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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 63 20 October 1997 In this issue: (1) HUI DEMONSTRATION IN XIAN 10/17/97, Eastern Turkistan Information Center (2) 20 CHINESE KILLED IN AKSU PROVINCE 10/17/97, Eastern Turkistan Information Center (3) UIGHURS SMOULDER UNDER CHINA'S YOKE 09/04/97, The Guardian, London, by John McCarthy (4) VOICE OF FREE CHINA CHANGE ITS NAME TO CBS - TAIPEI RADIO INTERNATIONAL 10/06/97, Electronic DXPress #63, (5) NEW BOOK "CHINA'S MINORITY POPULATIONS: SURVEYS AND RESEARCH" [Zhongguo Shaoshu Minzu Renkou Diaocha Yanjiu] *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) HUI DEMONSTRATION IN XIAN 10/17/97, Eastern Turkistan Information Center [ETIC, 10/17/97] On October 15, a large anti government demonstration, involving several thousands of Hui Muslims, broke out in front of the government building in Xian city of China's Shaanxi province. Apparently, the rally is still taking place. The demonstrators chanted and held Islamic and anti government slogans. The event was sparked by an arrest of a Hui religious figure two weeks earlier. On mass religious services in mosques, this person strongly protested to government officials in handling an incident of a death of one Hui boy. The boy was brutally beaten to death by the Chinese police in October last year. Since then, the boy's relatives were denied in releasing the body, which was kept frozen by the authorities in a local morgue. The relatives and friends wrote numerous petitions to various government offices, but the officials turned a deaf ear to their pleas.[Abdiljelil Karkash, Abdullah Pamir] (2) 20 CHINESE KILLED IN AKSU PROVINCE 10/17/97, Eastern Turkistan Information Center [ETIC, 10/17/97] In the beginning of October, 20 bodies with slit open throats were discovered on a road in Tokhsu county of Aksu province of Eastern Turkistan. All the killed were Chinese from a local Bintuan construction corps. Extremely worried government authorities are trying to seal any information leak on this incident. Many local residents were forced to give a written notices not to talk on this case to anyone. [Abdiljelil Karkash, Abdullah Pamir] (3) UIGHURS SMOULDER UNDER CHINA'S YOKE 09/04/97, The Guardian, London, by John McCarthy They dispute the name of the land they seek to liberate, and their Chinese oppressors condemn them as "splittists". Trapped between farce and tragedy, exiled Uighur nationalist groups have lacked credibility. But early this year, as Uighurs in China stepped up their popular guerrilla campaign against Beijing's rule in East Turkestan, the United National Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan and the Uighurstan Liberation Front shelved their differences and united. From their base in neighbouring Kazakhstan, they could help forge a coherent independence movement. Inhabiting the mainly desert territory of Xinjiang - China's 660,000-square-mile "new dominion", 1,000 miles from the sea and periodically closed to foreigners - Uighurs have a degree of nominal autonomy from Beijing. Though they are Muslims, fundamentalist Islam plays little part in their rhetoric of nationalism and social reform. They proudly liken their struggle to that of the Chechens and Afghans, small nations which threw off the yoke of big oppressors. They draw inspiration from their recently independent Turkic cousins, the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Uzbeks of former Soviet central Asia. Many are turning to guns, grenades and home-made bombs for political ends. What Uighurs want is freedom from China and an end to daily racial discrimination. They see the Chinese as colonists, settling ethnic Han peasants on their land and reserving the best jobs for migrants from eastern China. Government incentives give skilled Han migrants salaries 50 per cent above those they earn at home. Meanwhile, more than one in four Uighurs is unemployed. With Xinjiang emerging as the strategic key to its urgent search for energy, markets and influence in and beyond central Asia, Beijing can little afford Uighur unrest. Impelled to open the region's long, tense frontier with Kazakhstan, China has found Xinjiang unstable as nationalist and pan-Turkic ideas, money and, some say, weapons percolate in. In February the smouldering Uighur rebellion burst into flame when three young separatists were executed in Xinjiang's capital, Urumchi. Several hundred demonstrators took to the streets of Gulja, near the Kazakh border, demanding that Chinese colonists quit the region. When the police turned water-cannon on them in freezing temperatures, the demonstration exploded into a two-day running battle. Official figures put the death toll at 10. Independent reports say nearly 200 Uighurs and Chinese were killed in the country's