Xinjiang

China’s great potential or great

weakness?
 Xinjiang’s importance for China
• Geopolitical significance
• Rich resources – oil industry, energy, minerals
water sources
• Vast territory to secure China’s territory needs in
terms of population growth and economic
development
• Potential for sustainable development (unevenly
divided population)
• Trade
 Xinjiang ? Or Eastern Turkistan?

SHORT MODERN HISTORY OF A CONFLICT

• "East Turkistan“- 1933 - 1934
1944 - 1949
• Riots
• Soviet invasion (Afghanistan)
• The 1990s – call for jihad
• 1996. -‘Strike Hard’ campaign
• East Turkestan Islamic Movement
 HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION
• ‘People’s war on terror’
• Political prisoners
• China has ratified to the UN Convention
Against Torture Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CAT)
 A WORD PLAY
• Change of rethoric - confusion between “separatism”
and “terrorism”
• Eastern Turkestan is associated with highly negative
political terms such as splittist, separatist, and
terrorist, leading readers to associate the place name
with danger and chaos
• Mesaures in Xinjiang to be percieved as part of the
international struggle against terrorism
• the pressure of China’s monoculturalist policy:
“different than Hans” = being “anti-Han”
 MAJOR SECURITY THREATS
• 1) religious extremism
• 2) US presence
• 3) rise of regional powers
 Bibliography
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of violent Uighur separatism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 20(2), 271-301.
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Uighur Autonomous Region of Western China. Human Rights Brief, 8(1), 8.
• Dillon, M. (1997). Ethnic, religious and political conflict on China’s northwestern
borders: the background to the violence in Xinjiang. IBRU Boundary and Security
Bulletin, 5(1), 80-86.
• Dwyer, A. M. (2005). The Xinjiang conflict: Uyghur identity, language policy, and
political discourse.
• Harris, L. C. (1993). Xinjiang, Central Asia and the implications for China's policy in
the Islamic world. The China Quarterly.
• Hoh, A. (2018). From Qatar to Xinjiang: Security in China's Belt and Road
Initiative. Middle East Policy, 25(4), 65-76.
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• Naughton, B. (2007). The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth. MIT Press.
• Raballand, G., & Andrésy, A. (2007). Why should trade between Central Asia and
China continue to expand?. Asia Europe Journal, 5(2), 235-252.
• Rogers, R. A. (2020). The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China and the new
Great Game in Central Asia. Journal of International Studies, 3, 92-105.
• Zhang, S., & McGhee, D. (2014). Social policies and ethnic conflict in China: Lessons