"Uighur vs Afghan: A Study in Contrasts"

18.7.09

by Eric Walberg
Dissident Voice
July 15th, 2009

The US slaughter in Afghanistan makes the Chinese creeping colonisation of Urumqi look like a picnic.

Last week’s riots in Urumqi, resulting in 180 deaths, recall similar protests in Tibet last year, though only 19 people were killed there. Both Uighur and Tibetan exiles demonstrated during the Chinese Olympics, to little effect. Both regions, remote from the heart of Han China, were taken over under the communists, and are important strategically and as storehouses of mineral wealth to feed the new capitalist China’s voracious appetite. They remind us that old-fashion colonialism is alive and well. Neither the Uighurs nor the Tibetans have any hope of independence, but they rightly would like the Han to be less greedy and invasive.

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