Anyway: how can this evolve further? What is relatively new, though not surprising in se, is that it happens in Ürümqi this time (85% Han and Hui). Traditionally, Uighur uprisings happened in the south of Xinjiang (Baren, Kashgar, … ) or in Gülça (‘Yining’). Yet Ürümqi saw a lot of rural-ruban migration and social mobility there is high (i.e. mobility leads to competing expectations and thus frustrations, different groups are more closely confronted with each other in cities etc… )

An independent Uiğurstan is not for anytime soon, unless China balkanises which is not probable either. If I said that Uighurs have far more ground for existential uncertainty and anxiety than Han (should) have, it is because the options do not look very bright indeed. For a start, physically, they are confronted with a numerically vastly superior and agressive enemy.

What’s up then? Lets’ run the gamut: a) assimilation to remain a despised third-rank citizen anyway (‘the savage who learned good manners’); b) emigration from China (cf. India took the Tibetans in at the time, Uighurs will be more scattered); c) perhaps the most pathetic fate of all, end up like the (with all respect) native Americans in some sort of ethnological reserve where fluo-capped tour groups can toss coins, peanuts and bacon at those ‘backward Muslims’. Any surprise that some want to escape all of these fates by fighting themselves to death?

Let one thing be clear: no-one, I think, denies the right to the Uighurs to be modern. They themselves want that too. Yet what the Han compitalists do now is not a matter of ‘development’, ‘modernisation’ or ‘evolution’ but of sheer subjugation and humiliation. History has shown sufficiently than any ‘modernisation’ imposed by parties who think they know what is good for someone else leads to disaster.

Or else, who knows, some in the Han establishment will draw the necessary lessons from what happened lately. Let’s not dream though.

The PRC doesn’t allow for the people of Xinjiang/Uyghurstan or Tibet to voice their opinion. We don’t if the majorities of either region really do want full independence or to remain in the PRC in some manner. And even if they do want independence, the indy side must address the PRC’s own security concerns, such as fear that Tibet and Uyghurstan could become Western or Russian client states.

Joshua, I wish, too, that this tragedy was leading the U.S. news, for the shear number of deaths. I’d wonder though about how the story would get covered: We’d probably get the same accusations lobbed during the Iran election crisis, of the U.S. media trying to make the opposition protesters look completely in the right.

AHA! There we have it. The deep resentment is definitely a fact in both cases, with which you seem to be familiar. It would be surprising if it was not, really. Ever wondered *why* it became that way? OK right: an “evil terrorist conspiracy”, “destructive propaganda” etc etc… (for more info, e.g. click here http://cpc.people.com.cn/). Anything more, maybe…?

All this being said, granted: ‘racist Han *policy*’ would maybe be better. Even though Han culture has a substantive to strong supremacist element, let us assume that a certain percentage of Han do not think and behave along the same lines.

Finally, Mr. Koschei, admit that Uighurs have far more ground for existential uncertainty/anxiety than Han have and ever will have.