China, Stop Calling All Uyghur Muslims Terrorists

Please don't put terrorist label on Uyghur people. Image from Flickr user @Todenhoff under CC: AT-SA

Ethnic Uyghur Muslims are more and more often associated with the term “terrorist” in China. Local authorities and media outlets often define violent incidents in border regions where there is ethnic conflict related to a separatist movement, as terrorist activity. This official definition has turned random individual criminal acts into the collective responsibility of an ethnic minority and resulted in the labeling of its members as terrorist suspects.

The latest officially defined “terrorist case” happened on November 16 2013 in Xinjian Bachu county. Eleven people were killed in a police station, two were local police officers and nine were Muslim Uyghurs from Bachu county.

The Xinjiang local authorities quickly defined the incident as a violent terrorist attack and claimed that stability was effectively restored as the 9 violent assaulters were shot dead. However according to Radio Free Asia, people who surrounded the police station had managed to capture the young attackers alive while the police officers chose to shoot them dead on the spot. As all the witnesses aside from the police are dead, it keeps people wondering what had exactly happened inside the police station.

Chinese dissident Hu Ping raises a number of questions about the incident:

11／16巴楚事件是什么性质的事件？不象是游击战的偷袭，因为没听说有接应以便逃遁，从攻击者手持斧头这样粗陋的凶器以及伤人和自伤的不成比例，也不像是自杀式恐怖袭击。其性质可想而知。@Ilham_Tohti

— Hu Ping胡平 (@HuPing1) November 17, 2013

What is the nature of the November 16 Bachu incident? It doesn't look like a guerrilla attack as they didn't have an escape plan. As the attackers’ weapons such as axes and knives were so primitive and ineffective to hurt the police, it doesn't look like suicidal attack. The nature is clear then. @IIham_Tohti

In reply to Hu Ping, IIham Tohti, an Uyghur university professor stressed the need to revise the Chinese government's ethnic policy:

@HuPing1 那里到底真正发生了什么？真相是什么？我想，只有精神病才随便怀疑别人是恐怖分子！这样的事件多次发生，难道不值得反思吗？是偶然刑事案件吗？为啥拿刀的维吾尔人总要跟拿枪的干？还9个一起去赴死？当局从没想过如何避免再次发生。到今天还不反思民族政策。

— 伊力哈木土赫提IlhamTohti (@Ilham_Tohti) November 17, 2013

@HuPing1 What had happened there? What is the truth? Only crazy people would believe that they were terrorists. Similar incidents have happened so many times and we are yet to see any reflection. Nine people entered the police station to find death? The authorities cannot figure out how to prevent that from happening again. Till now there has been no reflection on ethnic policy.

A few months ago in April a similar ethnic clash happened in the same Bachu police station and the violence left 21 people dead, including 15 police officers and government officials. The incident was also defined as a terrorist assault.

Against the background of the establishment of a top-level national security committee (NSC), many believe that ethnic minorities in border areas would become the target of anti-terrorist security control. For example, Kai Lei, a media worker from pro-Chinese government newspapers Wenhui Bao urged the NSC to adopt a hard-handed policy in districts such as Bachu:

【当铲除巴楚等恐怖事件土壤】成立国安委，边疆事务当占重要地位，当高效应对、打击边疆恐怖、分裂势力。当严防、严打、铲除巴楚等既往发生恐怖事件地的土壤。

[Eradicate the terrorist soil in Bachu] The establishment of NSC has great significance in border security control. Should be more effective in cracking down on terrorists, separatist forces in border areas. Adopt preventive and hard-handed crackdown policies in those areas, such as Bachu, where terrorist assaults have taken place before.

Yet the definition of terrorist assault is highly problematic in China as anonymous writer from Uighurbiz.net, “Little grand father_Aike” pointed out. The writer compared two sets of incidents in 2013 to indicate the arbitrary definition of violent terrorist assault. The June 7 Fujian bus station arson vs. October 28 Beijing Tiananmen Jeep cash incident and August 25 Chengdu hospital assault vs. November 16 Bachu police station assault.

The arson case in Fujian caused 47 dead and 34 injured and the police said it was committed by an angry and desperate individual and defined as a criminal case. The Beijing case resulting in 5 dead and 38 injured was defined an organized terrorist attack. Among the dead were the 3 Uyghur sitting inside the Jeep.

The writer pointed out that the very definition of the nature of the crimes has instigated different reactions to the criminals, in the first case people see it an individual act of insanity, but in the latter case an ethnic based organized terrorist act:

因为新闻媒体和司法机关的定性不同让数千万维吾尔族一起背上了恐怖分子的名声，作为中国人来说大家觉得公平吗？[…] 全中国现在一说到新疆不是谈虎色变而是嗤之以鼻，总体评论就是：杀光他们，赶出去、杀几个就老实了，忘恩负义等词汇，我想说的是媒体你们有没有良心？你们的操守去了哪里？你们对全国中国人民的误导难道不是犯罪？

Because of the media and judiciary definition of the crime's nature, millions of Uyghur have to bare the terrorist label. If we are all Chinese, do you think this is fair? […] Now all over the country, whenever people talk about Xinjiang, they change their tone of voice. In summary they would say: Kill them all, kick them out, kill them and they would be humble. They are just a bunch of ungrateful people. Where is the conscience and ethics of the media? Doesn't such kind of misleading [label] constitute a crime?

When comparing the Chengdu assault and the Bachu assault, even though the Chengdu one was well-planned and specifically targeted at the medical workers in the hospital, the case which resulted in 5 dead and 11 injured was defined a random act of individuals while the Bachu case was defined as a terrorist act and the 9 assaulters were shot dead on the spot.

这个大家可以轻描淡写的带过并没有扯到民族、暴徒等词汇，为什么新疆这么特殊？为什么维吾尔族这么特殊？西部大开发四川也是受益城市之一，大家并没有说什么四川同胞也坐享其成、好吃懒做还尽惹事添乱

[in the case of Chengdu] how come there isn't any ethnic reference and thug label? How come when similar incidents happen in Xinjiang, they have special treatment? How come Uyghur enjoy such special treatment. Sichuan also benefits from the Western Development Project but people there are not viewed as ungrateful beneficiaries of national policy who are good for nothing but creating chaos.

He urges the authorities to reflect on the ethnic policy and help the minorities to establish a positive image of the ethnic group:

中国是一个多民族国家，你要先树立一个健康的民族形象，传播正确的民族文化和信仰，你才能真正意义的代表一个国家，所以我是一名维吾尔族，一个穆斯林，一名中国人，新疆正能量我传播，我为维吾尔族代言，我不是暴徒，我是中国人！

China is a multiethnic country. In order for the state to establish its legitimacy, you have to help different ethnic groups to establish healthy and positive ethnic cultures and beliefs. I am a Uyghur, a Muslim and a Chinese. I spread a positive image for Xinjiang while I speak for Uyghur. I am not a thug, I am Chinese.

Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (1)

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via Global Voices » Feature http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/11/18/china-please-dont-put-terrorist-label-on-uyghur-people/