Muslim Revolt In China Leads To Clampdown

A riot and a series of bomb attacks in China's northwest province of Xinjiang have drawn world attention to Beijing's longstanding attempts to repress any rebellion by Muslims in the distant region.

Three bomb attacks, apparently by the Turkic-speaking minority Uighurs, blew apart buses within minutes of one another in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, only hours after the memorial for Deng Xiao-ping in Beijing last Tuesday.

"The timing of the bombings was geared toward sending a clear message to Beijing that the people of Xinjiang have been unhappy with Deng's policies," says Dru Gladney, a senior researcher at the East-West Center in Hawaii.

The attacks may indicate a renewed campaign by rebels representing the Uighurs, the minority people who inhabit the mountains, deserts, and steppes of Xinjiang and who resent the wealth, power, and privileges of Han Chinese migrants.

Beijing has increased the already-massive security forces in the region. The state press has reported almost nothing about the incident.

The bomb attacks came just weeks after the government closed off Yining, a town near Xinjiang's border with Kazakstan, when Muslim youths started a riot that led to the deaths of a number of Chinese settlers, said diplomats monitoring the area.

"Just sending in more troops is not going to solve the problem," says Professor Gladney, an expert on China's 20 million Muslims.

"It only makes the minorities in Xinjiang more disgruntled."

Although Deng's death may have triggered the latest unrest, his two-decade-long rule saw limited liberalizations, following earlier campaigns that could be described as attempted "cultural genocide" of the area's Muslim minorities.

After the Red Army moved into Xinjiang in the late 1940s, ending a brief period of independence for East Turkestan, Chinese leader Mao Zedong presided over the razing of mosques, the execution of local Muslim leaders, and the collectivization of the economy.

Applying policies carried out in Tibet, Mao moved to erase the area's native religion, customs, and culture.

Although Deng later eased religious restrictions in Xinjiang, he continued government support for the migration of Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of China's populace, into the border regions.

Long-held resentments among local Muslims, combined with a steady influx of Hans, combined to trigger an explosive clash of civilizations.

The most recent outbreak of violence is "not an isolated incident, but part of a continuing series of deep ethnic tensions," says a Western official.

He said that Uighurs today account for only one-fifth of Urumqi's populace, and added that as Xinjiang becomes more Chinese, the government has been widening its clampdown on the building of new mosques and religious schools.

At the same time, the benefits of Deng's economic reforms have largely flowed to Chinese settlers, not Xinjiang's Muslims, says the official.

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