Dear Kashgar
Xinjiang is like another country enclosed within China’s borders. Since 1949 China’s main goal has been to suppress ethnic separatism while flooding the area with ethnic Han settlers. The Uighur once comprised 90% of the Xinjiang population, today that number has dropped below 50%. What happens in Xinjiang is crucial to the country’s future stability as it is China’s largest province in terms of area and home to the largest Muslim community. Most recently, Beijing took advantage of the events following 9/11 to further crackdown on Uighur nationalism by locking up or executing thousands of suspected “Islamic terrorists”.
But for now, as elsewhere in China, the government seems to be betting that strong economic growth is the best way to consolidate its control.
Xinjiang, China, 2007-2008
©2010 by Nicolò Degiorgis
