worst riot in recent years on the mainland.
That shows ethnic problems (sensitive) have not eased on the mainland though its economy has rapidly developed. On the contrary, the poor-rich gap has planted seeds of unrest in regions of ethnic minorities. There is nothing wrong with Beijing's policy towards ethnic minorities. However, in handling ethnic disputes, it is necessary to be doubly sensitive. It is necessary to nip trouble in the bud lest there should be what those with ulterior motives may take advantage of to harm social stability and harmony by inciting people to trouble.
As of last evening, 140 people had been killed and 800 others injured in the riot in Urumqi. Most of them are Hans. According to an injured citizen, rioting Uygurs beat up any Hans on sight. Few knew what had happened. There was no escaping. They were attacked by many and lay dead in the street. Similar things happened in Lhasa on March 14 last year. Then rioting Tibetans beat up Hans in the street. These give people to realise criminals can be shockingly brutal.
Clearly, though Hans and members of ethnic minorities apparently live in harmony with one another, a small accident may suddenly turn an ethnic minority region into a bloody killing field.
The Urumqi authorities believe the riot was premeditated and organised. They are convinced that it was the World Uygur Congress (headed by Rebiye Kadeer, a minority separatist) that made use of a brawl in Shaoguan to plan, incite and direct the serious incident involving violent crimes. They say it is in nature a serious incident in which serious crimes such as battery, murder, robbery, arson and criminal damage were committed. It is quite clear that they intend to play down ethnic tensions. It is proper for them to have taken this approach, which may prevent the situation from intensifying.
What triggered the riot was a Han-Uygur brawl that took place late last June at a toy factory owned by a Hong Kong company in Shaoguan, Guangdong.
Some rumoured on the Internet that some Uygurs had raped two Han women workers of the factory but its management had done nothing about it. In the small hours of June 26, a number of Han workers attacked their Uygur colleagues at the factory. In the brawl two Uygur men were killed, and 120 other workers, injured, of whom eighty are Uygur.
As the riot arose from the brawl, it will conceivably end after the principal contradiction has been resolved.
It is unlikely to worsen. Nevertheless, fundamental Uygur-Han contradictions have not eased. They may even intensify. Having seen the riot, Hans may realise people with whom they have lived in peace may suddenly turn "killers" for no reason. That is very scary indeed. In Xinjiang, Han-Uygur mistrust will inevitably grow. That would not conduce to ethnic harmony.
As the Chinese economy has rapidly developed, Xinjiang and Tibet are backward compared with other regions. State-owned companies have tapped natural gas and other natural resources in Xinjiang, where Uygurs think the Hans have "plundered" resources that belong to them. The reform drive, which began three decades ago, has not benefited them much. Ethnic minorities have their peculiar religious beliefs and cultures. Furthermore, Xinjiang separatist groups are waiting for opportunities of to go into action. Therefore, matters concerning ethnic minorities are very complicated indeed. Beijing's policy towards ethnic minorities is on the whole correct. However, a brawl at a Shaoguan toy factory has led to a bloody riot in Urumqi. It is clear from this that only if the authorities carry out Beijing's policy towards ethnic minorities alertly and carefully can trouble be averted.
The Urumqi authorities have proactively provided information on the riot and allowed reporters to gather news in the city. Their high transparency contrasts sharply with what happened last year in Lhasa. Last year reporters were dispelled from the capital of Tibet.
The Urumqi authorities are commendable for doing what may prevent those with ulterior motives from inciting people to violence. Other mainland authorities would do well to have regard to their approach in dealing with similar situations.
柳太极
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海峡时报 (新加坡)
By Sim Chi Yin, China Correspondent 2009-07-08
Beijing's apathy could have fuelled violence
BEIJING: Too little and too late?
With the Xinjiang region still smouldering with tension and chaos after riots on Sunday, observers are asking if the worst ethnic unrest in decades could have been averted, had the authorities done more after an inter-ethnic fight in a factory last month which left two Uighurs dead.
The Chinese authorities have blamed exile Uighur groups for using the earlier brawl in the southern province of Guangdong to incite riots in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi, thousands of kilometres away.
But as the Uighurs and Hans continued to face off on the streets of Urumqi yesterday, analysts say Beijing's own inaction after the factory fracas could have triggered and fuelled the violence in Xinjiang.
Yesterday, the authorities announced - some say belatedly - that they had detained 15 suspects in relation to the June 26 fight between local Han Chinese and Uighur migrant workers from Xinjiang.
The official Xinhua state news agency said that more than 400 police officers are still searching for suspects.
On June 26, hundreds of Han and Uighur workers came to blows in the Xuri toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong, highlighting the social tensions underlying the mass migration of workers from China's impoverished western regions to its prosperous eastern and coastal cities.
