Ethnic Tensions In China

60 Years After Revolution, Ethnic Tension Still Plagues China -- McClatchy News

URUMQI, China — China's leadership says it has calmed this city after almost 200 people were stabbed, bludgeoned or beaten to death in July riots and more violent protests this month forced the removal of top officials.

Despite the assurances from Beijing, however, Urumqi remains on edge less than two weeks before the 60th anniversary celebration of China's communist regime. The region's main ethnic groups, Han Chinese and Uighurs — Turkic-speaking Muslims — are locked in a cycle of violence in this enclave of more than 2.3 million people near China's western border.

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My Comment: This has always been China's Achilles heel. While the McClatchy article focuses on the Uighurs, much of China .... even among the Han majority .... are fragmented along ethnic, geographical, and cultural differences. This has always been China's history, interrupted only by the Chinese Communists who were able to consolidate their power and authority during the revolution.

In all my visits and talks with Chinese Government officials, this has always been the underlying fear for all Chinese officials .... the fragmentation and disintegration of China into smaller pieces.

Will it happen .... I do not know. But as the wealth and affluence of the Chinese people increases, greater calls for autonomy and independence will be a key demand from most of the provincial governments, especially those provinces that feel that they have been neglected by the Central Government.

How the Chinese Government responds to this will then determine how China will function as it starts to liberalize its political system in the same manner that it has liberalized its economic system.