Introduction
This section provides a curated list of academic research that has greatly contributed to an understanding of the treatment of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. This list consists of three major categories: published books, open access peer-reviewed articles, and peer-reviewed articles. New additions will be updated regularly.
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Published Books • Open Access Peer-Reviewed Articles • Peer-Reviewed Articles
Published Books
Below is a list of published academic titles on contemporary issues in Xinjiang.
Edited by Michael Clarke, Manchester University Press, February 2022The Xinjiang Emergency: Exploring the Causes and Consequences of China’s Mass Detention of UyghursThis edited volume assembles an interdisciplinary collection of articles examining the experiences of Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang. Chapters discuss the historical trajectory that continues to shape these experiences, a wide array of past and present settler-colonial practices, the discourses that inform these practices, and how these events manifest and intersect on the international stage. As a whole, they contribute to a holistic view of the ongoing crisis and provide the necessary context for the recent system of extrajudicial detentions. |
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Edited by Darren Byler, Ivan Franceschini, Nicholas Loubere, ANU Press, January 2022Xinjiang Year ZeroXinjiang Year Zero takes a decolonial and anti-racist stance in its examination of Xinjiang and argues that the colonization of Xinjiang must be linked to other instances of contemporary colonization in places like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Kashmir, and Palestine, and ongoing settler colonialism in North America and Australia. The struggle against labour malpractice, mass incarceration, corporative land theft, and police brutality globally must be thought of alongside the systems in Xinjiang. Anti-imperialism means standing in opposition to imperialism and all its forms everywhere, and standing with the victims and diasporas produced by these hegemonies. |
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, MIT Press, October 2021The Contest of the FruitsWith half of its contributors being Uyghurs from the region, The Contest of the Fruit is a rare, refreshing book at a time when so much academic publishing on the topic of Xinjiang is done by First World scholars of European descent. This collected volume juxtaposes critical scholarship, creative artwork, and artist interviews as equal knowledge builders for understanding the impact of cultural erasure and racialized violence in the Uyghur and Kazakh homeland. Grounded in thick description of Uyghur epistemologies, symbols, sounds, jokes, literary references and their deep roots in the wider Islamic world, The Contest of Fruit is a feast of Uyghur culture full of what the editors call “rubbery resistance” to Chinese assimilation. Educators can use this book for teaching a wide range of subjects such as decolonizing methodology, ethnic politics, pop culture in China, theatre, and performance studies. |
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Mantimin Ala, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, February 2021Worse Than Death: Reflections on the Uyghur GenocideIn this book, Ala, an Uyghur diaspora scholar, reflects on the increasingly oppressive political climate Uyghurs experience in contemporary Xinjiang. He argues that the autonomous region was made a colony of the PRC in 1949, and that Uyghurs, its dominant ethnic group, have found themselves the targets of a genocidal campaign in the wake of Xi Jinping’s ascendance in 2013. In addition to examining various historical and political contexts of the current crisis, Ala also addresses and condemns the indifference with which these events have been perceived internationally. |
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Eric Schluessel, Columbia University Press, October 2020Land of Strangers: The Civilizing Project in Qing Central AsiaSchluessel’s book traces the consequences of the Qing empire’s nineteenth-century project to make Xinjiang’s Turkic-speaking Muslims embrace a culturally Chinese identity. Taking a social history perspective, the book examines the impact of this colonial project on families, on identity, and on current events in the region. |
