Xinjiang: A centre-periphery conflict in display. An analysis of the Chinese state- and nation-building machinery in Xinjiang and the mobilization of Uyghur counter-cultures. Truls Winje Master thesis Department of Political Science UNIVERSITY OF OSLO September 2007 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my perceptive and always encouraging supervisor Harald Bøckman at the Centre for Development and the Environment. I would also like to forward my appreciation to Knut Heidar at the Department of Political Science (University of Oslo) who provided me with invaluable advice at the very start of my “scientific voyage”. I wish to thank the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (their China programme) and the Department of Political Science (UIO) for their generous financial support. Moreover, thanks to all the helpful people I met during my stay in Central Asia. Thanks to Semet Abla who put me in contact with important Uyghur diasporic leaders. Thanks to Ivar Dale and Davran, who certainly made my day in Bishkek. The tips from the well travelled Jon-Geir Dittmann was also of paramount importance. In addition, thanks to all my teachers (especially Anne Berggrav), scholars and co- students who have been of great support through the tide of time. To mention a few, thanks to Karl Magnus, Tore and Tommy (Kosovo and Kabul), ISCO-Magnus, Tuften, Lars, Christian G, Lars Sverre, Anette, Cecilie, Heidi, Erle, and the others charming people at Blindern. Thanks to the talented Ingeborg Dittmann who gave me such a “flying start” at my university studies. Most importantly, I wish to give my appreciations to my family, for their patience, understanding, and recent interest for the Uyghurs. This thesis contains about 41,000 words all included. There are bound to be shortcomings in the study, and for these I take full responsibility. Truls Winje September 2007. 3 Table of content Acknowledgments………………………………………………………….................3 List of acronyms………………………………………………………………........... 6 Maps of Xinjiang…………………………………………………………………….. 7 1.0. Xinjiang: An introduction: 8 1.1. The Xinjiang-conflict in a historical perspective. 9 1.2. Research questions and their utilitarian value for studies of Xinjiang. 17 1.3. Xinjiang a terra incognita for social scientists? 20 1.4. Structuring the thesis: Chapter 2-6. 21 2.0. Methodological approach: Constructing an applicable research design. 23 2.1. Research questions: Descriptive, normative or constructive questions? 24 2.2. Analytical categories (theories): An inductive or deductive process? 25 2.3. Collecting the data: Preparations and dialogues with the field of study. 26 2.3.1. Pre-fieldwork preparations: Employing a case study protocol. 26 2.3.2. In dialogue with the field: Various angles of incidence. 28 2.4. Data analysis and source reliability: Codes of scientific conduct. 29 3.0. Theoretical framework: The dynamics of state- and nation-building. 31 3.1. State formation: External boundary-demarcation and internal structuring. 31 3.2. Centre-periphery interactions: Spatial- and non-spatial distances (spaces). 33 3.3. Differentiation and the conceptual linking of centres and peripheries. 35 3.4. Non-spatial boundaries: Collective identities and group structures. 40 4.0. Chinese state- and nation-building in Xinjiang (1949-2007). 43 4.1. State building in Xinjiang: External demarcation and internal structuring. 44 4.1.1. State building: PLA and the Bingtuan as paramount vectors of the centre. 45 4.1.2. The PRC government’s endeavours to deepen its inroads in Xinjiang. 55 4.2. Nation-building: Standardizations and restrictions on Uyghurs’ distinctive markers. 65 4.2.1. Uyghur identity: Diversity the eldest daughter of distance? 65 4.2.2. The “House of Islam” and its organization in Xinjiang. 70 4.2.3. The PRC’s overt and covert educational policies in Xinjiang. 77 4.2.4. Contested histories: “Appropriate” Uyghur tales versus “splittist” tales. 81 4.3. A summary display of Uyghur means and goals: Three broad strategies. 86 4 5.0. The Uyghur diaspora: Voices for East Turkistan. 93 5.1. The mobilization of the Uyghur diaspora against the PRC government. 95 5.2. Uyghur voices in Central Asia: The cases of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. 104 5.2.1. Kazakhstan: China’s most favoured ally in Central Asia. 104 5.2.2. Kyrgyzstan: Latitude for domestic opposition, but not against the PRC. 106 5.3. Uyghur cyber-separatism on the World Wide Web. 107 6.0. PRC state- and nation-building in Xinjiang: A concluding synopsis. 112 6.1. The PRC state building machinery: “Locking-in” Xinjiang and its Uyghurs. 113 6.2. Chinese nation-builders versus Uyghur counter-cultures operating covertly. 114 6.3. Possible development in Xinjiang the coming years: Some final thoughts. 118 List of literature…………………………………………………………………….120 Figures, tables and textboxes. Figure 1. An overall research approach. 