Non-Violence for Tibetan and Uighurs

[Chenyin Pan]

July 6th, 2009 in Shanghai, I and my American colleague were having dinner at a uighur restaurant close to office after work. The owner and the waiters greeted us with their usual hospitality. The young Muslim gave us the innocent smile as he took away our orders. It was quiet in the restaurant. We were the only customers there, waiters were had nothing to do but gathered in front of the TV set watching China's central television channel's report on the riot in Xinjiang just about 24 hours ago. It was a strange scene to see those Muslims didn't showed any emotion when the tune of the Chinese government owned channel was so untruthfully biased in the coverage of the ethnic collision. My colleague asked my opinion on the latest incidence in the far west of the country, and I gave him the dry patriotic response that Chinese government should maintain their control in Xinjiang. His disapproval and disappointment were graphically expressed on his face that till this day the moment can still vividly flashback in my mind.

6 months has past, the ethnic tension has tapered down, though far from disappeared. As I'm dedicates myself in the study of the Civil Rights Movement in the States, my view to ethnicity issue has changed.

History has already put us in the 21st century, a century that is witnessing China's economic development and its promise to uplifting Chinese people's current situation and expectation. In the mean time, we are reluctant to face the reality of indifference and injustice as we treat both Uighurs and Tibetans with enormous discrimination and bigotry. Silence and indulgence are our answers to Communist government's strategy of ethnic assimilation. Behind the scene that more and more Chinese are tempted by the Chinese government to settle in Xinjiang and Tibet while hundreds and thousands of poor Uighurs are been deliberately displaced to work as cheap labor in sweatshops in southeastern part of China. As Han people, the prevailing sentiment has always been "we are the superior one" and the vicious calculation is the assimilation of the Uighur and Tibetan would promote Han's morality, thereby, maintains Han's ethnic interests. Think about how English tried to conquer, assimilate Scottish barbarians and how Great Britain bogged herself down in Ireland, while China claimed itself as a country with 2,000 years, yet she learnt the least from history.

Uighur and Tibetan's struggle for ethnic freedom and political independence should be respected and encouraged. Nevertheless, the method both underdogs should adopt is the urgent issue they need to deal with.

Both Uighur's collision with Chinese armed force in Urumqi and Tibetan's riots in March, 2008 were failed for the same reason, the violent demonstration that hardened Chinese people's heart while diminished Uighur and Tibetan's morale. In 1963, when facing the barking dog and fire hose, demonstrators' non-violence dramatized the atrocity Eugene "Bull" Connor committed. It's not only aroused the anger and outcry from the black community, more important, it's brought shame and sympathy out of white people. So Uighur and Tibetan people's cause for freedom and independence need to win Chinese people's support and even participation. While it was mentioned in MLK's autobiography that racial issue was not JFK's priority when he stepped in as the president and LBJ also told MLK that for him to sign up a new bill on equal voting right need more time, however, MLK successfully pushed both presidents to reconsider their stances, and it changed the course of history.

The communist regime is haunted with the ensuing social unrests as the industrialization goes on. Just like Rosa Parks ignited the powder keg of nearly two decades Democratic Party domination and superficial prosperity, Chinese government is intoxicates itself by trading citizens' political rights for limited material benefits. The more they think they dilute the problem, the nastier they would feel about the hangover. Though along the way for freedom, Tibetan and Uighurs experienced numerous setbacks, but they shouldn't lose hope, they should have good faith in Tibetan, Uighur and Chinese people, they should have faith in anyone that believe in freedom and justice, and they shall overcome.

[Aunty Kamala]

When faced with tyranny and brutality, that cannot even hear a voice of conscience, different tacts are required to awaken the oppressors to their own humanity. We face challenging times. The recent COP-15 'Accord' has shown the world that the World Trade Organization is running the planet, democracy so far has been only allowed by business as an indulgent belief system - we feel we are free, that we have liberty, as long as we choose to cooperate with with consumer based lifestyles, the models of 'development' that are destroying not only human relationships and society, but the natural systems of the Earth. We have to find different means to confront these forces. Non-cooperation is still a key.