worst ethnic violence in 10 years. A smuggled-out film of the fighting shows bodies lying in pools of blood, one apparently bayonetted. Burning vehicles litter the streets. Simultaneous uprisings in half a dozen large oasis towns and about 80 smaller settlements overstretched the 1 million Chinese troops in the volatile west of the region. In the more remote towns, a heavy security presence still remains; elsewhere, China's slick propaganda machine ensured that evidence of conflict was quickly swept away. Even so, spent Kalashnikov rounds lie on Kashgar's streets. The February revolt sparked increasing violence. Later that month Uighur separatists planted bombs on three Urumchi buses, killing two people. Between March and May Uighurs claimed responsibility for a series of fatal bombings in Beijing. The revolutionary front says separatists have set fire to an oil refinery near Karamay and attacked several oil convoys. Reports have also surfaced of a clandestine Uighur radio station uncovered by Chinese police and attacks on military depots and strategic rail and road links to the rest of China. A machine-gun and grenade attack which left 16 policemen dead in the tense south-western city of Khotan was also reported. China has reacted with a series of "anti-splittist" crackdowns, arresting tens of thousands of Uighurs and executing hundreds. Nine more were shot in late July. At least seven tons of explosives, 600 illegal firearms and 31,000 rounds of ammunition, as well as truckloads of separatist literature, have been seized. Some Han settlers have begun to question whether the government's incentives are worth the risk of Uighur attacks. And for the first time since China's Communists absorbed the East Turkestan Republic under the Mao-Stalin deal of the 1950s, China's authoritarian grip on Xinjiang is slipping. The chairman of Xinjiang's regional government, Abdulahat Abdurishit, reportedly said last year that "all methods are acceptable" to fight separatism - "penetration, propaganda, killing". Bulldozers now level ancient bazaars, the focus for popular unrest and the commercial heart of historic Silk Road cities. Wide streets of anonymous white-tiled tower blocks are exposed to armoured vehicles, and ambush-points and alleys ruled by demonstrators are eradicated. Despite the 6.5 million Han settlers who have colonised Xinjiang since 1950, China's veto in the Security Council prevents the United Nations from recognising China's rule there as colonial. Meanwhile, countries are afraid of offending Asia's emerging superpower, allowing Beijing to persecute Uighurs and other minorities in its vast empire. Tibetans have long drawn world attention, but have not taken up arms. Most Uighurs are not prepared to suffer Tibet's fate. (4) VOICE OF FREE CHINA CHANGE ITS NAME TO CBS - TAIPEI RADIO INTERNATIONAL 10/06/97, Electronic DXPress #63, TAIWAN. According to an official newsletter of the Voice of Free China, "Voice of Dragon", September 1997, Japanese edition, the Voice of Free China will change its name to "CBS - Taipei Radio International" on 1 January, 1998 because of merging the overseas broadcasting dept of the Broadcasting Corporation of China (VOFC) and Central Broadcasting System. "The Voice of Asia", BCC's Soouth East Asian service will use its name after that. The new station will use 17 languages - English, Japanese, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Amoy, Hakka, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Uighur. The overseas broadcasting department of BCC will move to the studio of CBS in December 1997. Its address is: 55, Pei'an Road, Tachih, Taipei 104, Taiwan.(Yamashita, in DXW, 29 September). - BCC Home Service relays on SW appear to be operating on adjusted sked for S97. News Network observed on 11725, 9610 and 15270 2200-2300. Popular Network unheard on any SW freq between 2200-2300 - previously used 15125 and 11885 in that time period. (4 October, Bob Padula). - Family Radio via Taipei continues to be heard on 9280 with Chinese, 2200-2300. (4 October, Bob Padula). (5) NEW BOOK "CHINA'S MINORITY POPULATIONS: SURVEYS AND RESEARCH" [Zhongguo Shaoshu Minzu Renkou Diaocha Yanjiu] Chief editors: Zhang Tianlu, Huang Rongqing No. 8 in the series China's Population in Transition and Development Published March 1996 by Gaodeng Jiaoyu Chubanshe Zhang Tianlu and Huang Rongqing are professors in the Institute of Population Economics of Beijing College of Economics. This 400 page book summarizes population data on ten of China's largest minority groups, concludes with series of essays on problems of overly rapid population growth, living standards, analysis of population trends, and population growth and economic development. Page numbers refer to the first edition. Analyses are largely based on 1990 census, although some of the