China's Xinjiang and Pakistan's Baluchistan: CPEC Perspective

Abstract

The events of 9/11 have radically altered the entire discussion of Minorities – especially Muslim ones – and the issue of terrorism. As real as is the threat of al-Qaida and its international connections, many regimes of the world have seized on the US Global War against Terrorism to legitimize their own repression of Muslim and even Non-Muslim minorities. We have witnessed this in both friendly state, China and Pakistan. Most of the heterogeneous populated states consist of different ethnic communities. Each ethnic identity has different voices and demands, for the accomplishment of which, a continuous struggle is going on, influencing the national politics. Pakistan and China like other developing states of the world is also in front of identity crisis almost in there important federating units, Pakistan in Baluchistan and China in Xinjiang, with different concerns. These concerns are sometimes ethno-nationality, decentralization of powers, provincial autonomy and economic discrepancies. After the dismemberment of East Pakistan, the most sensitive and hot issue is the case of Baluchistan's ethno-national movement which sometimes in different occasions seem to be transformed to a militant or an insurgent group for fulfillment of their objectives. And same problem in china's Xinjiang in the case of the Uyghur. This sense of ethnic difference has to a large extent formed the basis of longstanding anti-Han sentiment among the Xinjiang Uyghur's. The Chinese leadership has also for decades perceived these sentiments as the presence of a separatist movement in Xinjiang. The Uyghur's' situation is complicated by the fact that Xinjiang – a vast oil- and gas-rich swath of territory in China's northwest occupying one-sixth of the country's area – is of great strategic value. The Chinese government has repeatedly emphasized the importance of interethnic harmony in Xinjiang and rapid integration of the Uyghur's into the Han-dominated Chinese society. Yet, many Uyghur's see policies intended to promote these goals as attempts to suppress their culture and religion. Xinxiang conflict is one of the most danger threats to the relation of both the countries.