[Buddha-l] Xinjiang vs Tibet

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Weng-Fai Wong schreef:
> The topic came up during lunch with friends. One commented that Tibet is
> mild compared to Xinjiang. He expects Tibetans to be eventually assimilated
> completely. There are fewer Tibetans, their religion is familiar to
> mainstream Chinese and despite appearances, the idea of a theocracy is not
> supported outside Tibet - esp. by the U.S. The riot in Lhasa was therefore
> easily put down. And in fact, the Chinese government has been playing hard
> ball with the Tibetans so as to set an example to the Uighurs.
>
> The Uighurs, on the other hand, is a completely different game. There is a
> consistent history of rebellion and suppression by the power to be in China
> (Mongol, Qing, Nationalist and then Communist governments) - see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang_Uyghur_Autonomous_Region. The Uighurs
> also get the sympathy and perhaps support from the neighboring Turkic
> countries and the greater Islamic brotherhood. Thus the difficulties the
> current riots are presenting to the Chinese government.
>
> Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang together accounts for nearly 1/3 of the land
> area of China. The water resources of Tibet and the oil and gas resources of
> Xinjiang mean that it impossible for any central Chinese government to
> remain in power even at the slightest hint of "letting them go".
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> W.F. Wong
>
>   
My guess is that both Tibetans and Uigurs have a very strong 
idiosyncratic ethnic identity and will never become Chinese. The Chinese 
governement never stopped running half a century or more behind the 
events. Their colonial policy can last a long time because of the 
enormous amount of soldiers they can rely on. But no matter how much 
economic development they will bring, they will never make the Uigurs or 
Tibetans feel Chinese. The policy of the filled ricebowl will fail, 
because the Chinese will always discriminate and stick to their own 
network. Besides the Uigurs have a lot of friends in Central Asia and 
Turkey and the Tibetans might be well advised to strengthen thier 
Central Asian bonds. At the moment the ethnic differences diminish 
however, there is not much reason to spend all this money on soldiers 
and policemen to suppress the foreign tribes. It is  much more efficient 
to give them a relative sort of independance, let them manage their own 
internal affairs and just buy the raw material from them. So the 
suppression is caused by Chinese arrogance, which is caused by the 
events of the late 19th and early 20th century (especially the Japanese 
occupation), but it will wear off because politics will be determined by 
economics and environmental problems.

-- 


Erik

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