Xinjiang in the remote far west is one of five autonomous ethnic regions in China, like Tibet and Inner Mongolia. At pop. 22 million, it would be the 3rd most populous US state after California and Texas and larger than Florida, yet ranks in the bottom third of China's provinces in population. It would be the 2nd largest US state by area at 642,800 square miles, just a hair shy of Alaska and well over twice the size of Texas.
Xinjiang multiethnic and today very controversial. It is often called the Uyghur region of China because it is the homeland of the Uyghurs, an Islamic Turkic people similar to the neighboring Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgz, Tajiks, etc. who are all traditionally nomads of the vast, flat Central Asian steppe.
So historically and ethnically, Xinjiang is like an "honorary stan," similar to the four Turkic stans which it borders to the west but currently part of China, controlled from the east. The strong independence movement in Xinjiang, wanting to break from China, calls the future state they seek "East Turkestan" (see map below) as it is the easternmost of the Turkic regions.
There is a ton of news recently about China moving Han Chinese people into Xinjiang in droves, building cities and huge numbers of new homes for the Han, and declaring various aspects of traditional Islamic Uyghur culture illegal including head scarves, men's traditional beards, and a few months ago even fasting during the month of Ramadan.
China bans fasting during Ramadan
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/china-bans-ramadan-fasting-muslim-region-150618070016245.html
On the ethnic map below, the bottom half of Xinjiang where 80% of Uyghurs live is centered in the Tarim Basin, at the center of which is the Takla Makan Desert. (Good maps of Xinjiang are hard to find!) This core Uyghur region the Tarim Basin is separated from the northern Xinjiang by the vast Tien Shan Mountains.
Ethnic groups in Xinjiang: Uyhghur, Han Chinese, Kazakh
The vast, flat steppe across Eurasia, traditionally home to nomadic cultures since ancient times
Multiethnic, majority Islamic
One thing I did not realize, however, was that there are two other large ethnic group in Xinjiang, both Islamic like the Uyghurs:
-the Kazakhs who number 1.5 million in Xinjiang and make up 6.5%, dominating the northernmost subregion.
-the Hui who are ethnically Chinese (not Turkic) but Islamic make up 4.5%
Currently the demographics stand:
46% Uyghurs
40% Han Chinese
6.5% Kazakh
4.5% Hui
So overall, Xinjiang is around 57% Islamic spread among 3 Islamic ethnic groups Uyghur, Kazakh, Hui. China is trying to change the majority by relocating Han Chinese to the region, but it will take a while before the majority changes.
Did you just literally call the XinJiang province the "Uygher region" of china??? You know that area has never been a country and they have no rightful claim to secede from China, right? You should also note that muslims in the following countries have amassed at border or coastal regions and demand either their own country or that portions of the country be transferred over to the neighboring (and always muslim) country: Thailand (3 southern provinces on Malaysian border) India / Kashmir, Myanmar (Burma) Rohingya muslims have been trying to have Rakhine state partitioned since WWII (something no one in the media seems to bother mentioning), Philippines (Mindanao island and they have now been granted autonomy by the govt, a huge mistake), also portions of Montenegro and N. Macedonia which Albania lobbies the EU to have land around the borders transferred to Albania as ppl living there are 'historically' Albanian - of course they already got Kosovo and Bosnia and are asking for more land out of Serbia already. Turkey and North Cyprus, can't forget that. An unusual case right now is Mozambique, with muslims in the one province (coastal) in which muslims are the majority (what they do & how they do it) have been perpetrating terrorist attacks for at least 2 years now, and have started moving into the province directly north of there - the only land area between the jihadis and the neighboring country (tanzania i think).
ReplyDeleteOh yes and I'm pretty sure Azerbaijan demands parts of Armenia, as opposed to the muslims in some area around the border demanding it.
There was even a group in Norway that demanded their own country, but there wasn't enough of them to get anywhere with that. Also, a little known fact, during the Balkan war about 100,000 refugees from Bosnia into Turkey living in a huge refugee camp demanded their own country after about a year LOL the Turks were going to attack them with military helicopters, but NATO via Italian Air Force sent military jets to instruct them that they could not do so. (I mean NATO's like, we're over here in Serbia telling the world the Serbs are monsters and if you attack the crappy Bosnian turk muslims, then they might figure out we're lying).
OH and btw, Uyghers are mixed race of caucasian and Chinese. The original *Turkish* ppl in China were always Chinese and originated in north eastern china but were 'banished' to the far western outskirts over 1000 years ago because they were bandits and village raiders and they got sick of them attacking and killing villagers and stealing their property. Look it up. There is debate and disagreement about whether there was more than one group who might have been called something similar to the word 'turk' and where the term came from, but they were absolutely known as Turkish well over 1,000 years ago. When they were banished that area of china already had caucasians living in that area who were subsumed by the Chinese Turks. Also mohammed described the Turks as have flat faces and red faces (skin) which would accurately describe Mongolian type asians & indigenous asians of eastern china who don't have the golden toned skin.
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