data goes through 1992. The authors note that the population of many of the present minority areas stagnated for many decades or even centuries prior to 1949. They cite Zhang Tianlu's 1988 work on the Tibetan population which estimates the population of Tibet at the approximately one million mark in 1287, 1737 and 1951. The higher death rate on the high plateau combined with high infant mortality and marriage customs (such as one wife, multiple husbands) in keeping population growth stagnant. After 1949, minority people were encouraged as a matter of state policy to increase their populations (p. 3 - 4) resulting in two peaks in minority population growth, one in the mid 1960s and the other beginning at the end of the 1970s. China's minority populations are at different points in the demographic transition from high death rate, high birth rate to the low death rate (owing to greatly improved medical care and nutrition) and low birth rate characteristic of the developed countries. The authors note that China's ethnic Korean population was the first of all China's ethnic groups (including the majority Han) to make the transition to the modern low death rate, low birth rate lowpopulation growth pattern (pp. 5- 6). The living standards of the Koreans of northeastern China still do not match those of the farmers of China's southeast coast. This seems to be, says author Zhang Tianlu, because the ethnic Koreans 'lived for a long time under a centrally planned economy that kept them from making best use of human talents and material resources.' (p. 7) The literacy rates of China's minorities at the 1990 census varied widely. Below 50 percent literacy are the Tibetan, Yi, and Hani. Lowest is the Dongxiang minority at 17 percent. The Uighurs, Kazakh, Tibetans and Buyi are among the minorities with a birth rate over 3.5. Infant mortality rates over 65 per thousand include Tibetans, Uighurs, Yi, Buyi, Hani.
According to the 1990 national census, the ethnic Uighur population of China totaled 7.207 million people. Thus the Uighurs are, following the Zhuang, the Hui, Manchurian (Man), and the Miao, are China's fifth largest minority ethnic group. There is little historical data on the Uighur population. It seems likely that the Uighur population was about 250,000 in the late 18th century, to 650,000 in 1831, to 1.13 million in 1887. During the mid 19th century Xinjiang lost over 500,000 sq. km and a portion of ist Uighur population as a result of an unequal treaty with Tsarist Russia. In 1908, the Uighur population reached 1.57 million and then by 1949 had reached 3.29 million. During the first half of the 20 th Century Xinjiang's Uighur population enjoyed a population growth rate of twice the national average (1.82 percent vs. 0.80 percent) since remote Xinjiang was relatively undisturbed by the Chinese Civil War and the Japanese invasion. Two concentrations of Uighurs outside of Xinjiang, in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province and Shengchi County, Henan Province totaled one thousand population shortly after the founding of the PRC in 1949. At the founding of the PRC in 1949 over 99 percent of China's Uighur population lived in Xinjiang. (pp. 69 - 72) According to the 1990 census, the ethnic Uighur population of 7.19 million comprised 47.45 percent of the total population of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Improved medical care and better economic development spurred a rapid increase of the ethnic minority population of Xinjiang beginning in the 1950s just as in other Chinese minority regions. Family planning has been implemented among the ethnic Uighur minority only in the last few years, much later than among the ethnic Han population. Family planning among the ethnic Uighurs of Xinjiang began in late 1988. (p. 74) Age structure: The Uighur ethnic minority has the largest proportion of elderly and one of the largest proportion of young people of any of China's ethnic groups: this creates an especially large social and economic burden of supporting the young and the elderly. (pp. 74 - 75) Gender structure: In 1964 the gender ratio was an abnormally high 115 males to 100 females. With social progress and the higher status of women, the gender ratio has fell to 105.1 by 1984 and 104.5 by 1990. Among the elderly population there is an unusual excess of males compared with females: a ratio of 160:100 in the 60 - 64 years of age cohort in 1990. The higher proportion of males seems the result of the lower social status of women, the heavy responsibilities of women at home, in the fields, and in taking care of herd animals. and the widespread custom of early marriage, having children early and having many children. For example, the 1990 census showed that the death rate for women in the 15 - 49 age cohort exceeded that of men.
