Argument against East Turkestan independence
China claims to have a historic claim on modern-day
Xinjiang dating back two thousand years. East Asian migrants arrived in the eastern portions of the
Tarim Basin about 3,000 years ago, while the
Uighur people arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, based in modern-day
Mongolia, around the year 842.
[58] It fears that independence movements are largely funded and led by outside forces that seek to weaken China. China points out that despite such movements,
Xinjiang has made great economic strides, building up its infrastructure, improving its education system and increasing the average life expectancy.
[59]
Some
Chinese Muslims criticize Uyghur separatism, and generally do not want to get involved in conflict in other countries over Islam for fear of being perceived as radical.
[60]
Uyghur independence activists express concern over the Han population changing the Uyghur character of the region, yet the historical native land of the Uyghurs is not the whole land of Xinjiang, but
Tarim basin. Also the capital of Xinjiang
Urumqi was even originally a Han and Hui (Tungan) city with few Uyghur people before recent Uyghur migration to the city, but foreigners mistakenly think that Urumqi was originally a Uyghur city and that the Chinese destroyed its Uyghur character and culture.
[61] Moreover, the Han and Hui mostly live in northern Xinjiang
Dzungaria, and are separated from areas of historical Uyghur dominance south of the Tian Shan mountains (southwestern Xinjiang), where Uyghurs account for about 90% of the population.
[62]
Uyghur nationalist historians such as
Turghun Almas claim that Uyghurs were distinct and independent from Chinese for 6000 years, and that all non-Uyghur peoples are non-indigenous immigrants to Xinjiang.
[63] However, the
Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) established military colonies (
tuntian) and commanderies (
duhufu) to control Xinjiang from 120 BCE, while the
Tang Dynasty (618-907) also controlled much of Xinjiang until the
An Lushan rebellion.
[64] Chinese historians refute Uyghur nationalist claims by pointing out the 2000-year history of Han settlement in Xinjiang, documenting the history of
Mongol,
Kazakh,
Uzbek,
Manchu,
Hui,
Xibo indigenes in Xinjiang, and by emphasizing the relatively late "westward migration" of the
Huigu (equated with "Uyghur" by the PRC government) people from Mongolia the 9th century.
[63] The name "Uyghur" was associated with a Buddhist people in the Tarim Basin in the 9th century, but completely disappeared by the 15th century, until it was revived by the
Soviet Union in the 20th century.
[65]
Uyghur nationalists often incorrectly claim that 5% of Xinjiang's population in 1949 was Han, and that the other 95% was Uyghur, erasing the presence of
Kazakhs,
Xibes, and others, and ignoring the fact that Hans were around one third of Xinjiang's population at 1800, during the time of the Qing Dynasty.
[66] At the start of the 19th century, 40 years after the Qing reconquest, there were around 155,000 Han and Hui Chinese in northern Xinjiang and somewhat more than twice that number of Uyghurs in southern Xinjiang.
[67] A census of Xinjiang under Qing rule in the early 19th century tabulated ethnic shares of the population as 30%
Han and 60%
Turkic, while it dramatically shifted to 6% Han and 75% Uyghur in the 1953 census, however a situation similar to the Qing era-demographics with a large number of Han has been restored as of 2000 with 40.57% Han and 45.21% Uyghur.
[68]
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I love WIKI when it has reference.
Police deal with it decisively this time