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David Tobin, Cambridge University Press, September 2020Securing China’s Northwest Frontier: Identity and Insecurity in XinjiangTobin analyzes the tense ethnic relations between Han and Uyghur peoples within a Chinese state, and argues that their enmity is further exacerbated due to the PRC Government treating Chinese identity as a matter of security. |
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Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press, 18 August 2020The War on the Uyghurs: China’s Internal Campaign against a Muslim MinorityRoberts shows how China is using the US-led war on terror to erase the cultural identity of its Muslim minority in the Xinjiang region. |
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Tim Grose, Hong Kong University Press, 15 January 2020Negotiating Inseparability in China: The Xinjiang Class and the Dynamics of Uyghur IdentityTracing the lives of several students from the “Xinjiang Class,” namely Uyghur students who went to boarding school in other parts of China under a state boarding program, Grose’s ethnography reveals the complicated identity formation processes that the students are embedded in. In particular, the forces of economic development, the mastery of the Chinese language, the distance created with their Uyghur heritage, being an ethnic minority in Han-dominated parts of China, and other intersecting issues unfold in the midst of an increasingly authoritarian China. Considering the recent development in Xinjiang, this book might be one of the last ethnographic accounts to be produced in the foreseeable future. |
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Ildikó Bellér-Hann and Chris Hann, LIT Verlag, January 2020The Great Dispossession: Uyghurs between CivilizationsBased on their fieldwork in Xinjiang in 2006-2009, Ildikó Bellér-Hann and Chris Hann trace the experiences of Uyghurs as the state has worked to bring them in line with China’s broader national identity. They examine how “macro-level tensions” have manifested in discourses around history, identity, religious practice, and other aspects of everyday life at local and regional levels. |
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Yuhui Li, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 15 August 2018China’s Assistance Program in Xinjiang: A Sociological AnalysisChina’s Assistance Program in Xinjiang closely examines and follows the impact of the partnership assistance program (PAP) in Xinjiang introduced in the 1990s. Yuhui Li notes PAP was expanded in 2010 as a response to the 2009 attack on Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang, noting this as a pivotal moment for the program. Leveraging a sociological perspective, the author highlights the massive industrial expansion in the region along with the push for urbanization that has happened in recent years. However, the book also explores the unintended consequences of this modernization push and the potential exacerbation of racial tensions in Xinjiang as a result. |
Open-Access Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Below is a list of academic journal articles that are accessible to the public.
Vincent Wong, African Journal of International Economic Law, Fall 2022.Racial capitalism with Chinese Characteristics: analyzing the political economy of racialized dispossession and exploitation in XinjiangIn this article, Vincent Wong argues that analysis of the Chinese government’s oppressive policies in Xinjiang would benefit from a perspective centered on racial capitalism. Because policies of detainment, surveillance, migration, and labour are not simply a function of authoritarian governance, but rather of the state’s capitalist development agenda, it is necessary to examine how these policies intersect with China’s domestic and international plans, particularly in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative. Wong suggests that Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities continue to face oppression in Xinjiang despite shifts in policy because the underlying logic of racial capitalism remains in place. Examining this logic as expressed in Xinjiang as well as in North America, South Asia, and Africa allows scholars and activists to avoid pitfalls that have placed these populations “between a rock and a hard place,” and it provides a lens that connects their struggles to that of other groups marginalized by broader expressions of racial capitalism. Keywords: Racial capitalism, Economic law, Surveillance Technology |
