Barbarians Within... Or Fellow Citizens Misunderstood? Growing International Scrutiny of Minorities Rights in the PRC

I write very often in support of a more balanced viewpoint on Chinese foreign policy, and China's efforts to engage internationally, including through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Lately, many of my friends and colleagues in Switzerland have quizzed me about how I can reconcile my support for the PRC's recent economic achievements with the continuing unsettling news coming out of peripheral Chinese territories such as HK, Xinjiang and Tibet. They are right to question my stance, and I believe that is important for concerned global citizens to address these issues in a balanced fashion, as I will endeavour to do so in a series of short articles that I hope may be worth sharing with you.

In addition, I am very keen to write more about how China's BRI acts as a catalyst for development along the Silk Road across Central Asia. However, I feel I cannot do so in a credible fashion without addressing the question of how the PRC will manage the political and economic development of its peripheral regions, where minorities could play a major role in driving China's relations with its closest neighbours.

Let me start by outlining my position on injustices enacted on minorities, that we so often witness, and are even complicit in. As a Anglo-Australian, who is constantly embarrassed at how Aboriginal and ethnic Australians have been treated throughout our country's short history, I am highly suspicious of any countries' government when it comes to their dealings with minorities. For me, this has little to do with whether or not a country is considered democratic, liberal, authoritarian or communist. It appears all governments have issues when handling groups within their borders who are different from the mainstream culture. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping, while on a state visit to Nepal, warned on 14 October, 2019 that any attempt to divide China will be crushed. President Xi's strong position was obviously related to the current troubles in HK and criticisms by the West of its policies for the re-education of the Uighurs in China's North West province of Xinjiang. His statement reflects the Chinese leaderships on-going concerns with potential instability that could be caused if key minorities follow the path taken by demonstrators in HK. 

I must admit that as a Mandarin speaker and a Chinese history buff, who believes that a strong and internationally open China can be a positive force for human development across the globe, the Chinese authorities' approach to the Tibet and Xinjiang questions, are highly troubling to my own personal morality concerning treatment of minorities. Throughout its history, the Han Chinese authorities have more often than not considered other ethnicities as either wild or tame barbarians. Historical precedents have shown that even tame barbarians, normally living peacefully within the borders or buffer zones of the celestial kingdom, could become a wild threat to any dynasty's mandate from heaven. This is part of the historical background as to why the Han Chinese have always feared the potential threat of China's minorities, but these ancient historical precedents, cannot be used by the modern China to justify limitations on the freedoms of these PRC citizens.

While I am an admirer of many aspects of Chinese civilisation, and the fortitude and diligence of Han Chinese people, my ingrained Anglo-saxon liberalism is troubled by the excesses that can arise from overly authoritarian systems of government, especially ones with extreme socialist ideological influences. I am worried that the homogenity of the Han cultural grouping, combined with socialistic tendencies towards stereotyping and discrimination against difference, has created a dangerous situation for the Peoples' Republic of China's Uighur citizens.

My Chinese friends assure me that the situation in Xinjiang is not as extreme as the Western press presents it. However, as a former Australian diplomat, I do believe the complaints of foreign diplomatic missions to Beijing on behalf of the Uighur ethnic group, could not be so purely self-interested as to be merely a ruse to bring pressure on the CCP to advance progress towards a resolution of the Sino-US trade war.

Professor Michael Clark of the Australian National University, an expert in Uighur-Han relations, suggests that the nature and scale of the challenge posed by any one ethnic minority in the context of the PRC’s foreign policy has largely been a function of the interplay of five major factors: the historical relationship between the ethnic group and the Chinese state; the geographic concentration of an ethnic minority; the degree of acculturation to the dominant Han society; external great power support; and mobilised diasporas. Certainly this a much more complicated equation than simply claiming that Beijing bloody-mindedly wants to put a yoke around the neck of the Uighur people to control them at any cost, so they do not disrupt progress towards fulfilment of 'socialism or capitalism with Han Chinese characteristics'. It also shows how we need in-depth research, such as that of Professor Clark. Engagement, research and then evidence-based judgement to make measured decisions, in order to build a long-term strategic relationship with Chinese counterparts, is how all countries and scholars should approach these questions.

After all, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the PRC faces challenges in dealing fairly with its minorities that are not dissimilar to those of other states that consist of diverse peoples and ethnicities. At the time Mr Xi made his statement in Nepal, the news also carried a story of how Spain’s Supreme Court had just sentenced nine separatist leaders from Catalonia to between nine and 13 years in prison for sedition over their role in a failed independence bid, triggering protests across the region. It is not just China that believes it must maintain a strong position when defending the integrity of its borders. While I am not sure if separatists in Catalonia can be considered as any less outspoken or undeserving than their minority counterparts in China, it sadly appears that all too often might does make right.

As I mentioned in my introduction, before I take a clear position on these issues, I personally need to educate myself more widely. My own interest in discussing this question is that I believe I need to undertake a review of the history surrounding this issue, so I can put it into its context, and better understand the possible right path for decision-makers from all sides. I have no wish to be an apologist for the leadership of the CCP. Nor do I wish to understate the difficulties they face in leading a country of over one billion people, where ethnic minorities are outnumbered by 10 to 1 by the dominant Han group. Rather, I would like to contribute a little to the discussion around this subject so that both sides of the debate can continue to engage with each other with fresh viewpoints. I hope you will keep an eye out for my future reflections on the subject.