While Chinese government is tightening anti-terror efforts in Xinjiang due to the recent Xinjiang riots, an online plea from a Xinjiang native has triggered discussions on the causes of the constant violent clashes between Uyghurs and the Han people. Some netizens think the problem lies in the Chinese government’s ethnic policies. Offbeat China has translated some comments into English.
Written byAbby Liu
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Well this goes deeper than day-to-day politics.
For millennia, Han Chinese have viewed their periphery as populated by barbarians and they consider it as part of the “Heavenly Mandate” of Chinese emperors to “civilize”, “pacify” and “sinicise” these areas and them bring them under Chinese cultural, economic and demographic control. It’s not just the Uyghurs, Tibet, Tangut, Nan-Chao, etc. were independent kingdoms until “recently” by historical standards (Tocharians died out a lot earlier lol)