Tradition of Tension and Oppression Essay -- China

Xinjiang lies on the far western boundaries of the People’s Republic of China. An area three times the size of France, home to the vast majority of the People’s Republic of China’s Uyghur population (along with twelve other officially recognized ethnic groups), the Xinjiang Autonomous Region has been isolated from its central Beijing-based government by rough terrain, a language barrier, and starkly different religious traditions and economic structure. Even the region’s Chinese name, Xinjiang or â€Å"new frontier† implies both the relative recentness of the province’s acquisition by China and the imperialist nature of this acquisition. Early Chinese Communist Party policy in the region led to atrocious acts of cultural genocide. Separatist movements developed as resistance to the Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to incorporate the region into a culture with which it was incompatible. While Mao era policies had disastrous effects a cross the People’s Republic, the effort to promote a stronger Chinese identity lead to the isolation of the Uyghur community and the development of Uyghur nationalism as demonstrated by PRC policy towards the non-Han populace during the 1950s and the resulting Yi-Ta incident of 1962. Xinjiang’s past status throughout Chinese history has been used as justification both for and against its incorporation into PRC, depending solely on political perspective. As a sparsely populated and resource-rich vast buffer region between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic, Xinjiang was strategically and economically valuable. When the Peoples’ Liberation Army entered the province in 1949, despite a lack of familiarity with either the geography or the people, they successfully quelled resistance efforts . A provin... ...-145. Web. Gladney, Dru C. Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the Peoples' Republic. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996. Print. Kaltman, Blaine. Under the Heel of the Dragon. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007. Print. McMillen, Donald H. Chinese Communist Power and Policy in Xinjiang, 1949 - 1977. Boulder: Westview Press, Inc., 1979. Print. Millward, James A. Eurasian Crossroads. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Print. Moseley, George. "China's Fresh Approach to the National Minority Question." The China Quarterly.24 (1965): pp. 15-27. Web. of Slavists, Canadian. "The Uighurs between China and the USSR." Canadian Slavonic papers 17.2/3 (1975): 341-65. jstor. Web. Waite, Edmund. "The Impact of the Sate on Islam Amongst the Uyghurs: Religious Knowledge and Authority in the Kashgar Oasis." Central Asian Survey 25.3 (2006)Print.