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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 65 27 October 1997 In this issue: (1) CHINA'S RESTIVE MOSLEMS CHAFE AT BEIJING 10/25/97, Reuters, by Jane Macartney (2) EXPERT SEES CHINA'S XINJIANG UNLIKELY TO SEPARATE 10/22/97, Reuters, by Jane Macartney (3) XINJIANG GIVES FOREIGN INVESTOR TAX BREAKS 10/21/97, Reuters *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) CHINA'S RESTIVE MOSLEMS CHAFE AT BEIJING 10/25/97, Reuters, by Jane Macartney KASHGAR, China, Oct 26 (Reuters) - In China's westernmost city of Kashgar hundreds of mourners filed into the Aidkah mosque to bid farewell to Abdul Miti, remembered for his part in an anti-Chinese rebellion of the 1940s. Miti, 65, had died in the night and was buried within 24 hours in accordance with Moslem law. He was guaranteed a solemn send-off in China's second largest mosque by his position as a government official and as a veteran of the 1946 ``Three Districts Revolution'' against the ruling Nationalists that was co-opted by the communists, who were then in opposition. Recent uprisings in the western Xinjiang region against rule from Beijing have been met with less warmth by China's communist rulers. Ringleaders and participants have been swiftly executed or jailed. ``The situation is now very stable,'' said Liu Yushen, head of the Foreign Affairs office of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. ``Relations between the Han and the minorities are very harmonious, there are no major problems in living and working in peace,'' he said. OUTWARD DISPLAYS OF PEACE AND HARMONY Ethnic Han Chinese account for about 38 percent of the 16 million people in Xinjiang. The rest are Turkic-speaking Uighurs and other mainly Moslem minorities. Not all are happy with Chinese rule, officials say. ``But these are a very tiny minority,'' said one official in the town of Khotan. Khotan was rocked by bloody riots two years ago when some 800 people protested against the removal of a charismatic mullah whose speeches were drawing huge crowds. The town of Kashgar has also seen anti-Chinese unrest in the past but for the moment seems relaxed. The great Sunday bazaar in Kashgar sees thousands of Uighurs gather to market their produce and to sell and buy livestock. One Uighur cloth merchant sitting cross-legged among his colourful wares looked amazed when asked whether he disliked his Han Chinese rulers. A young Uighur hammering molten gold into earrings over an ancient anvil shrugged and smiled at a similar question. ``My business is good, I am happy,'' said another artisan selling musical instruments in the old city. Any police or military presence is extremely discreet in Kashgar and Khotan or in any of the smaller trading towns along the southern Silk Road that runs between Xinjiang's Taklamakan desert and the Kunlun mountains. There is little sign that Beijing is using the army as a force to intimidate its unruly Moslem minorities. CRACKDOWN ON VIOLENT DISSIDENTS The only overt indications of trouble are tattered propaganda banners strung across roads in small market towns. ``Fight against violent crime and oppose splittism to protect the motherland,'' reads one banner written in both Chinese characters and Uighur Arabic above the main road in the trading town of Yarkand. Xinjiang's Han Chinese Communist Party leaders have called on the region's people to erect a ``great wall of steel'' to fight separatists and to crack down on those who use religion to foment unrest. Last February, anti-Chinese riots in the town of Yining on the border with Kazakhstan left nine dead and 198 injured. In May, eight people were executed for the planting of home-made bombs on buses in the regional capital Urumqi. The explosions were timed to coincide with the funeral of the late leader Deng Xiaoping. Officials say the problem is not one of ethnic tension but of political misunderstanding among the uneducated who are easily manipulated by Uighur activists operating from abroad. ``They have a political aim to subvert China and they use religious slogans and the ethnic issue to attain their goals,'' said Liu. FOREIGN INTERFERENCE SUSPECTED China frequently blames foreign forces for stirring up unrest within its borders -- although Beijing stops short of identifying any single country. Officials in Xinjiang cited neighbouring Pakistan as well as Saudi Arabia, where the fundamentalist Wahabi school would be a likely group eager to support what they might see as fellow Sunni Moslems beleaguered by secular Chinese rule. ``The Moslems in China are seen as the last Moslems under communism and they are increasingly receiving world Moslem attention,'' said Dru Gladney, senior research fellow at the East-West Centre and professor at the Asian Studies Program at the University of Hawaii. Gladney, an expert on China's Moslem minorities, said