The Xinjiang region is the largest autonomous region in China.
Various Muslim minorities with Central Asian roots live there.
There were repeated unrest there.
Xinjiang in northwest China is the largest autonomous region in the People's Republic.
Many ethnic groups and religions live together here, which repeatedly causes conflicts.
The Uyghur minority in particular has to struggle with a lot of discrimination.
The Xinjiang Autonomous Region has been part of the People's Republic of China since 1950. Various mostly Muslim ethnic groups with Central Asian roots have lived there for centuries. These are now referred to as national minorities. The largest ethnic group in Xinjiang are the Uyghurs. In the past few decades there have been repeated religious conflicts between the minorities and the majority of the Han Chinese - more and more of whom have moved to Xinjiang over the years. Occasional riots broke out - which has recently prompted a tough reaction from Beijing. As a result, the Uyghurs in particular are currently exposed to human rights violations and discrimination. Up to a million of them are said to have been interned in re-education camps by 2021. Beijing admits the existence of the campsbut refers to them as training centers.
Xinjiang: Geographical Facts
Xinjiang is one of five officially autonomous regions in China that are legally administered by the national minorities living there.
The Xinjiang Autonomous Region is the largest of these autonomous regions and takes up one sixth of the area of China.
Through this huge area of 1.66 million square kilometers, Xinjiang borders on seven states.
Its external border with these states and other provinces and regions of China is 5600 kilometers long.
Most of the area of Xinjiang consists of barren desert area.
The largest desert in the region is the Taklamakan Desert.
In the north and south of the region there are high mountain ranges and the Tibetan plateau.
The people of the region traditionally live in oases, where they still grow melons and grapes, among other things.
Among other things, sheep are bred in the mountains.
Cotton is grown in the lowlands.
The region is also rich in natural resources, including natural gas.
The seven states bordering Xinjiang are:
Afghanistan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Mongolia
Pakistan
Russia
Tajikistan
Xinjiang: A region of different nationalities
Around 24 million people live in the multi-ethnic region of Xinjiang. The total population, especially the ethnic minorities, has increased significantly in recent years. The Uighur population has almost doubled since 1978. This increase is due, among other things, to the fact that the minorities were exempt from the strict one-child policy that was recently abolished - and families therefore mostly had several children.
In addition to the Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and the Hui also live in Xinjiang - the latter are a traditional Muslim group that has always lived only in western China.
In addition, more and more Han Chinese have gradually moved to the region over the past few decades.
These mostly live in the large urban centers of the north - while many locals, including the Uyghurs, tend to live in the countryside and in the south of the region.
Kazakhs and crises often live in the border regions with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Xinjiang: history
The areas north and south of the Tianshan Mountains had been officially part of China since the Han Dynasty - which ruled China for 400 years around the time of Christ's birth. Until the 19th century, the remote region was still referred to as Xiyu, which means something like "western areas". At that time the region was particularly important as part of the old trade route of the Silk Road. Caravans stopped in the oases of Xiyu on their journey through the desert regions of Central Asia.
Islamization of the region began in the tenth century. The area was also repeatedly - depending on the strength of the respective imperial dynasty and the central state, independent and was administered by the peoples who lived there themselves. Or she changed hands. At the time of the last Qing Imperial Dynasty, the Dzungar Mongol dynasty ruled Xiyu. In order to get rid of the unloved rulers, the Turkic peoples of Xinjiang turned to the Qing court. He sent warriors who defeated the Mongols after long brutal battles. The residents of Xinjiang were then ruled as vassals of the Chinese Qing Empire.
In 1884 the region was renamed Xinjiang, which means "New Frontier". Against the Qing there have been repeated uprisings by the Uighurs and other peoples in the region. In the turmoil of the end of the last imperial dynasty of the Qing, Xinjiang was left to its own devices at times. In 1933 insurgents founded the short-lived "East Turkestan" in Kashgar, which Chinese warlords put an end to after just one year. After the civil war at the beginning of the 20th century and the takeover of power by the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong in 1949, Xinjiang also formally fell back under Beijing's control. Six years later, the People's Republic of China founded what is now the Uighur autonomous region of Xinjiang, with Urumqi as its capital.
Since then, more and more Han Chinese have been moving to Xinjiang - some voluntarily, others at the behest of the party.
As a result, the balance of the population is gradually shifting despite the large number of Uyghur children.
The most widespread religion, however, is still Islam, which the Uyghurs and the Hui in particular follow this belief.
About 60 percent of Xinjiang's residents are Muslim.
The Han Chinese are either communist-atheist and follow Buddhism or folk religions such as Daoism.
Xinjiang: economy
The economy in Xinjiang has grown rapidly in recent years. The production of cotton in particular plays a major role in the region. About 85 percent of China's cotton is grown there. That is more than a fifth of global production. In most cases, the picking is done by hand and is very difficult physical work, which is mostly done by Uighur workers. Most recently, accusations arose on the basis of serious research reports that Uyghurs were obliged to do forced labor in the cotton sector, among others. China rejects the allegations.
Many raw materials are also stored underground in Xinjiang, especially under the Taklamakan Desert.
The autonomous region has one of the highest concentrations of fossil energy reserves in China.
Therefore, the oil, gas and coal sectors are also very pronounced there.
The mining and production of these mineral resources make a significant contribution to economic output, so that despite its relatively low level of development, Xinjiang has overtaken other provinces in terms of per capita income.
However, it is primarily the Han Chinese employed in these sectors that benefit from this upturn.
Xinjiang has always been China's gateway to the west.
The historic Silk Road ran through the area - and now China's New Silk Road infrastructure program is also set to run through Xinjiang.
Since 2016, Beijing has had the Xinjiang security apparatus massively expanded.
In this context, new jobs have also been created for Uyghurs - but at the same time the controversial camps that Beijing describes as training centers.
In addition, the private business activities of the Uyghurs, but also of the Han Chinese, are severely impaired by the many controls.
Xinjiang: The current situation of the Uighurs
Since many different religions and nationalities live together in the Xinjiang region, there have often been political and ethnic conflicts there in the past. Time and again there were more or less intensive attempts at autonomy among the Uyghurs; their religiosity also increased in the period after 2001. The problem is that the Uyghurs have less access to education and capital than the Han Chinese and suffer from discrimination and distrust. Reasons for this are, in addition to religion, language barriers and different political loyalties.
The Chinese government has therefore set out from the start to put an end to unrest among the minorities. As early as 1954, communist production brigades were supposed to guarantee control over the Uyghurs. Xinjiang is largely controlled from Beijing, despite its status as an autonomous region. Uighur functionaries are also members of the KP and support its course in their home region. The Uighur flag is forbidden and the practice of religion is strictly monitored.
There were repeated unrest among the Uighur population as well as individual attacks by small Islamist groups in China. In 2009, anti-Chinese riots in Urumqi erupted, with many injured. As a result, China tightened its thumbscrews more and more. The internet is more controlled; cameras were installed in public places. For several years there have been serious reports that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been interned in re-education camps. Some of them are also obliged to do forced labor, for example when harvesting cotton. China rejects these allegations and describes the camps as training centers and anti-terrorism measures. China has so far rejected requests for access to, for example, the United Nations.
