ed65c4bf8c268210VgnVCM200000e66411acRCRDapproved/thenational/Articles/Migration/2009-Q3Beijing's tactics harm its long term interestsdd65c4bf8c268210VgnVCM200000e66411ac____China has blamed the unrest on exiled Uighur groups, and a security crackdown is likely to follow as a result. This would be a mistake.<p>Over 140 people died and another 800 were injured during Sunday's rioting in Urumqi, the capital of China's restive Xinjiang province. The majority of the dead and wounded are thought to be Uighurs, according to the country's state news service. China has blamed the unrest on exiled Uighur groups, and a security crackdown is likely to follow as a result. This would be a mistake. Beijing must realise that its heavy-handed policies exacerbate separatist tensions in the region and will only contribute to greater unrest.</p> <p>China has angered many Uighurs by offering incentives for ethnic Han Chinese to move to Xinjiang, as has the preferential job placement shown to the new settlers. Part of this is due to the fact that Han Chinese are more qualified and better versed in the Chinese language than those from the local Uighur population. But too little has been done to embrace or even accommodate differences in a country as ethnically and linguistically diverse as China. As a result, it is only natural that many ethnic minorities, not only the Uighurs, feel disenfranchised.</p> <p>Combined with the country's intolerance for the Muslim identity of what the Uighurs term East Turkistan, locals have a litany of grievances, which some violent separatist groups exploit. That the greatest unrest in the region since 1989 appears to have been touched off by a small clash between Uighur and Han factory workers in Guangdong (a region in far away eastern China) shows how tense the situation in Xinjiang has become.</p> <p>Han Chinese dominate the regional government and prominent positions in industry and commerce throughout the country. For many in China the efforts by the government to create a "harmonious society" have become a diktat from Beijing that they should be less like themselves and more like the majority Han population. There is certainly little that is harmonious about a country that sees an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 protests a year. Yet this has failed to move a Communist government that appears more concerned with imposing an artifice of harmony rather than addressing the grievances that are at the root of popular protests.</p> <p>But Xinjiang, which accounts for one sixth of China's total land mass, is rich with oil and minerals. Thus it is absolutely essential to the country's continued economic growth that the vast but sparsely populated region become settled and developed. This economic incentive to pacify Xinjiang is exacerbated by a Chinese version of "manifest destiny". As with Tibet, the country views Xinjiang as a historic part of a greater China. However, it refuses to accept that in such a vast nation there will be groups with different religious, linguistic and cultural traditions — nor does it attempt to accommodate those traditions.</p> <p>Though it is welcome that China has shown unprecedented openness in allowing press coverage of the events in Urumqi, there is concern that it is more motivated by public relations than any drive for greater transparency. Since the US declaration of a war on terror, China has sought to portray the Uighurs as terrorists to its people and the world. This appears to be yet one more attempt in that campaign.</p> <p>Most of the Uighur separatist movement has been crushed or exiled since the 1990s. But so long as China continues to show intolerance to its ethnic minorities, Xinjiang will never truly be pacified. The harder China pushes, the more resentment will build and the worse the situation will become.</p> 84YYOPINION2009070700000020090707000000100ARhttp://adedit.ad.atl.publicus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090707/OPINION/707069934570706993420090707100000000