The Dalai Lama has often been a symbol of hope for the people of Tibet, a region in which many ethnic minorities have been calling for independence from China for decades.
The Uyghur people of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region do not have a prominent central figure to spearhead their independence movement against the Chinese central government in Beijing, nor have they had significant coverage within the international media, until now.
Lying in the far western reaches of China, the Xinjiang Province has been predominantly ethnic Uyghur for centuries. A Turkic people group, they share many religious and cultural similarities with the Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.
Since the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949, the Chinese have looked to secure their borders from foreign invasion, and this has included the assimilation of the Uyghur territory which makes up modern day Xinjiang.
The Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking, Muslim group. In 1949, before the Chinese Communist Revolution, Uyghurs accounted for 75% of the population within Xinjiang, with Han Chinese accounting for 6%.
In the modern era however, Han Chinese have quickly established a significant minority presence in Xinjiang, accounting for 40% of the population, with the Uyghurs accounting for 45%. The Chinese are slowly securing their hold on Xinjiang through the migration of ethnic Han into the region, but their motives aren’t as straightforward as it may seem.
The central government in Beijing have accused many Uyghurs of being auxiliaries of Al-Qaeda, receiving training across the borders in Afghanistan and Pakistan in order to supplant the Chinese from the region. Little evidence has been presented to support these allegations, however.
As a result of this, the Chinese have sought to intern the Uyghurs in ‘re-education’ camps across the province, in order to quell any religious discontent that may arise from the ethnic population. It is estimated over one million ethnic minority Muslims, mostly Uyghurs, are currently living in these camps.
Uyghur refugees have however refuted that these ‘re-education’ camps seek to dissuade the Uyghurs from partnering with terrorist cells, instead citing them as a way in which China seeks to erase their voices and culture through torture and confinement.
So why are the Chinese going to such lengths to maintain power within the Xinjiang Province?
Many outlets have cited the importance of the natural resources held within Xinjiang as the reason why China is so vested in maintaining authority here. Xinjiang not only holds vast amounts of China’s natural energy supplies, but it also sits at a crossroads of its export network and future expansions of these trade routes.
Xinjiang has long been an agricultural economy, and its vast land has allowed for a large quantity of agricultural goods to be produced and exported to the Central Asian countries. However, whilst agriculture plays a big part in the region’s economy, the vast amount of fossil fuel sources found within Xinjiang is arguably one of China’s most prized assets.
With the estimates also stating that Xinjiang is home to a coal depository making up 40% of all of China’s coal production, as well as the nation’s largest natural gas reserves, Xinjiang is not only important for China’s enormous industrial complex, but also for their natural resource exports into Central Asia and beyond, and their plans with the Belt and Road Initiative.
Many of China’s major connections with Central Asia, Russia, and the Middle East pass through Xinjiang. Oil and Gas pipelines between Central Asia and the Chinese East Coast run through Xinjiang, picking up vital resources from the region.
Further connections with Central Asia and beyond are being planned through the BRI. Xinjiang sits at a convergence of many planned infrastructure routes, with the border stretching from Russia and Kazakhstan in the North to the vital China-Pakistan economic corridor currently undergoing development in the South, another region in which minority rights are the centre of attention after recent escalations concerning the Kashmir dispute.
The Chinese even went so far as to develop a high speed passenger rail line to the provincial capital Urumqi, to connect it with the rest of China. Despite the network running with a financial deficit, it shows how far China is willing to go to cement their presence in Xinjiang, and the importance it plays in their foreign policy plans.
The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is highly coveted by China, and as a direct result, the ethnic populations have suffered the most - recent counts would suggest that Xinjiang is no longer Uyghur, nor would the evidence available support the claim that it is currently autonomous.