The sharp drop in the Uighur death rate is the result of better medical care, better nutrition and poverty alleviation and the basic elimination of contagious diseases long endemic to Xinjiang. The birth rate although declining is still high.... population growth is the result of the death rate coming down before the birth rate declines. As living standards rise the desired number of children has been dropping. In the 35 - 49 year cohort women want 5 - 6 children; in the 15 - 34 year cohort women want 3 - 4 children. Urban Uighur women want just 2 - 3 children. The desires of Uighur women are coming into basic alignment with the family planning regulations for the Uighur people. (pp. 77 - 78)
The Uighur ethnic group has several distinctive characteristic in ist marriage and family life: -- one husband, multiple wives. Sanctioned by the Islamic religion of the Uighurs, in conflict with the marriage law of the PRC. This practice is gradually disappearing. -- marriage must be within the Uighur ethnic religion and within the Islamic religion. Now marriage outside the ethnic group is gradually becoming accepted. -- early marriage is common but gradually becoming less prevalent. The implementation of the PRC marriage law in the Xingjiang Uighur Autonomous Region calls for a minimum age at marriage of 20 for men and 18 for women. Nonetheless, because of the strong influence of the Islamic religion regulations that males are adult at 12 and females at 9, early marriage is common. Despite 40 years of the PRC marriage law, the 1990 census recorded 7.58 percent of the 15 - 17 year cohort of females and 4.64 percent of the 15 - 19 age cohort of males as already married. This is much higher than the national average for these cohorts of 1.09 percent for females and 1.80 for males. (pp. 81 - 82) -- men are generally 5 - 10 years older than their wives at marriage with a 20 year gap not uncommon. -- high divorce rate and high remarriage rate. Early marriage arranged by parents results in mismatches not in accord with the physical maturity and personal wishes of the partners. Divorce is frequent, carries no social stigma. Parents do not interfere with the choice of subsequent spouse so this second marriage so there is much more freedom in making a second marriage. In 1990 the Uighur divorce rate at 5.25 percent per year was over seven times the PRC average. A study of marriages and divorces in Keping County, Xinjiang found that during 1980 - 1988 found 2797 marriages and 630 divorces or one divorce for every four marriages. -- nuclear family. Uighur children leave home and start their own household at marriage. (pp. 81 - 87)
-- According to the 1990 census the proportion of illiterate and semi-literate people in the ethnic Uighur population was 26.58 percent compared with the national average of 22 percent. -- Agricultural sector accounted for 84.07 percent of the active population in 1990. -- Migration is becoming more common as the economy developed but most migration within Xinjiang rather than inter-regional. (pp. 87. 89)
Xinjiang, in China's northwest, has a surface area of 1.66 square kilometers and occupies one-sixth of China's national territory. Xinjiang has long borders of 5400 km which touch on eight foreign countries. Xinjiang depends on oasis irrigation agriculture. Agriculture accounted for 34.1 percent of the regional economy in 1990. In 1992, Xinjiang had 47.01 million mu (3.136 million hectares) of arable land or 3 mu per capita. Food production totaled 7.06 million tons or 225 kg. per person. Food production is in surplus. Xinjiang is one of China's top producers of cotton and grain. Xinjiang has 859 million mu (57.30 million hectares) of grassland, second only to Inner Mongolia and Tibet. Xinjiang's coal and oil reserves are the greatest in China. In 1992 Xinjiang farmers has an annual income of 740 RMB; city dwellers 1753 RMB. Xinjiang is surrounded by mountains. It depends upon snow melt water from these mountains to irrigate its oases. Xinjiang's oases are isolated, separated from each other by large expanses of desert. Transportation is poor and expensive; as a result many regions are basically closed economies. In 1992, the average income of people in the Hotan region was 903 RMB and 1185 in Kashgar, respectively the lowest and third lowest per capita income of Xinjiang's regions. Nonetheless Hotan and Kashgar are rank second and third highest in Xinjiang in their population growth rate. Increasing populations in the oases has put great pressure on water resources, loss of vegetation on the fringes of the oases, accelerating desertification and grasslands deterioration. Of the 20 counties of Xinjiang in which the ethnic Uighur population comprises 90 percent or more of the population, 13 have been designated by the PRC government as key poverty alleviation counties. Many of these poor counties of southern Xinjiang are trapped in a vicious cycle of "getting poorer and poorer but more and more children are born". pp. 90 - 92
Family planning for the ethnic Uighur minority was merely voluntary until the family planning regulations of 1988 were promulgated by the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. These regulations called for a maximum of two (three under certain conditions) children for urban Uighurs and a maximum of three (four under certain conditions) children for rural Uighurs. The practice of family planning doubled to over half of the Uighur population between 1988 and 1992.
