TWoU - Ch1 - Colonialism 1759–2001

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• The PRC claim that Xinjiang has been part of China since ancient times is false.
  • [ s ] It had a history of interaction with empires from China but also from Central Asia and has been the center of its own empires.
  • [ s ] Only became part of larger China when the Qing Dynasty conquered it in the 1750s.
  • [ s ] Only became integrated into larger Chinese territorial polity in late 1800s when Qing made it province of its domain.
  • [e_m] They say this because the Qing empire was the first owner of the Uyghur homeland that would become a modern state.

• In the 1750s, the Qing empire conquered Xinjang from the Zunghar Khanate.
  • [ q ] They adopted many of the Zunghar’s way of ruling.
    • [ s ] Set up the imperial outpost close to the Zunghar’s capital.
    • [ s ] Resettled many Muslims from the Tarim Basin to build and feed their outpost.
    • [ s ] Adopted same indirected system of rule, relying on the Muslims’ own Bäg system.
• During its first century of rule, the Qing did not make Xinjiang into a physical colony of the empire.
  • [ s ] The number of representatives from Qing remained small
    • [ q ] They only maintained outposts manned by mostly Manchu and Mongols.
    • [r_e] That’s why Rian Thum refered to the status at this time as a “dependency governed by a Manchu-dominated military’”.
  • [ s ] In 1820s, The imperial court contemplated whether to keep investing in controlling the Tarim Basin at all.
    • [r_e] In 1860s when Muslim rebellions broke out, Qing did not put much energy into suppressing them and eventually withdrew.
• The 1860s revolts were not really part of Uyghur national liberation struggles.
  • [ s ] The revolts were multinational.
    • [ s ] The largest state to develop out of it was led by Yakub Beg, from the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan).
  • [ s ] There was no concept of a modern Uyghur nation.
    • [ s ] Local populations identified with multiple allegiances (Muslim, settled or nomadic, and Turkic)
• After the Qing withdrew, Yakub Beg wanted to establish a unified state in the region.
  • [ q ] But there was an independent para-state in the north, the Ili Sultanate.
• In return, Russians conquered the Ili Sultanate.
  • [e_m] They feared a power vacuum and were worried about Yakub Beg’s growing power.
  • [ q ] They only ruled for a decade.
  • [ q ] They claimed they were only maintaining control until Qing returned.
    • [ q ] Yet their policies were more like colonialism than even Qing.
• The Qing returned conquest in the north in 1876, after heavy debates.
• By 1880 they reconquered the region except Ili valley.
• In 1881, Russia returned most of its territory to the Qing.
• Majority of the local Muslims in the north and resettled in the Russian part of the Ili valley (now part of Kazakhstan).
  • [r_e] Created Uyghur population on the border with China, that would become influential in the modern period.

• After retaking the region in 1881, it was made into a provice titled Xinjiang (New Territory).
  • [ q ] This name was already used informally by the Qing.
• Qing was evolving into Han-dominated Chinese nation-state.
  • [r_e] The Bäg system was almost entirely eradicated and replaced with a network of territories with Han administrators.
• The Qing started policies to assimilate the population.
  • [e_c] Establishing educational network in Mandarin and teaching Confucian thought.
• Thus in the last years of the Qing Empire, its administration of Xinjiang appeared much more like colonialism.
  • [ s ] Indirect rule was replaced with invasive administrators from the colonial metropole.
  • [ s ] Attempts were made to assimilate the locals into Han culture.
• Yet it was more frontier colony than settler collony.
  • [ s ] The locals continued to live their lives like before.

• The fall of Qing was not a transition from empire to nation-state, but to a new concept of ‘ national empire’, like Tsarist Russia –> USSR.
  • [e_c] There was little revolutionary zeal around the fall of the Qing Empire like for other empires around the world.
    • [ s ] It was not anti-colonial, because it was driven by the dominant Han ethnic group.
    • [ s ] It was not inspired by disenfranchised citizens like in Russia.
    • [ s ] Republican China inherited the territory of the Qing Empire.

• First Han administrator after the Xinhai Revolution was Yang Zengxin, who ruled in 1911-1928.
  • He only wanted to maintain control over a frontier region, but didn’t make an effort to integrate the region into the new Republic of China.
    • This involved being aware of potential revolts.
• The formation of Uyghur nationalism gained momentum due to the Bolshevik revolution and Muslims who went to Russia in 1881 who wanted nationality within the Soviet Union.
• Before the 1920s, there was a sense of collective identity in and from the Uyghur homeland, but no concept of a nation-state and the ‘Uyghur’ ethnonym.
• Yang Zengxin became worried of the growing Uyghur nationalism.
  • [ q ] The term ‘Uyghur’ was coined by Uyghur Bolshevik sympathizers and recognized by the USSR in the 1920s.
  • [e_c] The nationalist ideology was based on Leninist anti-imperialist revolution and celebrated the history of Uyghur resistance to Chinese rule.
• There was no serious revolt under Yang’s rule, but he made enemies among other Han administrators, leading to his assassination.

• Jin Suren became governor of Xinjiang in 1928.
  • Jin was greedier than Yang and failed to spread the wealth sufficiently among the local Muslim elite.
  • He also went against the Muslim population.
    • He established bigger security services than Yang, keeping track on movements with passports. .
    • Large taxes on agriculture and animal butchering
    • State-led land reclamations
    • Forbade hajj pilgrimage.
• When Jin wanted to abolishe the Kumul Khanate, it caused a revolt led by the dead Khan’s son.
• The revolts spread beyond Kumul until all of Xinjiang was in turmoil.
• Sheng Shicai would lead the suppression of Muslim rebels, but then orchestrated a coup against Jin so that Sheng became the leader of Xinjiang.
• He allegedly signed an agreement to divide Xinjiang into north and south, china and Muslim-led, which became the first Eastern Turkestan Republic.
• The first ETR was not really an “Uyghur nation-state.”
  • [ s ] The para-state was built on the common identity of Muslim Turks and desire to remove Chinese rule from their homeland and have indigenous rule.
    • [ q ] But it was not exclusively religious in nature.
      • [ s ] It brought together indigenous intellectuals from all kinds of ideologies:
        • Modernist Muslim nationalists
        • Leninist anti-imperialist liberationists
        • Islamic traditionalists.
• It was short-lived anyway, falling in March 1934.
  • [e_c] Dungan (Hui) sacked it.
    • [e_c] They were driven from Urumqi by the Soviets assisting Sheng’s military.

• Initially, Sheng Shicai dealt with the discontent of local Muslims in the region by instituting the first instance of a Chinese administration adopting accommodationist policies towards the Uyghurs that were based in Leninist ideals of anti-imperialism.
  • Sheng created something akin to a Soviet-inspired multi-ethnic state in Xinjiang.
    • He co-opted much of the leadership of the First ETR.
    • greatly increased the number of Muslims in his administration.
  • Other Soviet policies like strengthening the Secret Police, were not liked by the local population.
• After sensing a resurgence of Uyghur nationalism, he rolled back some of the accomodationaist policies.
  • Coincided with Stalin’s own purges.
• Sheng purged anti-Soviet elements 1937/8, then in 1942, he purged pro-Soviet elements.
  • [r_e] Attitudes of Muslim population turned against Sheng.
• In 1944, Sheng was removed from power.
• Soviets continued to plan to undermine China’s control of Xinjiang.
  • [ s ] In 1943 and 1944, USSR disseminated propaganda among Uyghurs highlighting Han colonial rule.
    • [e_p] To incite revolt.

• In October 1944, Soviets helped Muslim rebels from Gulja to revolt. When they were about to take over Urumqi, Soviets intervened and brokered peace talks with the Guomindang, leading to a Xinjiang coalition government.
  • Three Uyghur intellectuals were given high positions: Isa Yüsüp Alptekin, Muhämmäd Imin Bughra, and Mäsud Sabri.
• The second ETR would rule until 1949 and would be the greatest example of an Uyghur nation state.
  • With Soviet assistance it had many symbols of modern nationhood:
    • journals, newspapers and textbooks, Its own currency, Uniformed army, School system, Flag, National anthem.
  • [ s ] Local Uyghur supporters of the ETR saw it as the first step towards an anti-colonial national liberation movement.
• Once the CCP seized control in 1949, the USSR brokered a meeting between the CCP and ETR. The ETR facilitated the entry of the PLA to Xinjiang and the ETR would be invited to the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing.
  • The five leaders who fled to Kazakhstan allegedly died in an airplane crash en route to the conference.
  • The other 3 leaders went to Beijing by train.
• The ETR was dissolved.
  • Mäsud Sabri who remained in opposition to the CCP was executed in 1951.

