Section III: Muslim Separatism and the zero-tolerance attitude from central government
After examining the cultural and economic perspectives, we shift our focus to the most fundamental issue. The importance of religion is beyond question in studying the tension. China firmly establishes itself as a secular state; in fact, it has very strict policies to restrict the power of religion and their leaders. On the other hand, Muslim has long experienced the problem of radicalization. Xinjiang is no exception.
Muslim Separatism, denoted by central government as Eastern Turkestan, is at least the most nominal reason behind the tension and unrest. This is also the state-endorsed cause for the conflicts; in 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao identified …show more content…
This is not surprising considering that since the the Qing conquest, Xinjiang was the destination for government officials under political exile. This trend continues during the Cultural Revolution where the elite-educated students from Beijing and Shanghai and those who were marked as right were sent to Xinjiang via the xia xiang(going to countryside) movement for re-education by the proletarians. When these educated people came to Xinjiang, a literature genre call Western Literature was born. Their writing inevitably reflects the acute geographical condition of the region and how they struggle to fight against the stagnancy of the borderland. Whether it was the disgraced official or someone who were sent on a tour of duty, they share the invariant feeling to being marginalized and deviating from the power center. And these sentiments were reflected in their artistic creation. These literatures become the apparatus for the inland people to understand Xinjiang culture. Therefore, under the lens that was tinted with depressed sentiment, a stereotype of barbarism and uncivilization was established in inland Chinese. This trend has arguably diminish when it comes to the modern age with the help to better circulation of information and migration of population, but the established images might take some time to go away from people’s …show more content…
The first thing we have to note that such conflicts have a long historical past that never ceases to bother the rulers in central Chinese government. From a colonizing standpoint, such conflicts are inherent in the interaction between Chinese and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. We should expect such a relationship that is filled with conquest and unfairness to be tumultuous. Having understood the nature of these conflicts, we then move on to discover that the economic factors play the most important role in modern day Xinjiang society. The uneven job and wealth distribution becomes the major source of dissatisfaction among ethnic minorities from which instability stems. The situation was made even more dire due to inadequate educational efforts that hurts social mobility. In contrast, the more nominal reasons, such as religions and historical reasons were often used as excuses to bury the more deep rooted
After examining the cultural and economic perspectives, we shift our focus to the most fundamental issue. The importance of religion is beyond question in studying the tension. China firmly establishes itself as a secular state; in fact, it has very strict policies to restrict the power of religion and their leaders. On the other hand, Muslim has long experienced the problem of radicalization. Xinjiang is no exception.
Muslim Separatism, denoted by central government as Eastern Turkestan, is at least the most nominal reason behind the tension and unrest. This is also the state-endorsed cause for the conflicts; in 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao identified …show more content…
This is not surprising considering that since the the Qing conquest, Xinjiang was the destination for government officials under political exile. This trend continues during the Cultural Revolution where the elite-educated students from Beijing and Shanghai and those who were marked as right were sent to Xinjiang via the xia xiang(going to countryside) movement for re-education by the proletarians. When these educated people came to Xinjiang, a literature genre call Western Literature was born. Their writing inevitably reflects the acute geographical condition of the region and how they struggle to fight against the stagnancy of the borderland. Whether it was the disgraced official or someone who were sent on a tour of duty, they share the invariant feeling to being marginalized and deviating from the power center. And these sentiments were reflected in their artistic creation. These literatures become the apparatus for the inland people to understand Xinjiang culture. Therefore, under the lens that was tinted with depressed sentiment, a stereotype of barbarism and uncivilization was established in inland Chinese. This trend has arguably diminish when it comes to the modern age with the help to better circulation of information and migration of population, but the established images might take some time to go away from people’s …show more content…
The first thing we have to note that such conflicts have a long historical past that never ceases to bother the rulers in central Chinese government. From a colonizing standpoint, such conflicts are inherent in the interaction between Chinese and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. We should expect such a relationship that is filled with conquest and unfairness to be tumultuous. Having understood the nature of these conflicts, we then move on to discover that the economic factors play the most important role in modern day Xinjiang society. The uneven job and wealth distribution becomes the major source of dissatisfaction among ethnic minorities from which instability stems. The situation was made even more dire due to inadequate educational efforts that hurts social mobility. In contrast, the more nominal reasons, such as religions and historical reasons were often used as excuses to bury the more deep rooted