there was little likelihood the Uighur militants could mount a real threat to secede from China although they may be able to influence Beijing's international image and destabilise local areas. RELIGION NOT TO BLAME SAY LEADERS Religious leaders in Xinjiang bristle at the suggestion that Islam could be involved in the anti-China movement. ``Those who believe in Islam would never take actions that would split the country, killing people and stealing,'' said Imam Tsadik Kara Haji, 60, head of the Aidkah mosque and deputy director of the state-sponsored Kashgar Islamic Association. ``Those involved in splittist activities do not understand Islam,'' he said, citing the attempted assassination in May 1996 of his colleague Aronghanaji, top leader of Xinjiang's Moslems, as the 73-year-old imam strolled to prayers in Aidkah mosque. Aronghanaji's assailant had been executed, the imam said, pointing a finger at his forehead to mimic the firing squad. Asked if he feared a similar attack by extremists who may regard him as a collaborator, the white-turbanned imam shrugged. ``We believe in destiny. Who knows? But we are not afraid.'' But he may have reason to fear. SOME WOULD LIKE TO SEE AN INDEPENDENT STATE Behind the air of calm, behind the overt bonhomie between Uighurs and the Han Chinese who cannot even speak their language, there flows a frostier undercurrent. ``I can speak Chinese but I don't like to, no one here does,'' said an elderly Uighur as he sat cross-legged sipping tea in Kashgar. ``The Han don't like us and we know it. And we don't like them.'' Some Uighurs complain that the Chinese broadcast their morning and evening news bulletin through raucous loudspeakers to coincide with the Moslem call to prayer. Others describe a feeling of oppression. One wealthy merchant who has clearly benefited from China's policy of reform illustrated his discontent by placing an ashtray in the centre of the table and marking a circle around it with his finger. ``This is the Uighurs, surrounded by the police,'' said the businessman. ``The Han Chinese should get out of Xinjiang.'' He even dared to mention the unmentionable -- the desire among Uighur militants to set up an independent ``East Turkestan'' in Xinjiang. ``But if you call Xinjiang Turkestan, then the Chinese will arrest you,'' he said. Uighurs voice anger that jobs and opportunities are going to the Han Chinese pouring into the region from interior China. The fact that few Han Chinese, even those born in Xinjiang, bother to learn to speak Uighur is another irritant. ``To resolve the ethnic problem we must do two things,'' said one local Han Chinese official. ``We must boost economic development and we must have mutual respect.'' Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. (2) EXPERT SEES CHINA'S XINJIANG UNLIKELY TO SEPARATE 10/22/97, Reuters, by Jane Macartney BEIJING, Oct 22 (Reuters) - China's Moslem minority has become increasingly restive in recent years but their separatist movement is unlikely to gather the strength to secede or to grow into a destabilising force, a U.S. expert said on Wednesday. However, China's Moslems were gaining more attention, support and even capital from Islamic communities elsewhere in the world, Dru Gladney, a senior research fellow at the East-West Centre and professor at the Asian Studies Program at the University of Hawaii, told reporters. Gladney, who was written extensively on the Moslems who live in China's far west, said Beijing's opening to the outside world since the 1970s and 1980s coupled with increasing globalisation had enabled its Moslems to boost international contacts. China's Moslem minority has not only raised its links with other communities through rapid growth in travel and trade but also through more advanced means such as e-mail, Gladney said. Beijing has become increasingly worried about Moslem separatism, especially as outbreaks of unrest among the Moslem Uighur minority -- a Turkic-speaking group in its westernmost Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- have become more organised and more violent. ``They are seen as the last Moslems under communism and they are increasingly receiving world Moslem attention,'' Gladney said. Beijing regularly accuses unnamed foreign forces of fostering a pro-independence movement in Xinjiang. Local officials interviewed last week in Xinjiang insisted the separatists accounted for only a tiny minority but said the government was committed to setting up a ``great wall of steel'' to battle what it called ``terrorist'' groups. Gladney said he had noted an increase in separatist violence in Xinjiang in recent years. He described these as ``a few isolated incidents of separatism,'' but added that these were an extension of earlier problems in Xinjiang although on a larger scale. The region has seen sporadic rebellions against China over