-- Relatively rapid population growth The ethnic Uighur population now increases at an annual rate of 2.41 percent. Minority population growth accounts for three-quarters of the population growth of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. -- Poverty According to 1992 statistics, the per capita income of Kashgar 669 RMB, Hotan 453 RMB, and Kezhou 431 RMB are below the Xinjiang average of 740 RMB. Sixteen counties with ethnic Uighur populations of 90 percent or more are among the 27 poverty alleviation counties designated in Xinjiang for the Eighth Five Year Plan. The 2.98 million people of these poor counties account for 41 percent of the entire Uighur population of China. Poverty expresses itself in that the population and economic growth are not in sync; these counties are in a vicious cycle of poverty in which they "get poorer and poorer as more and more children are born". -- Environmental problems The Xinjiang environment is fragile: over 90 percent of the land is mountain, hilly, desert, or semi-desert waste (gobi). Only 5 percent of Xinjiang's area supports human life so the population pressure on the oases is very high. Some oases have a population density of over 197 people per square kilometer. The area lost to the desertification has increased from 370,000 sq. kilometers to over 420,000 square kilometers. The advance of the desert has forced people to move upstream along the rivers. The location of the ruins of the ancient cities conquered by the desert and the location of human habitation today is a sign of the advance of desertification. Increasing population overloads the environment as plants and grasses which stabilize desert sands are uprooted. Excessive grazing on grasslands, uprooting of medicinal grasses and green plants all facilitate the advance of the desert. Over 50 percent of the irrigated land along the Kashgar river has become salinized; in some counties the proportion of salinized land exceeds 90 percent. In Hotan county, the land is sandy, there is much windblown sand, the soil is covered by a sandy layer, the land does not retain water well and the effectiveness of fertilizer is limited. -- Education backward The educational level of the ethnic Uighur people is relatively low. Among people age 15 and up, 26.58 percent were illiterate or semi-literate in 1990. There are some young illiterates produced because the local school is not big enough. In some households the parents are not healthy enough to earn a living so the children must begin work at a very early age. Since the beginning of the contract system, children have tended to quit school to earn additional income for their families. This problem is especially serious in Kashgar, Hotan and Kezhou. Some children have no support because their parents have divorced and remarried. -- Frequent divorce and remarriage. This tends to increase number of children born since newly remarried people will want children. Increases money spent on marriage celebrations.
-- Unrealistic to expect any rapid improvement in this impoverished area because of its closed culture and economy, low productivity. -- Family planning must be stressed. To quote President Jiang Zemin (in 1992) "If China is to develop, it must as it focuses on economic development, at the same time stress family planning. There must be no wavering on this point. As the socialist market economy is constructed the government must fulfill its function of controlling population growth. If we were simply to rely on the market to control population growth, China would be unable to achieve its family planning goals." This means that family planning work must be strengthened. A network of family planning services must be built throughout Xinjiang. Participants in family planning should be given insurance; the status of family planning worker should be raised. The author (Yuan Xin) notes that family planning work in Xinjiang is seriously deficient. Family planning among the Uighurs can only be successful if the family planning workers are themselves Uighurs. Without Uighur family planning workers, success is impossible. Uighur family planning workers must be trained. Economic resources for family planning must be assured. There must no longer be cases where clinics or hospitals refuse to do family planning related operations or even close down family planning clinics because of a lack of funds. -- Laws on family planning are needed. Family planning is part of the PRC Constitution yet there are few detailed laws on family planning for implementing national policy. Detailed laws on family planning make clear the duties of the citizen and give family planning workers the power to enforce the law. -- Work with Uighur society influentials such as religious leaders, village elders to promote family planning Nearly all Uighurs believe in Islam. The cooperation and influence of religious leaders, village leaders, and the elderly in implementing family planning policy is valuable. (pp. 93 - 100) Prepared by: Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu) Bill Mitchell (turpan@ix.netcom.com) WUNN newsletter index*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= The World Uyghur Network News electronic newsletter is produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center (ETIC) in cooperation with the Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association (USA), and is devoted to the current political, cultural and economic developments in Eastern Turkistan and to the Uyghur people related issues. Eastern Turkistan (Sherqiy Turkistan in Uyghur) is a name used by the indigenous people of the region for their motherland located in what is at present the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic China. The World Uyghur Network News brings information on situation in Eastern Turkistan from the Uyghur and other sources to the attention of the international community. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER |