Another dimension to dissent in northwest China
Alan Carter wrote from the UK with a reference to this article from The Financial Times. It offers us another aspect of the dissent and resistance in Xinjiang.Xinjiang oil boom fuels Uighur resentment
"'Offer energy resources as tribute [to Beijing] to create harmony' proclaims a giant billboard outside a petrol station in Korla, in China’s restive western frontier region of Xinjiang.The increasing importance of the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang autonomous region as a source of the energy and minerals needed to fuel China’s booming eastern cities is raising the stakes for Beijing in its battle against separatists agitating for an independent state...
"Mineral exploration began in the Tarim Basin at the start of last century but it was not until 1958, nearly a decade after the Chinese Communist revolution and the re-conquest of Xinjiang, that the first oilfield went into production.
"At that time Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic people with stronger links to central Asia than the rest of China, were the only inhabitants. Today, Han Chinese from central and eastern provinces make up 70 per cent of the population in Korla [a major Xinjiang city]...
"Uighur resentment has been exacerbated by a massive security operation timed to coincide with the Olympic and Paralympic Games period...
"'There are a lot of people who want Xinjiang to be independent of China but we personally don’t even dare think those thoughts,' said one Uighur in Korla when asked what he thought of the separatist cause..."
Labels: China, economics, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:38 PM
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