Home > China Whitewashes the Historic Reality of East Turkestan
China Whitewashes the Historic Reality of East Turkestan
China’s State Cabinet on today released a white paper called “History and Development of Xinjiang” aimed at perpetuating Beijing’s illegitimate occupation of East Turkestan and serving China’s contemporary political interests by whitewashing the historic reality of this region. It is clear from the timing of the release and purpose of this document that it is a work of Chinese politicians. This Machiavellian type of white paper, which is full of word games and distorted historical accounts, was probably released to serve the following two purposes:
First, it attempts to convince the international community that the Uyghur people who have been demanding freedom and independence from China do not have a legitimate cause since “Xinjiang” is an “inseparable part of China since the ancient times”. This message is sent to mislead foreign governments and those foreigners who support the Uyghur people to believe that the Uyghurs don’t have a legitimate ground to demand anything from China, and they should be happy with the status quo. This is aimed at cutting
off foreign support and sympathy toward the Uyghur cause and people. This is the way to further isolate Uyghurs in the world and justify Chinese crackdown in the name of fighting against so-called three evils, “separatism, extremism, and terrorism”. According to the Chinese government, all of these “evil” labels are applied to the Uyghurs only. The Uyghurs call their motherland “East Turkestan” because it is the eastern part of ancient Turkestan. It is the land of Turkic peoples, not Chinese. The western part of Turkestan includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The Uyghurs along with Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, and Turkmens are all Turks by race that share same language, culture, religion and history. They are the offspring of a common Turkic ancestry. They have nothing in common with Chinese neighbor who have always coveted their lands. The Turkic peoples belonged to the western Turkestan became free and independent after the disintegration of Soviet Union in 1991. Today, they are the masters of their territory and destiny. Unfortunately, East Turkestan, which fell prey to communist Chinese designs in 1949 with Soviet support, is still an occupied country.
China invaded and occupied the East Turkestan Republic, which existed from 1944 to 1949, in 1949. Now Beijing shamelessly claims it as “part of China since ancient times”.
The People’s Republic of China changed the name East Turkestan into “Xinjiang” in 1955 after it was designated an Uyghur autonomous region. It is true that during the Great Game period Manchu Qing Dynasty occupied East Turkestan and changed its name into “Xinjiang”, which means “new territory” for the first time in 1884. The communist China not only inherited the territories occupied by Manchus, foreign invaders considered by both Chinese people and historians, but also gradually picked up its foreign policy.
According to the white paper, “Xinjiang” means “old territory returned to the motherland”. This is a new fabrication that can not be found in any Chinese encyclopedia or historical accounts. In fact, the ancient Chinese called East Turkestan and beyond as “Xiyu” meaning “western regions”. According to Chinese historian Zhang Xiaodong, “The Chinese term Xiyu forgotten for more than a hundred years can be used to cover all the regions from the Middle East to South Asia”. In simple words, “Xiyu” means foreign territories beyond China. East Turkestan was part of “Xiyu”, which was not part of historic China. If East Turkestan was part of China, then, the Chinese government should claim all the regions from the Middle East to South Asia as part of its territories.
Another fact to note is that the Chinese government sources say Qin Shihuang unified China for the first time in history during the Qin Dyansty and built the Great Wall of China to prevent foreign encroachment. The Great Wall of China, which was China’s real boundary, crumbles to pieces at Jiayouguan, far from the border of East Turkestan. The Chinese white paper seems to perpetuate the notion that the ancient territories of China have always been as big as the People’s Republic of China, or bigger. This is not historically true. The fact is that the ancient China is much smaller consisted of the eastern part of today’ s China and the Middle Plains. Manchuria, (Inner) Mongolia, East Turkestan, and Tibet were not historic Chinese territories. The communist China simply reoccupied all the territories of Manchu Dynasty and claimed as part of China since “ancient” times. The word “ancient times” is misleading contrary to the historic facts.
The fact is that China has learned a bitter lesson in the case of Tibetans’ freedom struggle. China knows it has lost the public relations war, and as a result, it cannot justify its heavy-handed policies there but has to negotiate with Tibetans under pressure from the United States and other European countries. This is one of the reasons why Dalai Lama’s envoys are in Beijing now and meeting with Chinese officials. China doesn’t want to lose the public relations war in the case of Uyghurs’ freedom struggle and negotiate with them about a settlement as well. This is more a preemptive measure aimed at isolating the Uyghurs and discrediting their interpretation of the historic reality of East Turkestan, the motherland of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples.
