Heads Up: Latest from Austin in Urumqi II

"animosity between Hans and Uighurs in Xinjiang's capital city is unlikely to fade, and the threat of further violence is never far away. "

Since Hu announced that rioters will be sentenced to death, just to ensure this will happen, I guess it is his policy objective to achieve this. That means he wants to create a situation to make Han Chinese to accept his total annihilation of Uighur solution to this problem created by the CCP.

"Everyone has seen the images of Uighur attacking Han, but no one knows about Han attacking Uighur."

The usual information control and misinformation campaign of the Chinese government worked its charm very successfully as you can see from posts of Chinese here. And, using the normal Chinese characteristics popularized by the South China Tiger photo, the even post dead Han babies from the quake pretending it as Han baby killed in Xinjiang. They all has a great leader to look up to.

Blaming external factors or mother nature is the usual trick the Chinese government uses to blame others for situations created by their own failed policies. This keeps repeating over and over again in events in the last 12 months. More of the same to come, I guess. Excuses, excuses, excuses. I think they know how intelligent the Han Chinese so they use the same lies over and over again, and still sure that Han Chinese will buy them.

And don't forget the mineral resource issue. The Hans have been extracting mineral from the region, and the Uighurs are not getting anything from their own mineral resources. And the destruction of their culture, just like what happened in Tibet, is also a major concern of the Uighurs. The Hans don't understand any of this at all, since they can only understand money, and LV bags.

Interesting post by a Chinese poster. It was harmonized and now returns. I wonder what happened:
http://tinyurl.com/lf32kk

Obama is interfering with China's domestic matters again. He called for calm and restrain. China must not listen to him and do exactly the opposite, just to show Obama who is the boss. Rebuke from Chinese government is expected soon.

China has arranged for a quake in Yunnan to distract the world from what is happening in Xinjiang. We should all follow the program and switch out attention elsewhere and forget the Uighurs, just like we have forgotten the Tibetans and the other quake last year.. Where was that ? Did any one die ? Did the buildings collapse ? It is so long ago that we should forget and focus on the future. We should think about how China has progressed instead of any inconvenience we have seen. Right...

Chinese government in Kashi has ordered all foreigners out of the city. So that they can "control" the natives "better" ?

Its another way to stop real information from the region, making the misinformation from the Chinese government the only ones Han Chinese will get. Same trick, just different occasion.

Kashi is the location of the tomb of the Fragrant Princess, kidnapped by a Qing emperor when he invaded the Uighurs. The princess was a leader of the Uighurs fighting against Chinese aggression. She committed suicide in Beijing, refusing to become another concubine of the emperor.

http://tinyurl.com/merwe4

All mosques in Urumqi are closed this Friday. Moslems are asked to pray at home instead. A wonderful way to respect religious and cultural freedom of the people. Didn't they say the city is calm, quiet, stable, and pure harmony now that it is in military occupation by the Hans ? Hmm.. How US occupied Baghdad comes to mind. And Chinese claimed US is evil because of that.

It seems Time Magazine is very reluctant to unfold the fact the Urumqi 7.5 riots is a brutal violence.
Keep political correct lost the basic sense of humanitarianism will leave you fell into the some track of the communist did, propaganda.

The Urumqi 7.5 riots, in history is a tragedy;

for Uighur struggle is a Blow. Who organised these crime must be punished.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6677379.ece

the Urumqi 7.5 riot is a brutal race violence

Here is a report by Jane Macartne of the Times (UK):

Han Chinese family beheaded and burnt
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6677379.ece

The Uighur riots beat the Han family (including a 84-year-old grandma, a 13-year-old kid, a father and his nephew aged 27), cut off the heads of the father and the son, and burned all of them with their family grocery shop.

So, this's the "peaceful protest by Uighurs" called by some Western media.

The Chinese central government is being very generous in giving 200,000 RMB + 10,000RM to each dead victim of violence in Xinjiang. Total of 50,000,000 RMB is already in place:
http://tinyurl.com/m7ngqj

And there are report 156 and then 180 something deaths. For 21,000 RMB each, 50 million RMB is good enough for 238 persons, and that's only the fund already in place, and there are more, much more to come.

How many more are the PLA and Armed Police going to kill to use up the money ?

The Chinese government has announced that no foreign national was hurt in the violence. As a result, Kyrgystan and Kazakhstan have rescued their nationals from the Xinjiang area. Kazakhstan has withdrawn 1,2000 of their nationals by air, or land routes.