James A. Millward, The China Story, 16 August 2022.(Identity) Politics in Command: Xi Jinping’s July Visit to XinjiangIn his article, James A. Millward situates Xi Jinping’s 2022 visit to Xinjiang in the context of ongoing developments in the state’s approach to ethnic minorities (民族 minzu). He suggests that Xi’s rhetoric coincides with a push away from the view that places Han Chinese alongside fifty-five other groups and toward a unified and largely ahistorical Chinese identity under the umbrella of zhonghua (中华). This new vision incorporates ethnic minorities into the early stages of China’s history, ignores most features that distinguish them from Han and the other groups, and lays further groundwork for ongoing colonial practices in the region. Keywords: Ethnicity, Identity, Minzu, Zhonghua |
Guldana Salimjan, Lausan, 1 September 2021.Camp Land: Settler Ecotourism and Kazakh Dispossession in Contemporary XinjiangIn her article, Guldana Salimjan traces how China’s adoption of “ecological civilization” (生态文明) in its 2012 constitution has facilitated and “green-washed” the dispossession of grazing land traditionally used by Kazakhs and other traditionally pastoral groups. Under the guise of discourse about “ecological conservation” (生态保护) and “returning the pastures to the grassland” (退牧还草), the state has dispossessed these groups and commodified their land, culture, and bodies to bolster the increasingly lucrative tourism industry in Xinjiang. Attempts made by Kazakhs to redress this dispossession have dovetailed with the state’s crackdown on the region’s Muslims, leading to the arrests and disappearances of those criticizing these policies. Salimjan also connects these events to a broader history of settler-colonialism, in which settler states follow the forced removal of Indigenous populations with the establishment of tourist sites that trade in images of “untainted” natural beauty and “backward” cultural practices. Keywords: Ecotourism, Settler Colonialism, Pastoralism |
Magnus Fiskesjö, Cultural Propetry News, 23 June 2021Bulldozing Culture: China’s Systematic Destruction of Uyghur Heritage Reveals Genocidal IntentThis article by Magnus Fiskesjö, a former director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden, centres on China’s systematic assault on Uyghur heritage sites, which is explicitly listed by the United Nations as an example of an act of genocide. Instances of recent cultural erasure include the destruction of Uyghur holy pilgrimage sites called mazars, historical mosques, and cemeteries dating back centuries. They were bulldozed to pave way for development projects catering to the region’s growing tourist industry, including hotels and parking lots. The campaign of cultural destruction also has been targeting cultural assets that do not take up real estate space, such as Uyghur art, music, and even ethnic interior home design. The article concludes with a discussion on past UN and UNESCO attempts at inspecting and protecting heritage sites in Xinjiang. Keywords: Cultural destruction, Heritage Sites, Religious Persecution |
Andrian Zenz, Central Asian Survey, 10 June 2021.“End the Dominance of the Uyghur Ethnic Group”: An Analysis of Beijing’s Population Optimization Strategy in Southern XinjiangThis 2021 article published in the Central Asian Survey by German anthropologist Adrian Zenz looks at the systematic evidence of Beijing’s intent to substantially reduce ethnic minority population growth in Xinjiang. In particular, Dr. Zenz explores the observed difference between projected population growth without state interference in Xinjiang against reduced growth scenarios due to birth prevention policies. The latter, Dr. Zens posits that, is critical to Beijing’s counterterrorism goals, and aligns with state discourses on “ethnic population optimization” that akin Uyghurs to a biological threat; and a breeding ground for religious extremism. Highlights of Dr. Zens’ article include focuses on Xinjiang’s draconian birth control regime that punishes women with extrajudicial internment for violations and sterilization practices with long-term health consequences; and policy implementations aimed at increasing the raw number of Han in southern Xinjiang in targeted areas. Keywords: Xinjiang, Uyghurs, Ethnic Minorities, Birth Control, Population |