Second, the white paper seems to perpetuate the notion that the Chinese have always been the ruling class in what is now the People’s Republic of China and all the minorities have been their subjects who have no right to rule or separate their countries from China by any means. This is to justify contemporary Chinese chauvinism and create a Chinese nation state, a country of, by, and for the Chinese, not minorities. That is why China claims all the glories of history as exclusively “Chinese”. This is not historically true. In fact, most dynasties the Chinese government claims as “Chinese” were not Chinese dynasties. Tang Dynasty was an ethnically mixed dynasty. Yuan Dynasty was a Mongol Dynasty. Qing Dynasty was a Manchu Dynasty. The Mongols and Manchus didn’t establish a country for the Chinese but occupied China and established their own empires.
Today’s government of People’s Republic of China is not a successive inheritor of any previous dynasties or empires established by Han, Yuan, Ming, Qing or any other. To claim all the territories occupied by any dynasty, especially the last Manchu Qing Dynasty, as part of China since “ancient times” is nothing but imperialism. It is not any different from today’s Mongolian government claiming all the territories occupied by Ghin-gizkhan, the founder of Mongol Empire, as its own territories since “ancient times”.
The Chinese white paper fails to explain the root causes as to why the Uyghurs have for more than a century wanted to establish an independent East Turkestan and why after Beijing’s great development in this region since 1949 still want to separate from China. Why are they sometimes even ready to sacrifice their lives for independence? What is really wrong with the Uyghurs if they have been treated as China claims they are? Apparently, the truth speaks louder than fabricated myths by the Chinese government.
According to the U.S. State Department 2002 Human Rights Report, The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP or Party) is the paramount source of power…The Government severely restricted freedom of assembly and continued to restrict freedom of association and freedom of movement. While the number of religious believers continued to grow, government respect for religious freedom remained poor and crackdowns against Muslim Uyghurs continued”. The report, which was released on March 31, 2003 says,"In Xinjiang, where security remained tight, human rights abuses intensified… Throughout the year, the Government continued a national "strike hard" campaign against crime, characterized by round-ups of suspects who were sometimes sentenced in sports arenas in front of thousands of spectators. At year's end, this campaign, which was originally scheduled to last for 3 months at its inception in April 2001, showed no signs of abating in some areas. Some dissidents, "separatists," and underground church members were targeted. The campaign has been especially harsh in Xinjiang, where those deemed to be "splittists" by the Government were targeted. As part of the campaign, officials reportedly carried out over 4,000 executions during the year, frequently without due process”.
The human rights report notes that “Many observers raised concerns about the Government's use of the international war on terror as a justification for cracking down harshly on suspected Uighur separatists expressing peaceful political dissent and on independent Muslim religious leaders. According to reports from Xinjiang's Uighur community, authorities continued to search out and arrest Uyghurs possessing written or recorded information containing unapproved religious material”.
This is one piece of the puzzle why the Uyghurs want to freedom and independence from China. This is only one drop of what the Uyghur people have been suffering under the Chinese rule. Many reports over the years from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Laogai Foundation can testify the reality on the plight of Uyghurs.
The fact is that Rabiye Kadir, a prominent Uyghur businesswoman whose only crime was to send publicly available newspapers to her dissident husband in the U.S., is still serving her eight-year prison terms in notorious Chinese prison in Urumchi. The fact is that Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, a semi-military unit of nearly three million strong, is fulfilling its historical mission of colonizing East Turkestan and enslaving the Uyghur farmers bydepriving their land, water, and agricultural means. The fact is that the Uyghur language still cannot be used at any university as the language of instruction. The fact is that the Uyghur history books are burned at the pleasure of Chinese officials. The fact is that the Uyghur chairman of the “autonomous” region represents the highest interest of the Chinese government by betraying the interest of the Uyghur people. The fact is that the Uyghurs autonomy has become a Chinese colony. These are the hard facts that have driven the Uyghurs to seek separation from China.
The fact is that the Uyghurs will struggle for their freedom and independence as long as China continues to deny their fundamental human rights and their right to be the master of their motherland and destiny. China was wrong before and is wrong again. China is wrong to assume that the Uyghurs will simply give up their goals after Beijing deceives the world by portraying them as “terrorists”. China has for the past fifty years failed to hide the East Turkestan Question because hiding is not a solution. It is time that China should realistically look at the issue and negotiate with the Uyghurs to find a permanent solution, much like the way it treats the Tibetan Question. China has no choice but sooner or later it has to resolve the question. The fourth generation of Chinese leaders, instead of lying about the Uyghurs and East Turkestan as it lied over SARS, should boldly seize the initiative and resolve the East Turkestan Question as soon as possible for the posterity of both the Uyghur and the Chinese nations.
