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North-East Asia North-East Asia Fernand de Varennes During 2004–5, the situation has worsened in noteworthy and worrying trend in China is the China for some groups such as the Tibetans and growing identification of the country with an Uighurs, sometimes under the guise of the fight increasingly blatant Han Chinese form of nationalism against terrorism and extremism, while in most as the country appears to move away from the other countries of the region it has largely remained traditional doctrines of communism. Officially, and stagnant or improved slightly. The treatment of in conformity with what could be described as migrants and ‘new’ minorities is also beginning to Marxist doctrine, the Chinese Communist Party still emerge as an area of concern and effort in the opposes forced assimilation and allows autonomy to region, particularly in Japan and South Korea and to the minority nationalities, so that they can retain perhaps a lesser extent Taiwan. their own characteristics. It is under this policy that the government has set up numerous autonomous China areas throughout China, many of which are identified Minorities in China, including the territories of with specific nationalities, as did the former Soviet Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet, constitute an Union in the past. extremely diverse and substantial grouping in what is The practice and reality in 2004–5 is not so still the world’s most populous state. Ethnic benevolent for most minorities, especially those in minorities, known as ‘nationalities’, are officially 55 Tibet and Xinjiang, but also in most parts of the in number (not including the majority Han country. Huge infrastructure developments Chinese). In addition to this, more than 120 continued in 2004–5, and their disastrous effects nationalities are said to exist, and even this number on minorities are now beginning to appear, though does not necessarily include all religious minorities with hardly any reaction from the international such as the Falun Gong, or ‘newer’ minorities. The community. Two new major rail-lines, one to human rights record of China is often criticized as Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and the other to the being very poor, both by some Western governments Xinjiang city of Kashgar, are being finished, and and in various international reports, but the billions of dollars more are being invested to build particular plight of most minorities in the ‘Middle highways, some with the financial backing of Kingdom’ remain largely overlooked in the flood of international agencies such as the World Bank. attention to this record. Ostensibly to assist in the economic development Overall, their lot during 2004–5 has not improved of these regions and to improve their transportation significantly: on the contrary, the international ‘War infrastructure, these projects however are connected on Terrorism’ and slogan of ‘national security’ have to government policies that are clearly been a godsend for Chinese authorities intent on discriminatory and favour almost exclusively crushing separatist and autonomist movements in individuals of Han Chinese background. restive parts of the country, particularly in the north- The World Bank and much of the international western province of Xinjiang (Xinjiang Uighur community have remained largely silent and even Autonomous Region) where the Muslim, Turkic- complicit in what is in effect a surreptitious ethnic speaking Uighur minority are concentrated ‘transmigration programme’: recruitment for the (according to the official 2000 census, approximately thousands upon thousands of road- and rail- 45 per cent of the 19 million people in Xinjiang are building jobs are mainly targeting Han Chinese in Uighurs), and to a lesser extent, Tibet. As reported by other parts of the country, and some estimates Amnesty International, the view that human rights admit that, for Tibet alone, the new rail-line will could be curtailed under the ‘War on Terrorism’ open the door for some 900,000 Han Chinese umbrella was particularly apparent in China in the annually to move into the ancient ‘Land of the last few years (Amnesty International, Regional Snow’, attracted by various employment Overview 2004: Asia and the Pacific). Under the guise opportunities and even financial incentives from the of cracking down on terrorists and other extremists, Chinese central authorities. In other words, arrests, detentions and even torture and other government policies are clearly discriminatory as violations of the rights of minorities have been they favour and support overwhelmingly the Han conducted without evoking a huge amount of Chinese, and are leading to the Uighurs, Tibetans criticism from the outside world. Another general and other minorities being swamped and rendered Asia and Oceania State of the World’s 107 Minorities 2006 increasingly powerless in the face of a mammoth efforts to provide schooling in minority languages, the influx and settlement of people of Han Chinese dominant position of standard Chinese in government, background. commerce, and academia put graduates of minority Employment practices by public authorities in schools who lacked standard Chinese proficiency at a Tibet, Xinjiang and other parts of China have disadvantage. The vast majority of Uighur children in seemed to be increasingly discriminatory, partially Xinjiang attended Uighur-language schools and fuelled by the growing numbers of Han Chinese generally received an hour’s Chinese language settling in these provinces, and often resulting in the instruction per day. Tuition at Chinese-language effective exclusion of minorities from various jobs schools in Xinjiang was generally more costly, and thus, because of language requirements. Though officially most Uighur children living in rural areas were unable supportive of minority languages, reports continue to afford them.’ (US State Department, Country to indicate that even where minorities represent a Reports on Human Rights Practices 2004: China) very high percentage or even a majority in a region, civil service offices refuse or are unwilling to use Chinese authorities tend, however, to emphasize local languages in their activities (Article 121 of the that nationalities enjoy equality through the system Constitution of the People’s Republic of China for regional autonomy for ethnic minorities, and states that: ‘In performing their functions, the that they have the right to receive instruction in organs of self-government of the national their own language, and that this is in fact more autonomous areas employ the spoken and written respectful of the identity of minorities than what is language or languages in common use in the in place in many Western states. (This autonomy is locality’). Recruitment of civil servants is often unfortunately in most cases more illusory than real, based on fluency in Chinese, with no consideration with real positions of power usually kept in the of knowledge of local languages, with the result that hands of Han Communist Party cadres, and Han minorities are clearly and unreasonably Chinese generally being employed in most senior disadvantaged by this Chinese-language bias and positions. For example, out of 25 new appointees to find that they will be passed over for employment various parts of the judiciary at local and Tibetan opportunities in favour of ethnic Hans. Autonomous Region levels, only four were Tibetan, The discriminatory position attributed to the according to the Free Tibet Campaign, August Chinese language as the almost exclusive language of 2005.) Additionally, Chinese authorities will refer to employment opportunities for government and new measures such as increasing investment and government-supported initiatives in regions where improving education and the legal system, and there are substantial minorities thus has augmented poverty alleviation for (only) 22 ethnic minorities in the complete dominance of Han Chinese in almost the government’s 10th Five-Year Plan (2001–5). all areas of political and economic significance. The government published in February 2005 a While minorities generally do have access to school White Paper on ‘Regional Autonomy for Ethnic instruction in their own language, they are still Minorities in China’ which emphasizes that China’s relegated in practice to the lower echelons of society policy of Regional National Autonomy is ‘critical to with few job opportunities unless their language is enhancing the relationship of equality, unity, mutual also used as a language of work, particularly in those assistance among different ethnic groups, to uphold regions such as Tibet, Xinjiang and others with very national unification, and to accelerate the large and territorially concentrated populations: development of places where regional autonomy is practiced and promoting their progress’. ‘In many areas with a significant population of While this White Paper and other developments minorities, there were two-track school systems which show that authorities are discussing the situation of used either standard Chinese or the local minority minorities, international outside reports have language. Students could choose to attend schools in continued to be more critical of the reality in the either system. However, graduates of minority language field of respecting the rights of minorities. The UN schools typically needed one year or more of intensive Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Chinese before they could handle course work at a concluded that in effect there was discrimination in Chinese-language university. Despite
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