Rukiye Turdush and Magnus Fiskesjö, Genocide Studies and Prevention, 28 May 2021.Uyghur Women in China’s GenocideThis 2021 article published in Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal focuses on China’s implementation of genocidal policies against Uyghur women, including the forced prescription of birth control medication and inserting IUDs; and state-sponsored interracial marriages between almost exclusively Han Chinese men and Uyghur women. The article corroborates such allegations through human testimonies. Towards the end, the article traces the origins of China’s genocidal policies, looking at the country’s colonization of Xinjiang, or East Turkistan, and other regions post-1949 and how the ancient Chinese idea of punishment is applied to Uyghur women as an instrument of genocide. Keywords: Gender Violence, Settler Colonialism, Genocide |
XqSu, Lausan, 24 March 2021Dust Storms, Green Waves: A Lattice of Violent, Global Relations Sustains China’s Colonization of ‘Xinjiang’XqSu’s article traces the global capitalist forces underlying ongoing events in Xinjiang. It connects data about the Belt and Road Initiative, Hewlett Packard, and the state’s ecological development plans to demonstrate how settler colonialism in the region is fueled and sustained by “transnational tech and infrastructure cooperation” that makes finding a solution difficult. In this light, XqSu argues, it is necessary to “pierce our modern geographies of concealment and bring into view the lattice of violent relations that sustains the modern state of China and its international markets.” Keywords: Global Capitalism, Ecology, Settler Colonialism |
Nitasha Kaul, Made in China Journal, 5 October 2020China : Xinjiang :: India : KashmirThis 2020 article by Nitasha Kaul on the Made in China Journal explores contemporary developments and historical contexts of China and India’s suppression of Muslim-majority populations within their respective borders, Xinjiang for the former and Kashmir for the latter. Drawing parallels to Beijing’s erection of discriminatory policies, detention, and security apparatuses in Xinjiang, Kaul sees India emulating such strategies to, in the rhetoric of Indian officials, modernize the region and “deradicalize” Muslims from their engaging in violent separatism and terrorism. To make this case, Kaul explores several topics, including India’s violent colonial past, ramping of the construction of detention camps; and the spread of anti-immigrant and Islamophobic rhetoric from Prime Minister Modi-led BJP party. Keywords: Terrorism, Global Colonialism, Religious Persecution |
Rian Thum, Made in China Journal, 24 August 2020The Spatial Cleansing of Xinjiang: Mazar Desecration in ContextRian Thum explores the destruction of mazars, a religious and historical landmark, throughout Xinjiang. Mazars are physical locations that take the form of community centers, cultural and historical archives, and most commonly graveyards. These sites are very holy and closely connected to God as many individuals make pilgrimages to these locations every year. As part of the ongoing strategy to assimilate and suppress the Uyghur population in Xinjiang, sites like these are being demolished at an astounding rate. In this piece, Thum outlines the importance and prominence of mazars and the ramifications of desecration. Keywords: Cultural Destruction, Religious Persecution, Re-Education |
Matthew P. Robertson, Made in China Journal, 12 June 2020Counterterrorism or Cultural Genocide?Matthew P. Robertson argues that current CCP policies toward Uyghurs are focused on cultural genocide, and counterterrorism has been intentionally invoked as the cover. Keywords: Counterterrorism, Genocide, Re-Education, Surveillance |
Adrian Zenz, Journal of Political Risk 8, no. 2, February 2020The Karakax List: Dissecting the Anatomy of Beijing’s Internment Drive in XinjiangZenz provides further primary evidence on the persecution and punishment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang from a leaked document from the County of Karakax in Hotan Prefecture. Keywords: Chen Quanguo, Detention, Karakax, Uyghurs |
Darren Byler, New Internationalist, no. 522, December 2019Living in a Ghost WorldDarren Byler describes the open-air surveillance, internment camps, and population control in Xinjiang. Keywords: Labour transfer, Re-Education, Securitization, Surveillance |
