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China Whitewashes the Historic Reality of East
Turkestan
Erkin Dolat ,
May 26, 2003
China’s State Cabinet today released a white paper
called “History and Development of Xinjiang” aimed at
perpetuating Beijing’s illegitimate occupation of East
Turkestan and serving China’s contemporary political
interests by whitewashing the historic reality of this
region. It is clear from the timing of the release and
purpose of this document that it is a work of Chinese
politicians, not academics. This Machiavellian type of
white paper, which is full of word games and distorted
historical accounts, was probably released to serve
the following two purposes:
First, it attempts to convince the international
community that the Uyghur people who have been
demanding freedom and independence from China do not
have a legitimate cause since “Xinjiang” is an
“inseparable part of China since the ancient times”.
This message is sent to mislead foreign governments
and those foreigners who support the Uyghur people to
believe that the Uyghurs don’t have a legitimate
ground to demand anything from China, and they should
be happy with the status quo. This is aimed at cutting
off foreign support and sympathy toward the Uyghur
cause and people. This is the way to further isolate
Uyghurs in the world and justify Chinese crackdown in
the name of fighting against so-called three evils,
“separatism, extremism, and terrorism”. According to
the Chinese government, all of these “evil” labels are
applied to the Uyghurs only.
The Uyghurs call their motherland “East Turkestan”
because it is the eastern part of ancient Turkestan.
It is the land of Turkic peoples, not Chinese. The
western part of Turkestan includes Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The Uyghurs
along with Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and Turkmens are
all Turks by race that share common language, culture,
religion and history. They are the offspring of a
common Turkic ancestry. They have nothing in common
with their Chinese neighbors who have always coveted
their lands. The Turkic peoples belonged to the
western Turkestan became free and independent after
the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991. Today,
they are the masters of their territory and destiny.
Unfortunately, East Turkestan, which fell prey to
communist Chinese designs in 1949 with Soviet support,
is still an occupied country. China invaded and
occupied the East Turkestan Republic, which existed
from 1944 to 1949. This was an independent state
established by Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz,
Tatars, and Mongols. Now Beijing shamelessly claims it
as “part of China since ancient times”.
The People’s Republic of China changed the name East
Turkestan into “Xinjiang” in 1955 after it was
designated an Uyghur "autonomous" region. It is true
that during the Great Game period Manchu Qing Dynasty
occupied East Turkestan and changed its name into “Xinjiang”,
which means “new territory” for the first time in
1884. The communist China not only inherited the
territories occupied by Manchus, foreign invaders
considered by both Chinese people and historians, but
also gradually picked up its foreign policy.
According to the white paper, “Xinjiang” means “old
territory returned to the motherland”. This is a new
fabrication that can not be found in any Chinese
encyclopedia or historical accounts. In fact, the
ancient Chinese called East Turkestan and beyond as
“Xiyu” meaning “western regions”. According to Chinese
historian Zhang Xiaodong, “The Chinese term Xiyu
forgotten for more than a hundred years can be used to
cover all the regions from the Middle East to South
Asia”. In simple words, “Xiyu” means foreign
territories beyond China. East Turkestan was part of “Xiyu”,
which was not part of historic China. If East
Turkestan was part of China, then, the Chinese
government should also claim all the regions from the
Middle East to South Asia as part of its territories.
Another fact to note is that the Chinese government
sources say Qin Shihuang unified China for the first
time in history during the Qin Dyansty and built the
Great Wall of China to prevent foreign encroachment.
The Great Wall of China, which was China’s real
boundary, crumbles to pieces at Jiayouguan, far from
the border of East Turkestan. The Chinese white paper
seems to perpetuate the notion that the ancient
territories of China have always been as big as the
People’s Republic of China, or bigger. This is not
historically true. The fact is that the ancient China
is much smaller consisted of the eastern part of
today’s China and the Middle Plains. Manchuria,
(Inner) Mongolia, East Turkestan, and Tibet were not
historic Chinese territories. The communist China
simply reoccupied all the territories of Manchu
Dynasty and claimed as part of China since “ancient”
times. The word “ancient times” is vague and
misleading, and contrary to the historic facts.
The fact is that China has learned a bitter lesson in
the case of Tibetans’ freedom struggle. China knows it
has lost the public relations war, and as a result, it
cannot justify its heavy-handed policies there but has
to negotiate with Tibetans under pressure from the
United States and other European countries. This is
one of the reasons why Dalai Lama’s envoys are in
Beijing now and meeting with Chinese officials. China
doesn’t want to lose the public relations war in the
case of Uyghurs’ freedom struggle and negotiate with
them about a settlement as well. This is more a
preemptive measure aimed at isolating the Uyghurs and
discrediting their interpretation of the historic
reality of East Turkestan, the motherland of Uyghurs
and other Turkic peoples.
Second, the white paper seems to perpetuate the notion
that the Chinese have always been the ruling class in
what is now the People’s Republic of China and all the
minorities have been their subjects who have no right
to rule or separate their countries from China by any
means. This is to justify contemporary Chinese
chauvinism and create a Chinese nation state, a
country of, by, and for the Chinese, not minorities.
