Ethnic Assimilation

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Ethnic Assimilation - What's happening in East Turkistan

Chinese Communist Party intends to drive people in East Turkistan, including Uyghurs, as ethnic minority in China by transplanting a huge number of Han people there. Not only the dropped percentage of the Uyghur population in East Turkistan, but also the elimination of culture, language and religion that people in East Turkistan nutured gathers concerns. Togerther with forced abortion, sterilization, slaughters of political offenders, detention in the concentration camps and nuclear test, the assimilation is being conducted.
Following chart shows the population ratio of East Turkistan in 1945 and 2004

Name of EthnosPopulation(1945)Population ratio(1945)Population(2004)Population ratio(2004)
Uyghur3,067,800(76.40%)8,976,700(45.73%)
Hui99,600(2.48%)87,6300(4.46%)
Kazaq438,600(10.92%)138,1600(7.04%)
Mongols59,700(1.49%)169,600(0.86%)
Russian19,400(0.48%)11,300(0.06%)
Uzbeks10,200(0.25%)14,200(0.07%)
Tartar5,600(0.14%)4,700(0.02%)
Tajik8,200(0.20%)43,500(0.21%)
Kirgiz69,900(1.74%)17,1200(0.87%)
Xibe10,600(0.26%)40,800(0.21%)
Manchu800(0.02%)24,100(0.12%)
Han222,400(5.54%)7,802,500(39.75%)
Others2,600114,600
Total4,015,40019,631,100

This shows the distinctive growth of Han people.
Migration of Han people that started in 1950's was conducted under nominal plan of industrial and marginal development and defense. By 1982, the numbers of Hans living in East Turkistan shared the number with Uyghurs there, though the Han population there gradually reduced in 1990. Now under the China Western Development, Hans are encouraged to migrate to East Turkistan. The companies entering the region can get preferential finance loan and taxation and individuals moving in can get allowance for living in frontier or raise in civil servant salary.

Though the number of Uyghurs are similar to the of the Hans, there are much less Uyghur schools compared to the Chinese and the facility in Uyghur schools are very poor. In vocational schools, tertiary educational institution and university in East Turkistan the Uyghur language is dumped and lectures are conducted in Chinese. Elementary and secondary schools have also started dismissing the classes in Uyghur language. It is reported that Uyghur elementary and secondary schools are forced to merge with Chinese schools and the Uyghur and Kazaq teachers unable to have classes in Chinese languages are being dismissed.

China has set discriminative policy such as not hiring Uyghur school leavers that may stop students going to Uyghur schools.

In China, book burning is carried out even in the present day. Books on Uyghur religion, history and literature are burned not only during the Cultural Revolution but also in 2002.

"History of East Turkistan" written by Mehmet Emin Boghra, "Honlarning Qusqiche Tarihi", "Uyghur Kilassik Edebiyati" and "Uyghurlar" written by Turghun Almas and the ethnonational acts of Isa Yusuf Alptekin are called pan-Turkish and proindependent. The above have been blamed and called a bracing of pan-Turkism and ideology of East Turkistan Independent Movement.

Islam, important part of the Uyghur identity, is also under serious suppression.

Since 2006, new assimilation policy has been conducted. Several hundreds of thousands of Uyghur peasants are planned to be sent to inland China under the guise of rescue from the poverty. To rescue them from poverty, the situation that ethnic minorities have difficulties getting employed compare to the Hans should be changed in East Turkistan, the land the poor Uyghurs belong to. It is considered that the people in rural areas are chosen, not the metropolitan ones, is probably it seems that people in rural areas have less educated, compliant and easy to be brain washed. Also by removing the inheritors from the rural area where the culture and language of Uyghur are inherited from the old times the assimilation will be easier.

There is another report that a number of young single Uyghur females are removed in a systematic way. The objective is to send 400 thousand single females in inland coastal cities in 5 years (2006-2010) and targeted villages have to fill the quota of the females that they send. The females are treated like slaves as the cheap workforce and in some cases, they are forced to prostitute themselves as sex slaves. Sending 40 thousands of young and single females to inland China out of 8 million population of Uyghur, it is considered that such thing is done to make the females to marry the Hans.

China has tested nuclear weapon for at least 45 times officially. All the tests were carried out the area close from Lop Nur, in East Turkistan. This base is only 10 km away from where the Uyghurs and Mongols live and there are a lot of people suffering from serious radiation disease and a lot of people died of it. This is one of the reason that China never let go of this land.


Source of ethnic composition
1945 : Linda Benson, The Ili Rebelion--The Moslem Challenge to Chinese Authority in Xinjiang 1944-1949, An East Gate Book, M. E. SHarpe, Inc., 1990, p.30.
2004 : The government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Atonomous


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