Ondřej Klimeš, Sinopsis, 8 November 2019China’s Xinjiang Work in TurkeyKlimeš focuses on the Uyghur diaspora in Turkey and how the Chinese state’s reach extends well beyond its border in the effort to control Xinjiang. Keywords: Diaspora, Biopolitics, Turko-Chinese relations, Propaganda. |
Adrian Zenz, Journal of Political Risk, no. 11, November 2019“Wash Brains, Cleanse Hearts”: Evidence from Chinese Government Documents about the Nature and Extent of Xinjiang’s Extrajudicial Internment CampaignZenz investigates the numerous public communication campaigns that the Chinese government has initiated to soften the nature of the internment camps. Keywords: Extremism, Re-Education, Securitization |
Amy Anderson and Darren Byler, China Perspectives, 1 September 2019: 17–26“Eating Hanness”: Uyghur Musical Tradition in a Time of Re-EducationThis article shows how the PRC Government has attempted to erode Uyghur culture by first making a state-curated version that exotifies Uyghur culture, and then completely erasing it by assimilating it with Han culture. Keywords: Music, Re-Education, Symbolic Violence, Xinjiang, Uyghur |
Dilmurat Mahmut, Forum for International Research in Education, no. 1, 2019.Controlling Religious Knowledge and Education for Countering Religious Extremism: Case Study of the Uyghur Muslims in ChinaThis article discusses the history of how the PRC Government has viewed Islamism, and in the wake of increased radical terrorist attacks at the turn of the 20th Century, began to limit even more religious activities, especially in Western China. This article then highlights how even more restrictive policies have created further radicalization due to a ‘us vs them’ mentality. Keywords: China, Religious Knowledge and Education, Policies and Rhetoric, Religious Extremism, Uyghurs |
Rachel Harris and Aziz Isa, Central Asian Survey, no. 1, 26 September 2018Islam by Smartphone: Reading the Uyghur Islamic Revival on WeChatThe main argument of this article contends that by analyzing the predominant themes in conversations with Uyghurs on WeChat, one can find meaningful characteristics of Uyghur identity, which has been saturated and trivialized by the mainstream media that has been covering the rising cases of violence in Xinjiang. Keywords: Anashid, China, Islamic revival, Social media, Uyghur |
Adrian Zenz, China Brief, no. 10, 15 May 2018New Evidence for China’s Political Re-Education Campaign in XinjiangThis is a condensed version of Zenz’s article, “Thoroughly Reforming Them Towards a Healthy Heart Attitude’: China’s Political Re-Education Campaign in Xinjiang” Keywords: Re-Education, Internment, De-Extremification |
Amy H. Liu and Kevin Peters, Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, no. 2, October 2017: 265–280The Hanification of Xinjiang, China: The Economic Effects of the Great Leap WestThe authors examine the relationship between PRC leadership in Beijing and the Uyghur people in Xinjiang during the Great Leap West. This project began in the late 1990s as an economic initiative to open up the Northwestern region of China and better integrate Uyghurs into the economy. The paper points out the disconnect between the two groups as China deemed the Great Leap West as a success in land and economic development whereas Uyghurs and other groups in the region viewed the project as further proof of colonial efforts from the government. Keywords: Chinese History, Economics, Ethnic Studies |
Marika Vicziany and Guibin Zhang, 15th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, August 2004The Rise of the Private Sector in Xinjiang (Western China): Han and Uyghur EntrepreneurshipThis peer-reviewed paper was presented at the 15th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia in Canberra in June 2004. Focusing on the rise of the private sector in Xinjiang, the paper explores different categories of ventures that exist in Xinjiang, particularly the growth of minority-owned businesses against the backdrop of Beijing’s post-Maoist economic reforms. The paper also addresses the brewing discontent among Uyghur populations in response to policies discriminating against minority entrepreneurship in Xinjiang, including more than usual bureaucratic hurdles and being forced to employ Han workers. Keywords: Economics, Development, Discrimination, Entrepreneurship |
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Below is a list of journal articles that can only be accessed through academic institutions. However, clicking on the link will take you to a permalink on this website with a summary and article abstract.
