China: Modernization, Development, and Ethnic Unrest in Xinjiang

Abstract

China’s ethnic Uyghur population are restive and repressed. The Chinese government has presided over almost three decades of considerably improved living standards for the majority of its people. This is commendable, but rapid modernization and development have also presented problems. While China’s leaders have attended the national interest, they have not given adequate consideration to particular concerns, and when “episodes and pockets” of grassroots discontent erupt, the government responds with repression and force. Discontented workers, students, villagers (particularly those subject to heavy-handed land acquisition and the effects of environmental pollution), and ethnic minority groups have not had adequate response to their petitions, demonstrations, and in some cases violent opposition to government policy and behavior. China’s Uyghur ethnic group are paying a particularly high price for the pressure their unrest, discontent, and violence have put on the government. Beijing insists on continuing its policy of promoting “economic and social development” as “the fundamental solution to China’s ethnic problems,” while on the ground in Xinjiang, the government’s use of force and intimidation is increasing. The use of violence to restore social order is viewed by many (both inside and outside China) as ill-advised and a sign of policy failure.

Despite… rising living standards and large-scale improvements in infrastructure and services, China’s western borderlands are awash in a wave of ethnic unrest not seen since the 1950s. (Hillman and Tuttle 2016, p. i)