Xinjiang: Muslim minorities in China 
Le scarse notizie giunteci il 25 febbraio scorso su una presunta “protesta individuale” a Pechino, nei dintorni di piazza Tian An Men, non sono sufficienti a capire il gesto di tre uomini, non ancora ben identificati, datisi alle fiamme nella loro automobile.
Il governo di Pechino è reticente e le voci che provengono dagli inviati parlano di dimostranti uiguri o di tibetani, giunti nella capitale una settimana prima del consueto Congresso del Partito Comunista Cinese, e nello stesso giorno dell’antico capodanno tibetano. Come spesso accade per le notizie provenienti dalla Cina, complice la scarsa inclinazione delle autorità cinese a far trapelare informazioni che possano mettere in luce i punti deboli della PRC (Peoples Republic of China note), the only means of information you can provide is that of the corresponding assumptions, sometimes circumstantial. Although the average Western reader is informed on the Tibetan issue, thanks to the popularity of the theme repeated by the media in all forms, little is known about the region they come from the Uighurs, and why, four days before the start of the Olympics Beijing 2008, they have made itself heard on the claim of an attack in the city of Kashgar (one of the major cities of Xinjiang nda), one among many attributed to fringe separatist Uighur. The Republic of China includes within of its territory 56 ethnic groups and between these statements, the Uygur ethnic group of the Islamic religion is that that populates much of the province of Xinjiang ("new frontier" in Chinese nda). The Uygur ethnic group is one of many ethnic groups of stem Turkoman Muslim, like the Kazakhs, allocated in this northwestern province of China, bordering the west by the regions of Central Asia
The geographic location has given the region since the 'antiquities, of great strategic importance, both in fact Han period (206 BC - 220 AD) in Tang dynasty (618 - 907 AD) it was used as a pass to the West through the Road Silk. The name of the region, as we know it today, dates back to the last of the territory conquered in 1758 by Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799 AD), one of the most important rulers of the last imperial dynasty, namely the Qing (1644 - 1912).
Between the end of '800 and early '900 expansionist intervention undermines the rule of Tsarist Russia on Chinese territory.
separatist rebellions led to the founding of the First East Turkestan Republic in the early 30s of last century and after the Second Republic in 1944 with the help of the Soviets. The adventure will end independence with the birth of the PRC in 1949, following the communist revolution.
Official sources of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party nda) speak of "liberation" of Chinese Turkestan, a liberation which would also attended by Muslim leaders in rural villages and much of the population. Edgar Snow, an American journalist of the first districts to enter into red during the revolution, and among the first to bring information about the Chinese Communists in the Soviet (later the Long March, 1934), through Xinjiang and other influenza Islam, speaks of a voluntary cooperation of the population to wage guerilla war against the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-Shek, and a friendly relationship between the communist revolutionaries and traditional Muslim leaders, united to combat the abuses of the landowners and the government of Nanjing (nationalists nda). Among the promises made by the Red propagandists for the people of the North West, Edgar Snow reported in his book "Red Star over China", "Support for the creation of an autonomous Muslim government", "protection of Muslim culture" and "Guarantee of Freedom for all religious sects. "
The "liberation" of Xinjiang by the Chinese communist forces accounted for the Uighur population a real job, in the words of Rebiya Kadeer, a businesswoman former representative of the Uighur province of Xinjiang from the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a dissident and promoter organization in defense of the Uyghur people. "Initially, the Chinese soldiers were very respectful of our culture," he says, describing the impact that equality between the sexes, or if we are to the disappearance of the particular differences between the sexes, typical of the first hour of communism has had on the customs Uyghur and traditions. "We have imposed a new policy [...] starting to destroy our culture," he adds, and this suggests that integration with the Chinese ethnic minorities, the cutting edge of the CCP, is nothing but an attempt to coprire con la propaganda un problema destabilizzante. Riguardo poi all’estremismo islamico, che dall’altra parte della frontiera è presente ed attivo, Rebiya Kadeer afferma che l’influenza di questo nei paesi confinanti dell’Asia Centrale, sia da attribuire alla vicinanza con l’Afghanistan e all’esasperazione della popolazione che regimi nazionalisti, nati dopo la caduta dell’Urss, hanno causato (fa l’esempio del presidente dell’Uzbekistan Karimov), oltre a parlare dell’opposizione del popolo uiguro ad ogni forma di estremismo religioso, motivando l’affermazione con il carattere moderato dell’islam praticato nello Xinjiang, dove, ad esempio, il velo per le donne non is required.
Following the founding of the PRC, the province assumes the character of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the administrative arrangements made just for Tibet, so to speak, an "autonomy" often unwelcome ethnic groups from the province; sentiment made from concrete events independence, as well as mass migration, such as that in 1962 saw 60,000 Kazakhs to the other side of the border, the Soviet Union. The ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, reaching its independence in 1991, after the fall of the USSR, but this event does not leave unmoved those across the border are in a situazione di fittizia autonomia.
Riguardo alle frontiere occidentali, Tiziano Terzani, scrittore e giornalista fiorentino, percorrendo tutte le regioni dell’Asia Centrale sotto l’egida di un’Unione Sovietica in rovinoso declino, affermava nel suo libro “Buonanotte Signor Lenin” che la rinascita islamica delle repubbliche sovietiche non era che l’inizio di un processo nel quale sarebbero state coinvolte anche le minoranze musulmane stanziate in Cina. Continuava dicendo che il vento di indipendenza che si agitava tra le repubbliche dell’Asia Centrale avrebbe influenzato anche i popoli kazachi che abitano lo Xinjiang. Questo sarebbe stato per Pechino motivo di destabilizzazione nell’Ovest, specie quando the last major "Emperor", Deng Xiaoping - as indicated by Terzani - could not keep tight control over the mesh of the whole territory of the PRC.
Several incidents, attacks and arrests of union with suspected Al-Qaeda cells, and various forms of protest, as the latter may have been Feb. 25 were the reactions, violent and not a situation that, as seen, has never found a balance.
The integration of ethnic minorities in China is a problem with which the PRC must continually deal, since it can no longer hide the defects of his system, both for the growing interest in the rest of the world where the integration in the context of globalization is creating the conditions for continued foreign relations, both as a matter of internal order. The resolution of apparent contradictions, sometimes dramatic, within the Middle Kingdom (direct translation from Chinese Zongguo NDA), which can not be a priority for a large country that is gaining a place in the world.
Sources: History of China
Mario Sabattini - Paolo Santangelo, Historical Library Laterza 2008;
Red Star over China by Edgar Snow, Einaudi 1965, Goodnight Mr Lenin Tiziano Terzani, Longanesi & C. 1992; Rebiya Kadeer's interview of Dr. Elena Caprioni, link: http://www.gfbv.it/3dossier/asia/uig-kadeer.html.
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