I guess China Daily lied again with this:

http://tinyurl.com/kleubh

"A notice in Uygur saying jumu'ah had been cancelled and advising the faithful to pray at home was posted outside the Yanghang mosque in Tianshan district, one of the worst affected areas in Sunday's riots."

dmpclipid....don't get to cocky (baloney brain) move alittle bit south on the map and methink many tibetans would like to make you a god and sacrifice you.

It is now official, Confucius is a bastard.

“野合”是当时一种被认可的婚前习俗，也就是非婚姻所生。

http://tinyurl.com/n5eq58

From my point of view there is neither glory nor shame for being 非婚姻所生 as long as one believes in himself as an ordinary human being.

But I still wish to congratulations JS or whatever number for being 非婚姻所生.

But please don't always feel that you are being discriminated for being 非婚姻所生 and therefore direct your anger towards every single indivisual in your sight as if they are all discriminating you one way or the other.
And certainly, you can't justify things such as killing of innocent people for simply feeling being discriminated.
Anyway, let's be focused.
非婚姻所生or 婚姻所生 is not really the issue of topic here.

What I learnt in China in term of philosophy is let's try to be objective (certainly this philosophy is by no means Chinese, in fact, it is imported from Europe).
Then after coming to the west I learnt something more recent, something calls for respect of perspectives. The theory behind this is that since we as human being is impossible to become truely objective (particularly on those social things) therefore let's don't hesitate to tell everybody that we are going to limit our view of the world to certain selected perspectives.
So the perspective of Austin's report this time seems to be focused on the feel and experience of the Uighurs, which is fine since we need to hear this part of the story in order to help us understand the whole picture of the tragety.
The question is whether or not Austin is willing to provide us readers a view (or views) from other perspectives?
We as indivisuals have limited capability to be objective. But if we as human race do not dare to move our butts to different positions in order to enlighten ourselves through pursuing objectivity it is surely going to be a tragety ... for us all.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203547904574279952210843672.html

What are the roots of the tensions between the Uighurs and the Han Chinese? Are Uighurs discriminated against by Chinese Government? What's Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement? Please read the "Room for debate: What Should China Do About the Uighurs?" by New York Times:

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/08/what-should-china-do-about-the-uighurs/?ref=asia

"Everyone has seen the images of Uighur attacking Han, but no one knows about Han attacking Uighur."

Indeed Wrong. who say so no one knows about Han attacking Uighur.

chinabriefing ,johnsmith9876
C.A. Yeung are the winteness that i am Chinese Han and I am attacking the ق热比亚 and riot Uighur everyday here.

I am also Wintess that not only uighur are attacking han, some China-bash gang also helping Uighur attacking Han. we are only few, they are plenty.

Tear Down This Cyberwall!

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/opinion/18kristof.html

It is quite apparent that the readership of Time's China blog is less sophisticated than that of NYTime.
For one thing (amongst others), the China-bashing clan here cares only about their own line of business which is democracy-humanrights-anti-communism-free press and often intentionally misses the point of discussion. In other words, one can keep bashing China but if one can somehow stick to what the point of discussion is, perhaps this blog will become a little bit more interesting.

Here is a post by a commentator on NYTime. I hope copy rights wont' become an issue.

The wonder of the Internet age! The Internet is the double-edge sword, where information and mis-information spread quickly! And often heated, sometimes brazenly bigoted and racist comments from both sides, seemed to fan up ans stir more “hot heads”. The whole thing seems to have started from an Internet rumor (if one chooses to believe the Chinese official story), and led to the death of some Uighur migrant workers. Then words spread through the modern communication media, twisted and spun again, thousand miles away, and led to a more tragic and violent ethnic strife, with many innocent lives lost.

It might make one wonder whether the Chinese government was wise to try to control and tame the Internet. (Clearly it has largely failed in its effort within China.)

While there are certainly deeper root causes underlying the tragedy, many of which are legitimate grievances from both sides, that must be addressed (which may take a long time), my initial objection to the NYT reporting was that it was clearly biased, with apparently pre-determined, if not prejudiced conception that it were yet another Chinese crack-down on peaceful protesters against the government. It totally ignored the stories of the innocent victims until today. (Well, the standard excuse was that the Chinese government did not allow freedom of press, so we couldn't report “objectively”, but then one found images that painted mostly one-side of the story, but the images, or interviewees, that could tell at least a more balanced story weren't that hard to find.)