centuries. However, Gladney said he saw scant possibility the Uighurs could secede from China although they could be destabilising in very localised areas as well as to China's world image as it enters and applies to join more international organisations. The wider opening of China's borders to its neighbouring countries, particularly in Central Asia, would make it very difficult for China to close down again if the separatist movement gathered momentum, he said. ``China is a global country, it can't be hermetically sealed,'' he said. Exiled Uighurs seeking independence for their homeland had set up groups in cities such as Istanbul, Almaty, Vancouver and Washington D.C., he said, adding that Uighur Moslems could rely on support and sympathy from the Moslem world. Gladney said Beijing could avert ethnic tensions by making structural changes to ensure Uighurs did not lose out in China's race to modernisation and prosperity and that they were included in the political power structure. Uighur militants want to set up an independent ``East Turkestan'' in Xinjiang, and last May eight people were executed after being found guilty of involvement in the planting of home-made bombs on buses in the regional capital, Urumqi, that killed nine people. Last February, anti-Chinese riots in the Xinjiang border town of Yining left nine people dead and 198 injured. (3) XINJIANG GIVES FOREIGN INVESTOR TAX BREAKS 10/21/97, Reuters URUMQI -- China's remote westernmost region of Xinjiang (see map) is to introduce tax breaks to try to lure foreign investors to do business in China's gateway to Central Asia, local officials said. "We want (Xinjiang's capital) Urumqi to become an economic and financial center for Central Asia," Liu Yusheng, head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Xinjiang regional Foreign Affairs Bureau, said in an interview at the weekend. To attain that goal, the government of this region of wild deserts, mountains and fertile oases plans to unveil a new blueprint of tax breaks and favorable policies aimed at boosting foreign investment, Liu said. The region hopes to use geography -- long its greatest weakness due to its distance from Beijing -- to transform itself into a bridge between the economies of central Asia, Pakistan and even the Middle East and China's booming coastal provinces. Still one of the poorest regions of China and a three-day train journey from Beijing, the restive and mostly Moslem region of Xinjiang that borders Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan has set for itself an ambitious goal. However, as an autonomous region it has the power to set policies separate from those of Beijing and is using this status to set tax holidays for foreign investors, possibly among the most generous and far-reaching in China. Foreign investors will be allowed to lease, buy, take part in or fully own any type of Chinese enterprise in Xinjiang, including long-protected state industries, officials said. The region will open its ferrous and non-ferrous metals sectors to exploration and development by foreign investors, with Australia's Western Mining Corp. already planning to invest $29 million to prospect for gold. "We are going to offer tax concessions and open policies that are more attractive than those offered by interior provinces," Liu said. Foreign joint ventures to be set up for at least 10 years will pay 13 percent tax compared with the usual 15 percent. Those established in development zones with central government approval will enjoy income tax holidays while those in regional-level development zones will be eligible for refunds on their income tax. No tax will be charged in the first year after they make a profit and in the third to the fifth year they will pay only half. The region will offer similar tax breaks in many other districts to encourage both productive and non-productive enterprises, with special holidays for enterprises engaged in transport and agriculture. Foreign companies that reinvest their profits in Xinjiang will enjoy yet more generous tax breaks and refunds while export-oriented businesses will be eligible for tax rebates. The region is already the first in China to allow foreigners to lease land for agricultural use and plans to encourage such projects with new tax holidays. "Foreign investors who come here can decide their own methods of management, they can be capitalist," said Liu. "It's up to them to set salaries, to hire and fire. The state will not interfere." Foreign investment is still tiny in Xinjiang, totaling just $265 million at the end of 1996, although cooperative projects soared by 22 percent last year and Liu said the region was seeing a new surge after foreign interest slowed from 1992 to 1994. Prepared by: Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu) and Bill Mitchell 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 |