The fight had started after an ex-employee started a rumour - later dispelled by the police - that six Uighur men had raped two Han women at the work site.
Over 400 policemen were called in to break up the fight, which left 120 workers injured, 81 of them Uighurs and 39 local. Two Uighurs later died.
The police failed to do enough early on and they should also have anticipated a swell of anger among Uighurs back in Xinjiang, said Professor Ma Rong, a sociologist specialising in China's ethnic minorities, from Beijing University.
He told The Straits Times: 'It was such a serious mass incident and almost all those injured and killed were Uighurs, yet the authorities initially arrested only the man who spread the rumours but did not state that all who killed or beat people up would be punished by the law.'
The fall-out from the factory fight easily ignited the 'fertile soil' of long-running ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, Prof Ma said. 'Knowing that foreign-based Uighur organisations were starting to use the factory brawl as a symbol of how Uighurs were being bullied, and calling for 'action', the Xinjiang government should have taken steps to prevent (the unrest).'
The latest violence also highlights a growing tide of Uighur workers being taken to work in the manufacturing heartlands. Data shows that in 2007, 130,000 Uighur farmers took up such jobs.
The Guangdong toy factory, owned by one of Hong Kong's richest men Francis Choi, had recruited 800 migrant workers from Xinjiang, Xinhua reported.
In recent years, young Uighur farmers, especially those in rural southern Xinjiang, have been trained and placed in factories in Shandong, Tianjin and Zhejiang through government facilitation.
While such programmes help alleviate poverty among Uighurs - who often do not speak enough Mandarin to get a job in Xinjiang's own increasingly Chinese cities - they cause social and cultural tension, analysts said.
In a statement yesterday, the New York-based China Labour Watch group said: 'Language barriers exacerbate the situation, and Uighurs may believe that discrimination targets them alone and not their Han co-workers.'
未来新疆有无可能引发大规模暴力冲突？孙志强不认为会发生，因为中国处理民族问题有相当经验，从最坏处想，中国的快反封控能力也很成熟。从国际上说，中国和伊斯兰国家的关系也很不错，新疆的种族冲突不容易在伊斯兰世界引发共鸣。至于外部势力介入，也只能小打小闹。孙志强不担心，西方国家会为新疆问题与中国大动干戈，大环境对中国有利，更何况中国正在崛起。
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南华早报
EDT4 | EDT | By Martin Zhou 2009-07-08
Disorder in energy-rich region threatens mainland's economy
The mainland cannot afford a restless Xinjiang , economists say, because the resource-rich region makes a significant contribution to energy security.
Xinjiang sits atop as much as 20 per cent of domestic oil reserves and is expected to account for one-fifth of the mainland's annual coal output.
Xinjiang's long borders with oil-producing Central Asian countries make it strategically important to Beijing, and its expected role in the mainland's future growth sets it apart from Tibet , another ethnically troubled region, where an uprising took place in March last year.
"The unrest in both Tibet and Xinjiang is a public order issue, but the latter holds far greater economic significance," said Steve Vickers, president of FTI-International Risk, a Hong Kong-based consultancy that focuses on regional security.
Beijing's ambitious plan to construct refineries, pipelines and power grids across the region could backfire, however, as these facilities could become terrorist targets, Mr Vickers said.
Zhang Dajun, a Beijing-based political commentator, said: "China has yet to run the course of industrialisation, which means the energy produced in or transported via Xinjiang will be of increasing significance to Beijing for a long time to come."
Kazakhstan was the first country to receive mainland investment when China became a net importer of oil in the early 1990s. Both the China National Petroleum Corporation and the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), the two big state-backed oil firms, have acquired oilfields, natural gas reserves and refiners in the country.
Much of the oil and gas extracted in Kazakhstan is transported inland via a new 3,000km pipeline that passes through Xinjiang.
On top of oil and coal abundance, the Tarim Basin - in the centre of Xinjiang - is believed to hold trillions of cubic metres of natural gas underground. A 4,000km gas pipeline has been constructed to take the fuel as far as Shanghai.
Apart from Tarim, rich reserves have been found in the Turpan Basin in the east of the region and the Junggar Basin in the north.
Without its energy reserves, Xinjiang's economy pales when compared to inland provinces. Despite years of double-digit growth, the region's annual gross domestic product hovers at about 300 billion yuan (HK$340 billion), just more than 1 per cent of the mainland's total.
"In the context of the world's third-largest economy's strategy to secure its energy supply, Xinjiang has become more economically crucial than ever before," Mr Zhang said.
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星岛日报
A08 | 要闻 2009-07-08