Human Rights in Xinjiang 1978-2007: Internationalisation of the Uyghur Dilemma and China’s Reaction

Roy Anthony Rogers

doi:10.32890/jis.7.2011.7921

Abstract

Since 1978 when Deng Xiaoping took over the leadership of China after the demise of Mao Zedong in 1976, the country witnessed dramatic changes in the human rights situation. These included freedom in performing religious obligations such as pilgrimage, for the Muslim Uyghurs and freedom to practice their culture and language. Hence, there was an overall improvement in human rights situation in Xinjiang province. However, in the late 1990s the Chinese Communist Party reverted to harsh policies once again. They declared the policy of ‘Strike Hard’ which sanctioned the use of torture and arbitrary detention as well as extra-judicial killings of the Uyghurs. This article examines the factors that have influenced China’s policies on the human rights condition in Xinjiang from 1978 until 2007. It also analyses the role of Uyghur diasporas in their struggle to internationalise the human rights issues in Xinjiang and China’s reaction towards the international pressures.

Highlights

Unlike previous studies which only concentrated on major revolts or specific periods of Chinese administration in Xinjiang, this study attempts to analyse the internal and external factors that influenced the change in human rights conditions in Xinjiang.This study varies from previous works such as (Dillon, 2004) and (Starr, 2004)
Xinjiang has been selected for this study because it offers a unique case study which allows for the analysis of the contributing factors which have influenced human rights policies under the administrations of Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao
Xinjiang is critical to China in geo-political and geo-strategic terms because it borders with Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Pakistan, Russia and Mongolia

Summary

Introduction

Often Uyghur leaders were accused by the Red Guards as spies of the Soviet and sent to labour camps for rehabilitation, publicly humiliated, physically assaulted and killed.The political turmoil between China and the Soviet Union encouraged the CCP to adopt repressive policies which resulted in a decline of human rights conditions. There were several factors that influenced the human rights condition in Xinjiang since 1978 They include the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) perspective on human rights, the economic development in the region and the security conditionsof the province, the global war on terror. The mass migration of Hans to Xinjiang was justified on the grounds of providing manpower for economic development This impacted the human rights conditions in Xinjiang because as the number of Han Chinese increased the CCP was obligated to ensure that their socioeconomic condition was given priority at the expense of the locals. This led to the competition over socio-economic rights and privileges between the Han Chinese migrants and the locals

Political Violence in Xinjiang and the Uyghurs Separatism

Internationalisation of the Human Rights Issues by the Uyghur Diasporas

Findings

Conclusion