Stephanie Kam and Michael Clarke, International Affairs 97, no. 3, 2021Securitization, Surveillance, and ‘De-extremization’ in XinjiangStephanie Kam and Michael Clarke argue that the state’s social engineering project in Xinjiang has emerged out of a confluence of factors, including a post-911 approach to surveillance, the increased application of technology in governance, and the leadership of Xi Jinping and Chen Quanguo, who was appointed party secretary of Xinjiang in 2016. They warn that the state’s successes in the region may serve as a model for even more repressive and intrusive governance, both within China and abroad Keywords: Security, Surveillance, Technology |
Guldana Salimjan, Human Ecology 49, 2021Naturalized Violence: Affective Politics of China’s “Ecological Civilization” in XinjiangGuldana Salimjan argues that recent environmental policies in China have destabilized preexisting relationships between Xinjiang’s Kazakh population and their environment. Herders have been forced to abandon their traditional livelihood and culture and now must now compete in the labour market. The state’s policies have generated both economic hardship and grief over the disappearance of longstanding cultural practices, especially because indigenous knowledge of the environment has been characterized as harmful to ecological stability. This perception, in turn, has justified removing the herders from their land. Keywords: Ecology, Pastoralism, Indigenous Populations |
Timothy A. Grose, Central Asian Survey, 6 July 2020If You Don’t Know How, Just Learn: Chinese Housing and the Transformation of Uyghur Domestic SpaceTimothy A. Grose examines how the “Three News” housing campaign has attempted to transform Uyghur cultural and religious identity by redesigning domestic spaces, banning Islamic domestic adornments, and encouraging families to emulate Han domestic practices. Keywords: Assimilation Policy, Central Asia, Housing, Islam, Uyghur, Xinjiang |
Adrian Zenz and James Leibold, The China Quarterly 242, 2020Securitizing Xinjiang: Police Recruitment, Informal Policing and Ethnic Minority Co-optationThis article investigates the securitization of Xinjiang through an analysis of official police recruitment documents. The authors also discuss that the increased recruitments include high-paying policing positions without any education requirements, which lead to a large number of ethnic minorities who end up policing their own people. Keywords: China, Securitization, Police State, China’s War on Terror, Uyghur |
Sarah Tynen, Central Asian Survey, 2 April 2020Dispossession and Displacement of Migrant Workers: The Impact of State Terror and Economic Development on Uyghurs in Urban XinjiangTynen discusses the manner in which Uyghurs have been displaced in Xinjiang, and its function with regards to state control in the region. Keywords: China, Displacement, Dispossession, Migration, Territory, Uyghur |
Caitlin M. Ryan and Sarah Tynen, Geographical Review 13, 2019Fieldwork Under Surveillance: Rethinking Relations of Trust, Vulnerability, and State PowerTynen and Ryan’s article is centered around the difficulty and the practical reality of conducting fieldwork in contexts of state violence, surveillance, and/or outright hostility. Keywords: Ethnography, Surveillance, Methodology, Intimate Geopolitics, Uyghur |
Sarah Tynen, Territory, Politics, Governance 8, no. 1, 2019State Territorialization through Shequ Community Centres: Bureaucratic Confusion in Xinjiang, ChinaTynen writes about how Shequs (community centers) in Xinjiang exist simultaneously as a location that provides basic services while being the locus of surveillance and control. Keywords: Neighbourhood, Governance, Territory, Bureaucracy, State Control, Community Building, Authoritarian |
James Leibold, Journal of Contemporary China 29, no. 121, 2019Surveillance in China’s Xinjiang Region: Ethnic Sorting, Coercion, and InducementLeibold explores the mechanics, logic and implications of Xinjiang’s surveillance society. Keywords: Internment, Racialization, State Violence, Surveillance |
Joanne Smith Finley, Central Asian Survey 38, no. 1, 2019Securitization, Insecurity and Conflict in Contemporary Xinjiang: Has PRC Counter-Terrorism Evolved into State Terror?Finley argues that under the regime of Xi Jinping, China has turned counter-terrorism initiatives into its own form of state terror. Keywords: Terrorism, Securitization, De-Extremification, State Terrorism, State Violence |