• Soviets encouraged early accomodating policies of the CCP.
  • [r_e] Creation of regions of ethnic autonomy, like the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in 1955. Akin to the Soviet Socialist Republics
    • [ q ] This did not give Xinjiang as much independece as the Soviet Republics. Only given ’theoretical autonomy.’
    • [ q ] Secession was also condemned as a serious danger to the PRC.
      • [ q ] Through ‘double-speak,’ which labeled all anti-colonial liberation movements inside China as ‘pro-imperialist.’^[As an editorial in a state paper declared in 1951, ‘at this point, any nationality movement that seeks to separate from the Chinese People’s Republic (CPR) to become independent is reactionary since, objectively considered, it would undermine the interests of the various nationalities, and hence would work to the advantage of imperialism.’ Cited in J.T. Dreyer, China’s Forty Millions: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People’s Republic of China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976), p. 94.]
  • [r_i] Soviet involvement also played a role transforming the social life of Uyghurs. (religious institutions, traditional Muslim courts, state-managed clergy).

• The period of CCP accomodation began to end after autonomy was declared.
  • [e_c] Tensions increased between Mao and Khruschev.
    • [r_e] PRC began banning Soviet influence in the XUAR.
  • [ s ] Hundred Flowers Campaign started in 1956, encouraging people to openly criticize Party policies.
    • [e_p] Anti-Rightist Rectification Campaign followed in 1957, punishing those who the CCP didn’t like.
      • [ q ] This included many former ETR officials.
  • [e_c] PRC was settling more Han in the region.
    • [ q ] The XPCC was established to move de-mobilized soldiers from the PLA to the XUAR.
    • [ q ] 2 million Han came to the region fleeing famine caused by the GLF.
  • [e_c] The GLF initiated the first state policies to discourage Uyghurs from practicing religion.
• [e_c] Uyghurs in the 1950s and 1960s sought ways to flee.
  • [ q ] Largest group went to the USSR.
    • [e_m] They had been accepting Uyghur migrants since 1950s
      • [e_p] To repopulate the USSR after WWII.
• In the spring of 1962, USSR opened its borders for Uyghurs.
  • After a protest in May 1962, 67,000 Uyghurs and Kazakhs crossed the border to the USSR.
  • At the same time, Xinjiang was closing off from the rest of the world.
    • China isolated itself from Soviet Union with XPCC farms as a buffer zone.

• In 1966, Mao started the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
  • Many zealous Han youths who came to Xinjiang would attack Islam and Uyghur Culture
    • [e_m] The major thrust of the revolution was attacking the three olds.
    • [ q ] The impact of these assimilationist actions are less clear given the chaotic ruling powers at the time.
      • [ q ] Regardless, it left an impression on all Uyghurs who lived through the period.
• In this context, an insurgency calling itself Eastern Turkestan People’s Revolutionary Party reportedly emerged between .
  • [r_e] It allegedly carried out attacks on the GPCR.
• The Cultural Revolution likely altered the lives of Uyghurs more than any periods of modern Chinese rule that predate it

• When Deng Xiaoping became leader of China, there was an opportunity to decolonize the relationship between the PRC and Uyghurs.
  • [e_m] China opened up to the outside world economically.
    • [r_i] Xinjiang could become a bridge instead of buffer between countries.
• Probably During this period, the region became more integrated into China than any time prior.
  • [e_m] China would finally have the capacity and resources.
  • [e_m] Xinjiang’s geostrategic significance.
• They briefly tried to engage Uyghurs as the indigenous population.
• But ultimately decided to forcibly assimilate them and colonize their land.

• The 1980s allowed for a Uyghur cultural renaissance and re-emergance of Islam in Xinjiang.
  • [ s ] In 1980, the CCP adopted a resolution calling for cultural and economic reforms in XUAR and allowing many Han officials and XPCC members to return home.
    • [e_c] Hu Yaobang urged them to do so.
    • [r_e] The Uyghur alphabet returned to a modified Arabic script.
    • [r_e] Uyghur schools and university sections repoened
    • [r_e] Mosques were re-established.
    • [r_e] Many newly published Uyghur language works.
  • Hu Yaobang became Party Chairman in 1981 and General Secretary of the CCP in 1982, causing increased freedom for Uyghurs until 1987.
• This period of accommodation started narrowing in its scope by 1987 with the purging of Hu Yaobang, and narrowed even more with the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
  • Reforms were thus halted before granting any increased autonomy.

• During the 1980s, the PRC wanted to integrate Xinjiang into a reforming PRC by accomodation. In the 1990s by economic opportunity.
  • [e_c] Deng’s reforms brought Uyghurs new opportunities.
• But Uyghur publishing and music was censored more strictly.
• In April 1990, Baren Incident happened.
  • Probably began as a protest by Uyghurs.
  • Leader of this protest, Zäydin Yüsüp, probably did create an organization called Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP).
• The CCP feared an Uyghur uprising.
  • Due to Baren Incident and Urumqi bus bombings (1992).
  • Due to Dissolution of the CCP.
    • Uyghurs who had lived in under the USSR and its fall now hoped that along with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan there would now be an Uyghurstan.
• Thus, PRC security campaign after Baren Incident increased in 1991 (fall of USSR).
  • Targeted Uyghurs’ expressions of nationalism + Uyghurs’ religious revival.
    • [r_e] 1831 Uyghurs arrested between 1990-1995 for various reasons.
    • [r_e] Muslim clergy were now veted strictly.
  • [ q ] It was not merely a reaction to these 2 events.
    • The leaked Document No 7 made clear suppressing Uyghur religiosity and calls for self-determination was systematic.
      • Requiring stronger presence of military.
      • Enhanced surveillance of Uyghurs and media they consumed.
      • Claimed that Uyghur dissent was supported by ‘international counter-revolutionary foces led by the United States of America.’
• A renewed crackdown in 1997.
  • [e_c] A disturbance broke out in February 1997 in Ghulja. See Ghulja incident.
  • [e_c] Three weeks later there were Urumqi bus bombings (1997).
  • [r_e] Now only men over 18 could visit mosques.
  • [r_e] PRC cut off ties between Uyghurs in Xinjiang and Central Asia.
  • [r_e] Used the newly established Shanghai Cooperation Organization to silence politically active Uyghurs.
  • [r_e] Some youths in the north sought to integrate while others resisted assimilation by taking refuge in Islam.
• The PRC sought to integrate Uyghurs and their homeland more solidly into the state, but without undertaking the accommodations required to incentivize it.
  • [e_m] It was assumed economic liberalization would erase colonial relations.
• Some vewed economic liberalization as a new way of colonizing.
  • [e_c] New Han migrants came and settled for good, due to business reasons.

• The colonial relationship between China and Uyghurs is unique.
  • [ s ] The colonial origins have never been fully acknowledged by Chinese states.
    • [r_i] So the region is still a colony of the PRC today.
• During its more than two centuries of history, this colonial relationship has involved a variance in state strategies for controlling the region and its peoples, but these policies have never served to truly integrate the region and its people into modern China.
  • [e_c] They lacked state capacity.
  • [e_c] Distance between Beijing and Xinjiang
  • [e_c] Paternalistic attitudes.
  • [r_e] The region remained a frontier colony on the margins of modern Chiense society.
    • [r_e] Uygurs were able to largely avoid assimilation.
• Due to events in the 1990s, the PC was more directly involved in the region than ever before.
  • [ s ] State-led development was transforming the landscape to look more like the rest of China
    • [ q ] Especially in the north.
  • [ s ] They rolled back political, cultural, and religious freedom of Uyghurs in the name of fighting ‘separatism.’
  • [ q ] The PRC was still able to peacefully integrate Xinjiang into modern China.
    • [ q ] But it would have needed to acknowledge its past colonization and Uyghurs’ indigenous status + accomodations to give Uyghurs a lead role in future development.
• In the early 200s, they would adopt the strategy of suggesting Uyghur dissent was a product of a ’terrorist threat.’

Next: TWoU - Ch2 - How the Uyghurs became a terrorist threat