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China's Uighurs lose out to
development
By Louisa Lim
BBC, Xinjiang
 Liu
Guizhen is digging a ditch for irrigation along a
barren stretch of road, quite literally developing
China's west.
Hundreds of Chinese migrants, mainly poor farmers like
him, arrive every day in Xinjiang in the far west of
the country.
For the last three years, China has poured billions of
dollars into a campaign to redevelop its poorer
western provinces.
But who has been benefiting from this programme?
Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, is booming
Liu Guizhen said travelling 3,000km to find work was a
question of survival.
"Developing the west is about making money to put food
in our mouths," he said. "We'll go wherever there's
good money to be made."
In the eyes of the authorities, raising living
standards in Xinjiang could also serve to dilute any
separatist impulses within the local Uighur Muslim
population.
And there is no doubt that the new arrivals are
transforming the landscape.
Boom cities are springing up in the parched desert
with all the trappings of modernity - wide roads,
swanky apartment blocks, even traffic jams. A sure
sign of growing prosperity, but for whom?
One sign of an economic shift can be seen in Erdaoqiao
market in Xinjiang's provincial capital, Urumqi.
It is a modern building packed with stalls selling
inlaid knives, camel-hair carpets, embroidered hats -
all traditional products in the region.
It used to be an open-air bazaar mainly run by locals.
But development led to a new building, the rents went
up and many Uighurs were literally priced out of the
market.
The development is being fuelled by Han Chinese
migrants
 "It's
too expensive," said one Uighur hat seller, who has
moved outside onto the pavement.
His new pitch, he said, would soon be turned into a
car park and he did not know where he would go then.
For many Uighurs, this tale of economic
marginalisation is familiar.
Around 90% of Xinjiang's population were Uighurs in
1949; now it is estimated that Uighurs make up only
about 45% of the population.
They are being supplanted as the dominant ethnic group,
by Han settlers who see the windswept desert as a land
of opportunity.
The Chinese Government is also staking its claim to
the province's rich natural reserves, particularly its
oil.
At exercise time at the Tazhong oil refinery in the
middle of the Taklamakan desert, all the faces are Han
Chinese.
According to Wang Lequan, the province's communist
party secretary, Uighurs simply do not have the skills
for jobs like these.
"One common problem of the western region is that the
education and cultural level of the people here is
quite low," Mr Wang said. "In Xinjiang, we lack the
talent needed for modernisation and advanced industry."
There is a language divide as well. Uighurs speak a
Turkic dialect; many of them speak little or no
Chinese.
Xinjiang's indigenous Uighurs are losing out
 This
means they are effectively disqualified from official
jobs and it makes it harder for them to find
employment within Chinese companies. That is also an
argument for bringing in labour from outside the
province.
But critics like Nicholas Becquelin from Human Rights
in China said the government's developmental approach
was accelerating the wealth disparity between the
Chinese and minority Uighurs.
"It's a top down approach to development, where the
state decides what are the important projects like
building railroads, roads, developing the oil
exploitation of Xinjiang," he said.
"These are all major infrastructural programmes that
directly benefit the urban Chinese segment of the
population. And there is nothing done seriously on
poverty alleviation, rural development or minority
empowerment in this programme," he said.
No prospects
Seventy-year-old Etam Yusuf is an example of those who
are being left behind.
He is selling his donkey cart because he cannot even
afford to send his four children to school.
The Uighur part of Urumqi where he lives is basically
a slum, though it is not far from the glitzy new
skyscrapers.
The roads are unpaved and there are heaps of rubbish
everywhere; his house is made from earth, with sheep
roaming the courtyard and all six family members
sleeping in one room.
Nonetheless, he still thinks he is better off than
others he knows.
"There are a lot of people without work here, really a
lot," he said.
"There are graduates who have just left university but
who still have no work."
And beggars are a common sight in Xinjiang, most of
them Uighurs. As they struggle to eke out a living,
Uighurs are becoming second-class citizens on their
own soil.
Many Uighurs fear that the influx of Chinese settlers,
with their built-in advantages, is threatening Uighur
culture, their means of existence and ultimately their
survival.
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