Search

The importance of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to China, economically, politically, and strategically, cannot be overstated. Covering 640,000 square miles, Uyghuristan is approximately the size of Iran. Located in the far west, it is Beijing's largest administrative unit encompassing one-sixth of China's territory. Due to an abundance of coal, natural gas, and oil, accounting for roughly a quarter of China's total reserves, Uyghuristan has been described as the country's "national energy strategy base." These energy resources have been indispensable to "growing" the Chinese economy and maintaining the Chinese Communist Party in power. Strategically, Uyghuristan is the vital link for the Chinese economy's increasing need for imported oil from Central Asia and, through the Pakistan pipeline corridor, the Persian Gulf. It is the key to the success of Beijing's ambitious "One Road, One Belt Initiative" to link the economies of Eurasia to China through infrastructure development. The most important strategic value of Uyghuristan, however, resides in its geography. Consisting mostly of mountains and deserts, the sheer vastness of this inhospitable land provides a natural barrier protecting "China Proper", the heavily populated lands in the east of the country lying between the Yellow River in the north and the Xi River in the south, from land invasions. For these reasons, China will not relinquish control over Uyghuristan, its resources or its people. The people are Uyghurs, a Turkic Muslim nation, who have been seeking their political independence for most of the Twentieth Century. The fall of the last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing, in 1911, was followed by the collapse of the Chinese state. In the ensuing political instability, the Uyghurs declared their independence as the East Turkestan Republic - twice. The first time was in 1933 and endured until suppressed by Nationalist Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-shek in 1934. A second East Turkestan Republic was established in 1944 and lasted until it was overthrown by Communist Chinese forces under Mao Zedong in 1949. Since the 1990s, Beijing has initiated measures to permanently secure Uyghuristan to China by colonizing the land with Chinese settlers. These policies have succeeded in reducing Uyghurs from a majority to a plurality. The objective appears to be to make Uyghurs a demographic minority in their own homeland. Chinese colonization has provoked riots by Uyghurs, ethnic clashes between Uyghurs and Chinese migrants, and repeated calls by Uyghurs for their right to self-determination. Beijing's response as reflected in its 2014 "strike hard campaign against terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism" has, itself, been extreme. In the words of a UN human rights panel, Uyghuristan now resembles a "massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy, a sort of 'no rights zone'...members of the Uyghur community and other Muslims were being treated as 'enemies of the state' solely on the basis of their ethno-religious identity." This article will examine these issues and the fundamental question they raise -- are Uyghurs victims of genocide as legally defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide?. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]