James Leibold and Timothy Grose, Asian Studies Review 43, 2019Cultural and Political Disciplining inside China’s Dislocated Minority Schooling SystemThis article discusses the teacher-student dynamics and the manner in which students are disciplined in China’s minority schooling system that has been in place since 1985, which hosues Tibetans, Uyghurs, and other visible minorities in China. Keywords: China, Disciplinary Power, Dislocated Minority Schooling, Education, Ethnicity, Ethnic Minority Education, Neidiban, Tibetans, Uyghurs |
Dibyesh Anand, Central Asian Survey 38, 2019Colonization with Chinese characteristics: Politics of (in)security in Xinjiang and TibetAnand argues that modern colonialism is the most useful framework for understanding Chinese state policies in Xinjiang and Tibet, and that securitization and paternalism are designed to consolidate power over territory rather than facilitate better rule. Keywords: Colonialism, Securitization, Nationalism |
Nimrod Baranovitch, Modern China 45, no. 5, 2019The Impact of Environmental Pollution on Ethnic Unrest in Xinjiang: A Uyghur PerspectiveBaranovitch argues that environmental protests carried out by Uyghurs are prohibited to a greater extent than similar protests carried out in other parts of China, and that this pattern of suppression generates further discontent and environmental degradation. Keywords: Environmental Degradation, Ethnic Unrest, Air and Water Pollution |
Joanne Smith Finley, Central Asian Survey 38, no. 1, 2018The Wang Lixiong prophecy: ‘Palestinization’ in Xinjiang and the consequences of Chinese state securitization of religionFinley argues that state securitization of religion has been counterproductive, and heightened societal insecurity and promoted inter-ethnic conflict between Uyghur and Han communities. Keywords: Palestinization, Religion, Ethnic Studies |
Adrian Zenz, Central Asian Survey 38, no. 1, 2018Thoroughly Reforming Them Towards a Healthy Heart Attitude’: China’s Political Re-Education Campaign in XinjiangZenz confirms the existence of re-education camps using evidence available from official government sources. Keywords: Extremism, Re-Education, Securitization |
Pablo A. Rodriguez-Merino, Central Asian Survey 38, no. 1, 2018Old ‘Counter-Revolution’, New ‘Terrorism’: Historicizing the Framing of Violence in Xinjiang by the Chinese StateRodriguez-Merino argues how the idea of terrorism has been framed differently over the years by the CCP. Keywords: Security, Terrorism, Chinese History |
Ondřej Klimeš, Journal of Chinese Political Science 23, 2018Advancing “Ethnic Unity” and “De-Extremization”: Ideational Governance in Xinjiang under “New Circumstances” (2012–2017)Klimeš focuses on the paradigm shift happening under the Xi Jinping era in China’s approach towards Xinjiang. Keywords: Xi Jinping, Xinjiang, Ideology, Propaganda, Religion |
Sean R. Roberts, Critical Asian Studies 50, no. 2, 2018The Biopolitics of China’s “War on Terror” and the Exclusion of the UyghursRoberts focuses on the “surveillance, punishment, and detention” that the China state undertakes to subjugate Uyghurs through a bio-political lens. Keywords: Re-Education, Biopolitics, Terrorism, State Violence |
Zunyou Zhou, Terrorism and Political Violence 31, no. 6, 2017Chinese Strategy for De-RadicalizationThis article discusses the ideas and structure behind China’s de-radicalization campaigns in Xinjiang and its effectiveness. Keywords: China, Community Engagement, De-Radicalization, Religious Extremism, Terrorism, Uyghur, Xinjiang |
Yuchao Zhu and Dongyan Blachford, Journal of Contemporary China 25, no. 97, 2016‘Old Bottle, New Wine’? Xinjiang Bingtuan and China’s Ethnic Frontier GovernanceZhu and Blachford maintain that Xinjiang must be understood in terms of frontier governance, and that Bingtuan, a state-run economic and paramilitary organization operating in the region, will continue to shape the state’s approach to development, stability, and ethnic relations in the region. Keywords: Bingtuan, Frontier Governance, Ethnicity |