24 Figure 2. Scrutinizing sources. 30 Figure 3. External boundary-demarcation and internal structuring. 32 Figure 4. Rokkan: Integration and resistance among centres and peripheries. 34 Figure 5. Rokkan: The basic model. 37 Figure 6. Group structure rigidity/permeability 41 Table 1. Rokkan’s macro-conceptual elaborations on Hirschman. 36 Table 2. Hirschman and Parson combined. 38 Table 3. Exit options and boundary-building. 38 Table 4. Population in Xinjiang: 1953-2004. 58 Table 5. Illustration of separatists, divided into subgroups. 89 Textbox 1. The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (Bingtuan). 46 Textbox 2. Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). 49 Textbox 3. Territorial boundary demarcation agreements involving Xinjiang. 54 Textbox 4. Politico-administrative formation: Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. 56 Textbox 5. Landmarks in the PRC construction of communication axis. 61 5 List of acronyms Bingtuan Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps CIA Chinese Islamic Association CCP Chinese Communist Party ETIC Eastern Turkistan Information Center ETIM East Turkistan Islamic Movement ETLO East Turkistan Liberation Organization ETNC East Turkistan National Congress ETNFC East Turkistan National Freedom Center ETR East Turkistan Republic ETUE Eastern Turkistan Union in Europe GMD Guomindang (Chinese nationalist party) INA Ili National Party IUHRDF Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation PLA People’s Liberation Army PRC People’s Republic of China SCO Shanghai Cooperation Organization TIRET Turkic-Islamic Republic of East-Turkistan UAA Uyghur American Association UCA Uyghur Canadian Association UHRP Uyghur Human Rights Project UNPO Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation WUC World Uyghur Congress WUYC The World Uyghur Youth Congress XUAR Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 6 7 1.0. Xinjiang: An introduction. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is situated in the northwestern corner of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and borders Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Mongolia. As China’s largest province it amounts to a sixth of its land area, contains huge deposits of oil and gas, and furthermore, houses the China’s nuclear test facilities. A glance at a map of the region reveals Xinjiang’s remoteness, with its southern borders actually closer to Baghdad or New Delhi, than to Beijing, the political centre of present day China. Historically, Xinjiang constituted a pivot in the trade routes of the fabled Silk Road, and thus functioned as a “cultural blotter” for different civilizations from the Middle East, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and China proper (Starr 2004:7). Moreover, the dramatic topography has had a fragmenting effect on Xinjiang and exposed it to centrifugal forces, pulling the region in different directions. Hence one may observe an utterly complex cultural zone, with a great variety in the way people settle, cultivate the land, practice their religion, and finally, how they perceive the ruling Chinese Communist party (CCP) (Perdue 2005:32, Millward 2007: XII). Regarding Xinjiang’s function as a “cultural blotter”, it has throughout the course of history attracted a variety of polities, historical formations and warlords, aspiring to be the region’s dominant loci of command. Hence, it has not been a matter of course that the issuant communist regime (incepted in 1949), should succeed in their attempt to “lock-in” (control) the region and its indigenous people. Quite the contrary, the authorities have encountered ardent opposition from the numerically dominant Muslim Uyghurs of Turkic kinship. Even though other minority groups also occupy a role in present day Xinjiang, this thesis mainly concerns the centre-periphery relation between the governing Han-Chinese authorities and the Uyghurs. My expressed aspiration is to illuminate how the PRC government launches successive territorial, jurisdictional, economical and cultural thrusts toward Uyghurs, in their process of state and nation-building in Xinjiang. Sharply different from their dominant Han-Chinese counterpart, Uyghur counter-cultures have mobilized to protect their distinctiveness (resist PRC nation-building). Some Uyghur movements have even challenged China’s state building project, by advocating the initiation of an East 8 Turkistan state at the territory of Xinjiang. Thus, Beijing has effectuated a variety of strategies to effectively “lock-in”/neutralize Uyghur separatist sentiments and ensure their allegiance to the Chinese nation.1 However, the two sides seem diametrically opposed, and the following question emerges; why is the territory of Xinjiang so pivotal for the communist