No scheme to assimilate Uygurs

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By He Rulong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-30 07:48

I was at Urumqi airport for a flight to Shanghai at 18:30 on July 5, as an escort for a group from the United States. Our four-day visit to Urumqi and Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was most informative and interesting. We were basking in the joy of the trip and unaware of the creeping danger in other parts of the regional capital.

I am not writing about the riot though. What I want to share is my experience in Kashgar where I keenly felt that what had been reported and perceived in foreign countries was so different from the real pictures in China.

It was my second visit to Kashgar, a beautiful yet different place in China's northwest. More than 90 percent of the local population is ethnic Uygur. The ethnic Han like me are a minority. Yet every time I traveled to the city, I was overwhelmed by the warmth and friendship of our Uygur brothers and sisters. Never would I doubt that the Uygurs and Han people are from the same big family, no matter how different our customs and appearances may be.

One of our purposes of visiting Kashgar is to check on the renovation of its Old City. Early this year, the government unveiled a three-billion-yuan ($440 million) plan to renovate the Old City of Kashgar - an 8.36-sq-km area housing 220,000 Uygurs, or 42 percent of the population of Kashgar. As Chinese, we are accustomed to such renovations as part of the economic boom in the last 30 years. But because of the sheer number of Uygurs affected, this project has aroused great concern in the Western media. Some worried about the potential risk of Uygur cultural identity being wiped out. Others even charged that this plan was a State-sponsored attempt to assimilate the Uygurs. To answer these, we scheduled a meeting with representatives of the city's urban planning bureau and the urban construction bureau.

Why does the more than 400-year-old city need to be renovated in the first place? According to the briefing, Xinjiang sits on an active seismic zone prone to frequent earthquakes. In 2003, a quake there killed some 270 people. The Old City of Kashgar is especially susceptible since all its buildings are of wood and mud. Given the fears of a Wenchuan-like quake, the government cannot take any chance when it comes to the life and property of people. In addition, overcrowding, poor drainage and fire hazards are just a few of the reasons for the renovation.

Is the Old City to be torn down, gone forever? Far from that, important buildings will be preserved, and others reinforced, repaired or rebuilt depending on their condition. Only those in areas earmarked in the new plan for evacuation passage and public infrastructure will be demolished. The renovation is being done to keep the original Uygur style of the Old City. Accordingly, renovation is specific to individual houses, with designers sitting with families on a one-on-one basis to resolve details of style. Furthermore, people get daily allowances for makeshift living when their houses are under renovation. Those willing to relocate to the designated new areas are provided with moving fees, in addition to same-space apartments.

Are there any tangible benefits for Uygur residents other than safer and better houses? Is the traditional Uygur way of living being threatened?

According to the representatives, the renovation plan offers huge employment opportunities to the local Uygurs. The bulk of labor and part of the management team are Uygurs. Besides, the renovation will benefit Uygur residents by contributing to local tourism. As for the risk of losing traditional Uygur way of living, there is no basis to those reports in some Western media. It is part of the renovation plan to set up bazaars nearby to ensure the continuation of Uygur traditions.

We made an on-site tour to the Old City's famous core area or High Platform Residential Area. It's a labyrinth of Uygur-style buildings on top of one another. In terms of living comfort, it's like a shanty town, with foul smell at the basement and poor sewage system in the houses.

However, we saw happy faces wherever we went. Uygur children were running around, posing for our cameras, and women busy selling stuff, chatting and laughing.

The government has a daunting task: on one hand, to build safer homes against outside criticism; and, on the other, to preserve the century-old Uygur culture and keep its people as happy as before, if not happier. What made me more sympathetic to the effort underway was that few Western media would believe that the government's efforts were not politically-oriented and that it's not a way to assimilate our Uygur brothers and sisters.

On the morning of July 6 waking up in Shanghai, I was shocked to learn about the riots in Urumqi and felt lucky to have escaped the tragic scene. I don't believe the rioters' murderous weapons would have identified us as Chinese or Americans, Han or Uygur.

Random killing, looting and arson are against the law in any country. It's up to China to find a solution within its legal framework. When I heard some foreign media and politicians mixing up the rights and wrongs of the riot, I can only lament that sometimes true stories can hardly get out. This is borne out by Western reports on the renovation of the Old City of Kashgar. While continuing to reach out to the foreign audience, the government should listen primarily to its domestic ones. What we want is normality of life and a united Chinese family with diversity of 56 ethnic groups.

The author is a doctoral scholar with the Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, China University of Political Science and Law.

(China Daily 07/30/2009 page8)