HONG KONG - Why is it that, as cocktail glasses clink and urbane voices clatter
across the Western world, China's repressive policies in Tibet are generally
regarded with outrage while the plight of Muslim Uyghurs in the restive
Xinjiang region rarely rates a mention?
No one hung a "Free Xinjiang" banner from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge
ahead of last year's Summer Olympic Games, hosted by Beijing, while "Free
Tibet" protesters turned the iconic landmark into a billboard for their cause.
And now that the central government of China has put Xinjiang under lockdown in
the wake of last month's riots in its capital, Urumqi, Western protests have
been virtually all but non-existent.
The only Western country to raise a real fuss about Xinjiang - Australia -
isn't even located in the West. But Canberra's row with
Beijing, now subsiding as both sides realize how much they need each other, was
over whether a biopic on exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer should be shown at
the Melbourne International Film Festival, held July 24 to August 9; it only
tangentially concerned the crackdown in Xinjiang.
Indeed, Kadeer, the 63-year-old chairperson of the World Uyghur Congress, has
become accustomed to such low-level publicity that, tongue in cheek, she
thanked the Chinese government for the free advertising provided by its
heavy-handed attempt to block her visit to Australia for the showing of the
film, The 10 Conditions of Love. (See
Xinjiang crisis creates ripples abroad, Asia Times Online, July 30.)
Speaking in Uyghur through a translator to Australia's National Press Club, she
said, "I deeply appreciate the support of the Chinese government in raising my
profile. I could not have spent millions of dollars in getting this sort of
publicity, but thanks to the Chinese government for raising my profile and
informing Australians of the plight of the Uyghurs."
It's true. After several Chinese filmmakers withdrew from the festival in
protest over the Kadeer documentary and China's Foreign Ministry went into high
dudgeon over Canberra's refusal to ban her visit, Kadeer was showered with
attention and sympathy in Australia.
Meanwhile, the China Daily, the Chinese Communist Party's official
English-language mouthpiece, accused "Sino-phobic politicians" in Australia of
striking up an "anti-China chorus" over the Kadeer visit. Australia's
ambassador to China, Geoff Raby, then returned home last week for
"consultations", although Canberra denied any connection with the diplomatic
wrangle over Kadeer.
With relations between the two countries already sour over Beijing's recent
detention on charges of espionage of an Australian executive working for the
multinational Rio Tinto mining and resources group, the Kadeer flap only
exacerbated the rising ire.
Realizing that trade between China and Australia added up to US$53 billion last
year, however, both sides cooled their rhetoric, took a step back and vowed to
get along despite their differences. In fact, while Raby retreated to Canberra
last week, the two nations added substantially to that trade, announcing a
20-year, $41 billion deal for China to buy natural gas from the Gorgon gas
field off Australia's northwest coast. (See Australia approves gas megaproject
Ultimately, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a fluent Putonghua (Mandarin)
speaker, offered this diplomatic bromide, "The China-Australia relationship is
always full of challenges, and it always has been thus and it will be thus for
a long time to come. We approach this relationship mindful of our interests in
China, mindful of Chinese interests in Australia."
For anyone paying attention, this was a weeks-long diplomatic drama with
telling implications, but it caused only minor ripples in the Western media.
Now imagine that the Dalai Lama, the long-exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and
adopted darling of the West, had stood at the center of this controversy. While
China's policies in Tibet and Xinjiang are remarkably similar, there is no
doubt that the chorus of disapproval for Beijing would have resounded
internationally, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy perhaps once again
leading the rallying cry, if the biopic shown in Melbourne had featured the
Dalai Lama.
Why the difference? Why would American talk-show hosts like Larry King bow,
scrape and grovel for an interview with the Dalai Lama but not give Kadeer the
time of day? The answers to these questions take us straight to the heart of
Western, particularly American, prejudice and hypocrisy.
Xinjiang and Tibet are vast, contiguous western regions rich in natural
resources that China needs to fuel its continuing economic boom. Xinjiang has
substantial mineral and oil deposits, and Chinese geologists have discovered
major new deposits of copper, iron, lead, zinc and other minerals in Tibet,
which also has tremendous potential for tourism if only Tibetans would stop
their demonstrations against Chinese rule.
Beijing has made a huge effort to modernize the two autonomous regions, pumping
billions of yuan into new infrastructure, education and industry. It has also
encouraged legions of Han Chinese to migrate to Urumqi and the Tibetan capital
of Lhasa to lead the charge toward modernization.
While this tremendous push into modernity has substantially improved the
standard of living in both regions, it has not won over the loyalty of the
people, many of whom believe the central government is trying to "Sinicize"
their culture.
For Tibetans, that culture is steeped in Buddhism and, for many, the Dalai Lama
is the living, internationally recognized symbol of their faith and traditions.
The Western romance with the Dalai Lama goes back to the 1959 Tibetan uprising
against Chinese rule that led to his flight to Dharamsala, India, where he
established a government in exile. The US Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA's)
alleged backing of that revolt, its assistance in the then 23-year-old
spiritual leader's escape from the Chinese army and its subsequent support of
his cause - all still points of debate in the West - are accepted facts life in
China and much of the rest of Asia.
Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama were once seen as important pieces in the
chess game of the Cold War. Even now, with the stress on cooperation rather
than antagonism in US-Sino relations, that legacy continues. Moreover, the
Dalai Lama's pleas for religious freedom and cultural integrity in Tibet
continue to resonate among ordinary people in the West.
In 1989, he won the ultimate Western accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize, and his
popularity - especially among Hollywood stars such as Richard Gere and Harrison
Ford - continues.
The same cannot be said for Kadeer and the Uyghurs of Xinjiang. Although their
complaints against the central government of China are strikingly similar to
those of Tibetans, their different history and religion have elicited far less
sympathy and none of the crazy passion evinced by pro-Tibet demonstrators who
dogged the Olympic torch relay last year.
The Uyghurs are a Turkic people with a long and rich history in Eastern and
Central Asia and a culture rooted in Islam. Instead of the CIA in their corner
during the Cold War, it was the former Soviet Union.
Now, ironically, there are allegations of CIA support for Kadeer, who since
2005 has lived in the US, and of CIA sponsorship of unrest in Xinjiang. Those
charges notwithstanding, the anti-Muslim, post-September 11, 2001, environment
in America - buttressed by Cold War history - has elicited little sympathy for
Kadeer and her cause in the US or anywhere else in the West.
China, which denounces the Uyghur leader as a "terrorist", has its own reasons,
also rooted in history, for forcibly imposing unity and stability on these two
troublesome regions.
At least Beijing has been consistent. As China's influence grows, the West is
increasingly choosy about its darlings and causes.
Kent Ewing is a Hong Kong-based teacher and writer. He can be reached at
kewing@hkis.edu.hk.
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