http://www.asiaportal.info/ The 20 newest items in the In Focus 2009 Week 29 collection at the Asia Portal en-us Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0200 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/2d0d32b0-2ea2-4308-a2ae-bf096033d608 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/2d0d32b0-2ea2-4308-a2ae-bf096033d608 General information and news on China. Sections include: Travel, Living in China, Archaeology, Film, Learning Chinese, Chinatown, Suppliers, Business, Government, Education, Environment Culture, Women, Books & Magazines, Sports, Health, Entertainment. Also available in French, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Esperanto, Korean, and Big5. http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/03baab7a-0ee0-4f40-8b38-99199769e0d6 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/03baab7a-0ee0-4f40-8b38-99199769e0d6 BBC News background material on the situation of the Uighurs in China. http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/85c4fc55-1f6f-4a36-95fc-f36ebbdd0e72 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/85c4fc55-1f6f-4a36-95fc-f36ebbdd0e72 The recent Urumqi and Lhasa riots have shattered the myth of a monolithic China, writes China and Uighur expert Professor Dru Gladney in recent article on BBC news. http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/6908db72-b203-488e-bfdb-2856da28d1fb http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/6908db72-b203-488e-bfdb-2856da28d1fb Self-description: "The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization that represents the collective interest of the Uyghur people both in East Turkestan and abroad. WUC was established on April 16, 2004 in Munich Germany after the East Turkestan National Congress and the World Uyghur Youth Congress merged into one united organization. The main objective of WUC is to promote the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkestan. The Third General Assembly of the World Uyghur Congress was convened in Washington, DC on May 21-25, 2009. Delegates and observers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Norway, Sweden, Turkey and the United States have attended the Assembly. Ms. Rebiya Kadeer, the leader of the international Uyghur human rights and democracy movement, once again elected as the president of the WUC unanimously by all delegates." http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/b161e912-0b96-4a5b-9c8e-ebc52f47bc70 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/b161e912-0b96-4a5b-9c8e-ebc52f47bc70 Self-description: "The Uyghur Human rights Project (UHRP) was founded by the Uyghur American Association (UAA) in 2004 with a supporting grant from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). UHRP's mission is to promote human rights and democracy for the Uyghur people, and to raise awareness of human rights abuses that occur in East Turkestan, referred to by the Chinese authorities since 1955 as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). UHRP is a part of the Uyghur American Association, which is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, tax-exempt community membership organization." http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/c7511889-48a0-41b8-add4-32985f876a65 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/c7511889-48a0-41b8-add4-32985f876a65 Eith latest news, East Turkestan history, human rights, archives and music, Uighur organization, etic report and more. http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/17835df4-edf4-41e3-9461-4c208c5e28a4 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/17835df4-edf4-41e3-9461-4c208c5e28a4 The China Autonomy Programme (CAP) at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) was established in 2001 with funding from the Norwegian Development Aid Organisation (NORAD) and is a large research programme focusing on the human rights issues of minorities in China, and in particular the tension between culture protection and economic development in minority areas. The work of the China Autonomy Programme centers around institutional cooperation between Norwegian and Chinese research and governmental institutions, and is based on equal partnership and mutual capacity building. The China Autonomy Programme is organized into two separate projects, The Autonomy and Development Project and The Policy and Law Recommendation Project: http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/8859dab9-730e-4c2f-b9ad-da493ba58157 http://www.asiaportal.info/purl/8859dab9-730e-4c2f-b9ad-da493ba58157 Xinjiang : a centre-periphery conflict in displayan analysis of the Chinese state- and nation-building machinery in Xinjiang and the mobilization of Uyghur counter-cultures / Truls Winje. - Oslo : Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, 2007. - 96 p. (Master's thesis) 1.0. Xinjiang: An introduction. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is situated in the northwestern corner of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and borders Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Mongolia. As China’s largest province it amounts to a sixth of its land area, contains huge deposits of oil and gas, and furthermore, houses the China’s nuclear test facilities. A glance at a map of the region reveals Xinjiang’s remoteness, with its southern borders actually closer to Baghdad or New Delhi, than to Beijing, the political centre of present day China. Historically, Xinjiang constituted a pivot in the trade routes of the fabled Silk Road, and thus functioned as a “cultural blotter” for different civilizations from the Middle East, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and China proper (Starr 2004:7). Moreover, the dramatic topography has had a fragmenting effect on Xinjiang and exposed it to centrifugal forces, pulling the region in different directions. Hence one may observe an utterly complex cultural zone, with a great variety in the way people settle, cultivate the land, practice their religion, and finally, how they perceive the ruling Chinese Communist party (CCP) (Perdue 2005:32, Millward 2007: XII). Regarding Xinjiang’s function as a “cultural blotter”, it has throughout the course of history attracted a variety of polities, historical formations and warlords, aspiring to be the region’s dominant loci of command. Hence, it has not been a matter of course that the issuant communist regime (incepted in 1949), should succeed in their attempt to “lock-in” (control) the region and its indigenous people. Quite the contrary, the authorities have encountered ardent opposition from the numerically dominant Muslim Uyghurs of Turkic kinship. Even though other minority groups also occupy a role in present day Xinjiang, this thesis mainly concerns the centre-periphery relation between the governing Han-Chinese authorities and the Uyghurs. My expressed aspiration is to illuminate how the PRC government launches successive territorial, jurisdictional, economical and cultural thrusts toward Uyghurs, in their process of state and nation-building in Xinjiang. Sharply different from their dominant Han-Chinese counterpart, Uyghur countercultures have mobilized to protect their distinctiveness (resist PRC nation-building). Some Uyghur movements have even challenged China’s state building project, by advocating the initiation of an East Turkistan state at the territory of Xinjiang. Thus, Beijing has effectuated a variety of strategies to effectively “lock-in”/neutralize Uyghur separatist sentiments and ensure their allegiance to the Chinese nation. However, the two sides seem diametrically opposed, and the following question emerges; why is the territory of Xinjiang so pivotal for the communist leadership and what is actually at stake? In brief, the geopolitical location of Xinjiang (adjoining eight countries) is a key aspect in this regard, where the authorities want to be influential in the “new Great Game” of Central Asia. Another important factor is the presence of radical Islam in Central Asia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, literally on the doormat of China. Hence, the PRC authorities have been firmly present in Xinjiang, ready to deter regime-threatening movements. From a geo-economical perspective, Xinjiang has also been of significance, serving as a transit area for energy transportation from the neighbouring Kazakhstan to China proper. Furthermore, Xinjiang itself possesses rich deposits of oil, natural gas, coal and nonferrous metals, which is alluring for the Chinese authorities.