This past week, during China´s grand celebrations for its 60th anniversary, deep cracks in the façade of the CCP were revealed. While columns of infantry, tanks and missiles paraded down the streets of Beijing, a deep-seeded paranoia was palpable. Citizens were ordered to stay in their homes and Tibet was locked down to prevent anyone from arriving or leaving. China has grown by leaps and bounds in the past 30 years since Deng Xiaoping and reformed on many fronts, though it remains unwilling to examine its ethnic policies, which have remained largely unchanged since Mao.
The Chinese government has experienced increasingly tense relations with its ethnic groups over the past several years, particularly the Tibetans and the Uyghurs. While under the Chinese Constitution, minorities are granted the right to observe their cultures and exercise free speech (Articles 4 and 35), this is ignored and they are vigorously suppressed. For instance, it is illegal for Uyghurs to celebrate the festivals of Meshrep and Newruz and people are routinely imprisoned for their religious and political views. China has created a series of legislative loopholes through which it can override its own constitutionally-guaranteed rights in order to clamp down on its minorities. The right to free speech can be circumvented under a 1997 law that allows the government to arrest anyone it accuses of "splitting the state", which is a vaguely defined charge that can be expanded to mean virtually anything.
Beijing has also been waging cultural warfare against the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) attempting to dilute their ethnic populations by resettling millions of Han Chinese while shipping thousands of Uyghurs and Tibetans to industrial centres far from their homes. The results have been devastating with eighty per cent of the Uyghur population now living below the poverty line and a typical Han Chinese earning more than four times as much as a Uyghur. In both regions the indigenous peoples are at risk of becoming endangered minorities at best and being wiped out at worst, in what the Dalai Lama referred to as a "cultural genocide." This influx of settlers is creating an increasingly volatile situation that has already exploded into sectarian violence this past summer in Urumqi.
These recent bloody uprisings in the XUAR and TAR ought to have been a wake-up call to Beijing, but in fact the government has only continued to defend its position. In September 2009, the government published a White Paper praising its effectiveness in ensuring "equality among all ethnic groups" especially pertaining to personal freedom, legal rights and religious beliefs. While Beijing may officially deny the problem it must surely appreciate the Catch-22 in which it finds itself. If the CCP concedes to the demands of ethnic groups, it fears it will appear vulnerable and other groups may be encouraged to demand more. On the other hand, if the CCP cracks down hard, it will fan the flames of already existing tensions, fuelling potential extremism and perhaps bringing to life the terrorist threat Beijing has so often used to justify its repressive measures. Nevertheless, China has chosen the latter policy and is now reaping what it has sown. In the past year over 100,000 protests occurred across the country and, whilst there are no signs that terrorism is gaining ground, groups such as the Tibetans and Uyghurs have become increasingly alienated.
Beijing´s policy of ethnic repression is untenable in the long run. If China continues along its current path it will cause more rifts in society to which the government will in all likelihood respond by resorting to even more egregious human rights violations. While other influentual governments ought to be exerting pressure on China to reform, they have been reluctant to do so as they are wary of antagonising China and damaging their economic relations. In this case, channels such as international civil society, NGOs and the media must take the reins and drive home the message that China should abide by its constitution, end its discriminatory policies and join the Uyghurs and Tibetans at the negotiation table. As China surges toward global superpower status, it ought to assume the magnanimity and responsibility that comes with being a great power.
Gordon Cinco is a research assistant for the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization in the Hague, Netherlands. He is currently studying for a Master´s degree in Public Administration specialising in International Organisations at the Universiteit Leiden.
8-X-09, atlantic-community.org