Michael Clarke, Middle East Policy Council, 2015China and the Uyghurs: The “Palestinization” of Xinjiang?In this 2015 article published on Middle East Policy, Dr. Clarke, an associate professor at Australian National University, uses Palestine or “Palestinization” as an analogy to capture the Uyghur-Han ethnic tension in China, the emulation of radical Islamism and violence by Uyghur extremists, and lastly, the immense international attention such developments are attracting. Clarke illustrates the history of the erection of a massive counterterrorism apparatus in Xinjiang, and the series of terrorist incidents and trends of extremism that have catalyzed the overwhelming securitization of the region. Clarke also makes note of the diplomatic maneuvers Beijing has made to convince the Central Asian republics and the Islam world to suppress Uyghur autonomy and separatism against the backdrop of retreating American influence in the Middle East. Keywords: Ethnic tension, counterterrorism, Uyghur, Palestine |
Agnieszka Joniak-Lüth, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 138, no. 2, 2013Han Migration to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: Between State Schemes and Migrants’ StrategiesJoniak-Lüth traces how the influx of Han labourers over the last few decades has produced spaces in Xinjiang where these migrants interact very little with the region’s indigenous groups. Furthermore, she argues that this long-term process has generated a diverse array of identities among Han migrants, with some identifying more with Xinjiang than their place of origin. Keywords: Han Migration, Bingtuan, Identity |
Matthew James Thomas Cliff, Asian Studies Review 33, no. 1, 2009Neo Oasis: The Xinjiang Bingtuan in the Twenty-first CenturyCliff argues that bingtuan, which has occupied parts of Xinjiang since 1954, has undergone changes that make it different from the long-standing military-agricultural colonies on which it is modeled. Urbanization, opening up, and other processes have shifted bingtuan away from military and agricultural work and towards commerce and industry, and its consolidation of control over Xinjiang has provided the state with more direct methods of governance in the region. Keywords: Bingtuan, Military-agricultural Colony, Governance |
Michael Clarke, Terrorism and Political Violence 20, no. 2, 2008China’s “War on Terror” in Xinjiang: Human Security and the Causes of Violent Uighur SeparatismClarke argues that violent Uyghur separatism and terrorism conforms in a number of important respects to the human security theory of terrorism, particularly in the realm of political and civil rights. Keywords: Central Asia, Security, Terrorism, Separatism |
Scott Fogden, Issues & Studies 39, no. 3. 2003.Writing Insecurity: The PRC’s Push to Modernize China and the Politics of Uighur IdentityThis article highlights tensions between the PRC’s modernization program – assessed alongside a rising tide of Chinese nationalism – and the interests of Uighur communities. While critiquing accepted notions of identity and culture, the article illustrates how national and sub-national narratives are activated in ways that undermine both the state’s integrity and the security of Uighurs and their communities. Keywords: Uyghur, Security, Securitization, Terrorism, Identity, Modernization, Nationalism |
Nicolas Becquelin, The China Journal 44, 2000Xinjiang in the NinetiesBecquelin argues that agricultural policies, reclamation programs, and an influx of Han labour into Xinjiang are aspects of a state strategy for the “Sinification” of the region. In this light, increased ethnic unrest cannot be attributed solely to ethno-national and religious extremism, but must also be seen in light of segregative policies and the increased regulation of religious and cultural customs. Keywords: Ethnic Unrest, Han Immigration, Colonialism |
James D. Seymour, Inner Asia 2, no. 2, 2000Xinjiang’s Production and Construction Corps, and the Sinification of Eastern TurkestanSeymour argues that bingtuan has implemented the state’s long-standing colonial agenda in Xinjiang by facilitating Han immigration, dealing with tensions between groups such as Han immigrants and indigenous populations or soldiers and civilians, and consolidating power. Keywords: Bingtuan, Colonialism, Han Immigration, Prisoners |
Donald H. McMillen, The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 6, 1981Xinjiang and the Production and Construction Corps: A Han Organisation in a Non-Han RegionMcMillen argues that bingtuan (or the Xinjiang PCC), since its establishment in 1954, was instrumental in consolidating Han rule and modernizing the region, and that its status as a largely Han organization operating in a non-Han region was a significant factor in Xinjiang’s development. Keywords: Bingtuan, Ethnicity, Development |