Tradition of Tension and Oppression Essay -- China

Xinjiang lies on the far western boundaries of the populations Republic of China. An area iii times the size of France, home to the vast majority of the Peoples Republic of Chinas Uyghur population (along with twelve other officially recognize ethnic groups), the Xinjiang Autonomous Region has been isolated from its central Beijing-based government by rough terrain, a language barrier, and starkly different religious traditions and economic structure. flat the regions Chinese name, Xinjiang or new frontier implies both the relative recentness of the provinces acquisition by China and the imperialistic nature of this acquisition. Early Chinese Communist Party policy in the region led to atrocious acts of cultural genocide. Separatist movements developed as granting immunity to the Chinese Communist Partys attempts to incorporate the region into a culture with which it was incompatible. While Mao era policies had disastrous effects across the Peoples Republic, the effort to promo te a stronger Chinese identity lead to the isolation of the Uyghur community and the development of Uyghur nationalism as demonstrated by mainland China policy towards the non-Han populace during the 1950s and the resulting Yi-Ta incident of 1962.Xinjiangs past status throughout Chinese history has been used as justification both for and against its internalisation into PRC, depending solely on political perspective. As a sparsely populated and resource-rich vast buffer region between the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic, Xinjiang was strategically and economically valuable. When the Peoples Liberation Army entered the province in 1949, despite a lack of familiarity with either the geography or the people, they successfully quelled underground efforts . A provin... ...-145. Web.Gladney, Dru C. Muslim Chinese Ethnic Nationalism in the Peoples Republic. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1996. Print.Kaltman, Blaine. Under the Heel of the Dragon. Athens Ohio University Press, 2 007. Print.McMillen, Donald H. Chinese Communist Power and Policy in Xinjiang, 1949 - 1977. boulder Westview Press, Inc., 1979. Print.Millward, James A. Eurasian Crossroads. New York Columbia University Press, 2007. Print.Moseley, George. Chinas Fresh Approach to the National Minority Question. The China Quarterly.24 (1965) pp. 15-27. Web.of Slavists, Canadian. The Uighurs between China and the USSR. Canadian Slavonic papers 17.2/3 (1975) 341-65. jstor. Web.Waite, Edmund. The Impact of the Sate on Islam Amongst the Uyghurs Religious Knowledge and Authority in the Kashgar Oasis. Central Asian Survey 25.3 (2006)Print.