Being an American of Chinese heritage, I find that many Han Chinese had rather bigoted and racist views of Uighurs without even realizing them (yes, Uighurs may enjoy some government-granted benefits, but that do not make them less human). At the same time I found those who claimed that Chinese were brainwashed are equally prejudiced and brainwashed (for example, terms such as “Commie” or “Chinese government drones” immediately betrayed his/her bias.)

It's interesting to see one (apparently Western) poster chose to believe the official Chinese state media that the rape was a rumor, then chose not to believe that the official Chinese state media story of the violent ethnic riot.

I find it sad that some Han Chinese use the mistreatment of Native Americans by white Americans, but I find it equally ridiculous that some Americans would simply admit such a treatment was wrong, white-wash it, and then turn around and condemn the Han Chinese by stating we cannot now accept such mistreatment of minorities by the Han Chinese. Well, there are still Native Americans living in US, and if it seems fair to ask them to lead by examples. For example, my Native American friends in Minnesota even today still have many similar and equally legitimate grievances about lacking of economic opportunities, etc. (The only viable business in the tribal reserves is casinos, but then some white Minnesotans complained why only Native Americans are allowed to run the “profitable” casino business, and want them to pay taxes.) Most black inner cities in US are clearly economically disadvantages, and by some statistics, nearly half of adult black men are, or have been, in prison. Once in a while one hears comments (either publicly or privately) about black youth being busy, that's why some businesses rather hire Mexican illegal immigrants than blacks, and complaints about “reverse discrimination”, etc.

I am not saying that just because West has its own racial/ethnic problems (whether in the past or in the present), Americans/Europeans cannot criticize the Chinese government (in fact, they should). But please don't assume you have the moral high ground, and it's far better to lead by examples than simply words.

The matter of the fact is that this Xinjiang incident is large an ethnic strife, _not_ a Chinese riot police cracking down on an “oppressed” minority that rise against the Chinese brutal rule. As i said earlier, yes, there are legitimate (and deeply felt) grievances by the Uighur minority, some yearning for “independence” and “democracy”. The reality is far complicated. Many of these problems and issues would take a long time to resolve, just like it takes a long time for US to reach its current and far fairer (compared Jim Crow days) treatment of blacks. it will take time and efforts from both the Han Chinese and Uighur people to resolve their differences and issues.

Incidentally, one can debate forever whether Han Chinese were colonizers or not, whether the (truly) Han people of the Han dynasty (where the ethnic name “Han' came from) first settled or conquered part of the place. Surely there were nomads who inhabited or roamed through Xinjiang or “Xiyu” (Western region as called by the Han people then) before the Han settlers. But were we all supposed to come from Africa, and were “hunters and gathers” at some point?

The fact is that now this region is inhabited by Uighurs, Han, Hui, Mongol, Khazah, and other ethnic groups. Can people there simply co-exist, live peacefully, and treat each other fairly and humanely?

I certainly hope that the voice of reason would eventually prevail. This is where I faulted reputable Western media like NYT for its initial reporting. Maybe I should not have expected the professional conscience and responsibility of today's journalists in this Internet age, where anything is pretended to be news?

Well, the columns here seem to give me hope. I understand these are columns expressing opinions, so they are not expected be “one-sided”. On the other hands, I'd expect news reports to be as fair and balanced as possible.)

— jerry

Another quite sophisticated assessment of the matter from apparent an American in China:

I agree and disagree with a lot of what is being said on this blog and in the story. I disagree that the Western media is distorting this situation or taking a particularly anti-China stance (in stark contrast to reporting in the past–i.e. Tiibet, the Olympics). I feel revulsion at the actions taken by the Uighurs in Xinjiang. They have attacked and killed old men, women, and children. Perhaps the government's approach of a new openess to foreign media is bearing fruit. The images on western television are of battered Han Chinese women–images which are hardly creating sympathy for the Uighur rioters. The only point being made by foreign media is that the images should be a bit more balanced–the revenge Han possies are equally unforgiving although when someone has lost a daughter or seen their wife hospitilized with machete wounds, it hard not to feel a sense of empathy. I think the policing effort organized by the Chinese government has been rolled out flawlessly to minimize casulties (in stark comparison to the original city government response to peaceful protests. Likewise I think the Chinese government should be applauded for the efforts they have made to help their ethnic minorities–the intentions are there but the efforts taken have been woefully ineffective.

Being an expat living here in China, I find the attitudes towards Uighur people by Han Chinese to be shocking at times. They are condescending if not outright racist and hostile. There is a lot America should not be admired for, but I think this is one area where it has set a great example of racial integration 101. While the economic status of black people and certain other minorities is still undoubtedly well below that of whites, the US has done an incredible job of not necessarily integrating its minorities but at least allowing them to live peacefully with a certain level of respect given on both sides (an exception perhaps being still quite hostile views of Latin Americans). Just about any white American can say something negative about blacks–but push a little more and there is also a lot of positive things they say to. Black culture has thrived and become popular mainstream in many ways–the outpouring of national grief to the death of Michael Jackson is greater than I've ever seen for a white performer. Likewise, America's highest paid actor, most popular singer and its president are all black. You also don't hear the same greviences being voiced by muslims in the US as in Europe–although arguably the Muslims immigrating to the US tend to be of a much higher education level and have immigrated through legal channels, quite unlike the boat people in Europe. Interracial dating is also now a norm in many parts of the US.

Going back to China, how often do you see a mixed race Han Uighur couple? How often do you hear any Han Chinese voice anything positive about these people or other ethnic minorities for that matter? The only descriptives I've ever heard of Uighurs is that they are dirty, smell of lamb kebabs and are all thieves. I don't think any affirmative action program will solve this problem. Until the day to day attitudes of the Han Chinese towards their ethnic minorities (Tibetans are described as backward, dirty and savage) changes and goes from one of condescension, hostility and an attitude of superiority, to mutual respect and understanding, I don't see much hope for a change to the situation here–and these riots and the associated imagery have made that all the harder. The government should focus its efforts on rolling out a nationwide PR campaign for its ethnic minorities and highlight the contributions they have made to Chinese culture and economy. An economic readjustment is a lot less needed than an attitude readjustment. I think Yan Sun's article, while very interesting and true in many ways, is very nuanced and is being gently worded to avoid saying what her family really thinks of Uighurs: lazy, uneducated and dirty.

Likewise, affirmative action programs should not be abandoned but should be changed. As pointed out above, the anger of Han Chinese at discriminatory child policies and education admission is well founded and should not be underestimated.

— Jason

Ok, I will stop copying and pasting, I promise. This is the last. I just feel that there are too much waste here on this blog.

muezzin of #145, I think you are right that the Han Chinese should leave the Tibetans and Uighur people to live the life they want. But should they then complain about most businesses are owned by the Han and Hui Chinese? Lack of job opportunities, etc.? What would most white Americans think about African Americans if they choose to do so? Why are Asian Americans considered “model minorities” here in US?

As an American of Chinese heritage, I also detest that the zeal (and disrespect to the culture heritage) of some Chinese in building new shopping malls by destroying historic buildings and other culture heritages (just look at Beijing!). But are shopping malls an American invention? (You may not know that the first enclosed indoor shopping mall was the Southdale Mall in Edina, MN, a Minneapolis suburb, built in late 50s). In fact, most Chinese in China today are copying the life style of Americans.
Shouldn't we complain about the Western/American cultural “dominance” or “culture genocide”? Why is it then that so many Americans/Westerners are so eager to promote, “democracy”, “freedom of speech” (or “human rights”), pr rather demand or try to impose these concepts on non-Western countries (e.g., China, Iran, etc.)? These are clearly originated from the Western culture and political systems. Are we (or rather the Western governments) doing so most because it is to our national interests?

BTW, don't take me wrong, I do think democracy and freedom of speech are good to Chinese and Iranian people, but unless majority of the people there truly want them themselves, it's none of our business.

I just want to point these things out for you to think. You may want to check your prejudice at the door before criticizing others for their “racist' viewpoints while spewing your own stereotypes of the (Han) Chinese or Chinese Americans? (Although I do agree some posts from Han Chinese here are really bigoted, if not utterly racists. But I find your statement about the “pushy, imperialist and conniving Hans” equally offensive, if not racists.)

Don't be blinded by one's love for the Tibetan culture, or hatred towards the Chinese government.

— jerry

Another great step towards racial harmony:
http://tinyurl.com/l6j74o

"The question is whether or not Austin is willing to provide us readers a view (or views) from other perspectives?"

Isn't whether CCP and People's Daily is willing to provide us reader a view (or views) from other perspective ?

Yes, I know, Austin has way more authority on any subject than CCP or the China Daily...

See how the Fenqing(愤青) are fostered?:

http://www.youmaker.com/video/sv?id=736a0a68855141c493dab4aa3a4eb261002