【华盛顿邮报社论】Now the Uighurs

rlsrls08

Now the Uighurs

There's a reason news of unrest in China's Xinjiang province reads a lot like last year's trouble in Tibet.
Sunday, July 12, 2009

IF THE reports of deadly riots and repression in a far-off region ofChina sounded familiar last week, it's because you have heard them --or something much like them -- before. The uprising by ethnic Uighursin the city of Urumqi in Xinjiang province was the third such popularprotest by Uighurs in the past 20 years, and it looked a lot like thetrouble that broke out last year in Tibet. What began as a peacefulprotest by an aggrieved minority turned to rioting after policeresponded harshly. Then followed a brutal crackdown by security forces,accompanied by revenge attacks by members of China's Han majority.

As always, Chinese authorities have been unsparing in the force usedto silence the protests. As always, they are blocking communicationsfrom the region (though some Western journalists were allowed to travelto Urumqi) and fomenting Han nationalism with xenophobic diatribes inthe state-controlled media. Once again an exiled leader is blamed,without evidence, for fomenting "terrorism" -- in this case RebiyaKadeer, the World Uighur Congress leader, who lives in Fairfax County.And -- as always -- China is doing and promising nothing to remedy theunderlying cause of the unrest, which is its treatment of both Tibetand Xinjiang as if they were colonies, populated by captive nations.

One reason China's Communist leadership rejected the politicalreforms undertaken by the Soviet Union in the 1980s is a fear thatXinjiang would follow the path of neighboring Soviet Central Asianrepublics -- some of them also populated by Turkic ethnic groups --that became independent nations. But Beijing is simply repeating all ofthe mistakes of the Soviet Union and other colonialist powers. It hassystematically suppressed Uighur culture and language; practice of theMuslim religion is also tightly controlled. Millions of Han Chinesehave moved to the province over the last half century, turning the 8million Uighurs into a minority in their own land. As in Tibet, HanChinese hold a privileged economic position in the cities, whileUighurs are regarded and often treated as an inferior race.

The United States and other Western countries have tried for years, invain, to persuade Chinese leaders to change policy in Tibet. Unlike theDalai Lama, Uighurs get little love in Paris or Hollywood; mostly theyare known for the alleged militants held at the Guantanamo Bay prison,who have been found to pose no threat but who (with four recentexceptions) have not been released, for lack of a place to send them.But this minority, too, deserves support. The brutal suppression of theUighurs' legitimate demands for justice will not make them go away; itwill only weaken China's ability to hold on to the territory in thelong term.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071102336.html

rlsrls08

华盛顿邮报非常垃圾的一篇社论

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