That is why China claims all the glories of history as
exclusively “Chinese”. This is not historically true.
In fact, most dynasties the Chinese government claims
as “Chinese” were not Chinese dynasties. Tang Dynasty
was an ethnically mixed dynasty. Yuan Dynasty was a
Mongol Dynasty. Qing Dynasty was a Manchu Dynasty. The
Mongols and Manchus didn’t establish a country for the
Chinese but occupied China and established their own
empires.
Today’s government of People’s Republic of China is
not a successive inheritor of any previous dynasties
or empires established by Han, Yuan, Ming, Qing or any
other. To claim all the territories occupied by any
dynasty, especially the last Manchu Qing Dynasty, as
part of China since “ancient times” is nothing but
imperialism. It is not any different from today’s
Mongolian government claiming all the territories
occupied by Ghin-gizkhan, the founder of Mongol
Empire, as its own territories since “ancient times”.
The Chinese white paper fails to explain the root
causes as to why the Uyghur people have for more than
a century wanted to establish an independent East
Turkestan and why after Beijing’s great development in
this region since 1949 still want to separate from
China. Why are they sometimes even ready to sacrifice
their lives for independence? What is really wrong
with the Uyghurs if they have been treated so well as
China claims they are? Apparently, the naked truth
speaks louder than the fabricated myths by the Chinese
government.
According to the U.S. State Department 2002 Human
Rights Report, The People's Republic of China (PRC) is
an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist
Party (CCP or Party) is the paramount source of power.
The Government severely restricted freedom of assembly
and continued to restrict freedom of association and
freedom of movement. While the number of religious
believers continued to grow, government respect for
religious freedom remained poor and crackdowns against
Muslim Uyghurs continued.
The report, which was released on March 31, 2003 says,
“In Xinjiang, where security remained tight, human
rights abuses intensified… Throughout the year, the
Government continued a national "strike hard" campaign
against crime, characterized by round-ups of suspects
who were sometimes sentenced in sports arenas in front
of thousands of spectators. At year's end, this
campaign, which was originally scheduled to last for 3
months at its inception in April 2001, showed no signs
of abating in some areas. Some dissidents, "separatists,"
and underground church members were targeted. The
campaign has been especially harsh in Xinjiang, where
those deemed to be "splittists" by the Government were
targeted. As part of the campaign, officials
reportedly carried out over 4,000 executions during
the year, frequently without due process”.
The human rights report notes that “Many observers
raised concerns about the Government's use of the
international war on terror as a justification for
cracking down harshly on suspected Uighur separatists
expressing peaceful political dissent and on
independent Muslim religious leaders. According to
reports from Xinjiang's Uighur community, authorities
continued to search out and arrest Uyghurs possessing
written or recorded information containing unapproved
religious material”.
This is one piece of the puzzle why the Uyghurs want
to freedom and independence from China. This is only
one drop of what the Uyghur people have been suffering
under the Chinese rule. Many reports over the years
from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom,
and the Laogai Foundation can testify the reality on
the plight of Uyghurs.
The fact is that Rabiye Kadir, a prominent Uyghur
businesswoman whose only crime was to send publicly
available newspapers to her dissident husband in the
U.S., is still serving her eight-year prison terms in
notorious Chinese prison in Urumchi. The fact is that
Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a
semi-military unit of nearly three million strong, is
fulfilling its historical mission of colonizing East
Turkestan and enslaving the Uyghur farmers by
depriving their land, water, and agricultural means.
The fact is that the Uyghur language still cannot be
spoken at any university as the language of
instruction. The fact is that the Uyghur history books
are burned at the pleasure of Chinese officials. The
fact is that the Uyghur chairman of the “autonomous”
region represents the highest interest of the Chinese
government by betraying the interest of the Uyghur
people. The fact is that the Uyghurs autonomy has
become a Chinese colony. These are the hard facts that
have driven the Uyghurs to seek separation from China.
The fact is that the Uyghurs will struggle for their
freedom and independence as long as China continues to
deny their fundamental human rights and their right to
be the master of their own motherland and destiny.
China was wrong before and is wrong again. China is
wrong to assume that the Uyghurs will simply give up
their goals after Beijing deceives the world by
portraying them as “terrorists”. China has for the
past fifty years failed to hide the East Turkestan
Question because hiding is not a solution. It is time
that China should realistically look at the issue and
negotiate with the Uyghurs to find a permanent
solution, much like the way it treats the Tibetan
Question.
China has no choice but sooner or later it has to
resolve the question. Beijing should understand from
its past experiences that constant execution of
Uyghurs for both political and religious reasons can't
ensure lasting peace. Coexistence between the Uyghurs
and Chinese can't be long maintained by force.
Therefore, The fourth generation of Chinese leaders,
instead of lying about the Uyghurs and East Turkestan
as it lied over SARS, should boldly seize the
initiative and resolve the East Turkestan Question as
soon as possible for the posterity of both the Uyghur
and the Chinese nations.
Erkin Dolat
Editor of UIA
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