Via Instapundit, here's a good Forbes article on what's up in China. And here's an ABC report that makes clear how brutal things are getting, whatever China says about everything being under control. I'm not seeing direct statements to the effect, but what I find most interesting in this is a sense that the Han Chinese feel entitled to whatever works for them, whatever the harm may be to the cultures they're moving into. On the part of the individuals, that's not so surprising - we all want to live our own lives as we see fit (except apparently for the Palestinians - see this totally unrelated but fascinating Michael Totten post about another culture clash). However, the attitude seems to be encouraged by the policies of the Chinese government. This is to say that China is doing to its non-Chinese cultures what we did to the Indians, only in the 21st century, as opposed to the 19th. We'll have to see long-term whether they're given a pass, the way some take for granted that Arabs can't govern themselves, or whether someone calls them on it. At any rate, it's odd to see how much cultural sensitivity we can work up here in the U.S. for Palestinian suicide bombers and the folks held in Guantanamo while at the same time being more interested in the death of the King of Pop than the gradual destruction of a Muslim people on the other side of the world.
From the Forbes article, a key bit for me:
As much as the Uighurs deserve to govern themselves again--and they most certainly do--almost no one thinks they will be able to resurrect the East Turkestan state. They have even lost their own homeland, as Beijing's policies encouraged the Han to populate Xinjiang. In the 1940s, Hans constituted about 5% of Xinjiang's population. Today, that number has increased to about 40%. In the capital of Urumqi, more than 70% of the residents are Hans. In short, the Uighurs are no match for the seemingly invincible Han-dominated state.
The good news, after a fashion, comes next:
Yet the riots of the last few days show just how vulnerable that Chinese state is, even in the face of apparently weak opponents.
The other night, I said it was hard to know who to root for, then stepped away from the statement in noting that in Uyghurstan there is the foundation for a possible moderate and reasonably modern Muslim state and that I was really rooting for this and against China continuing down a path in which a culture must either fall to the radicals who will fight hardest for it or to its colonial oppressors.
The Chinese seem hellbent on forcing the issue till Uyghurstan becomes either radically Muslim in defense against cultural genocide, like Afghanistan, or turns into another crappy bit of provincial China. Let's hope the world keeps its eyes on Urumqi, forcing the Chinese to pull back. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region should remain Uyghur and autonomous.
