{"id":1804,"date":"2021-01-23T13:47:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T13:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexet.wpengine.com\/?p=1804"},"modified":"2021-10-10T15:13:44","modified_gmt":"2021-10-10T15:13:44","slug":"hearts-and-minds-in-tibet-and-xinjiang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=1804","title":{"rendered":"Hearts and minds in Tibet and Xinjiang"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 55 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n

The\nperiphery territories of Xinjiang and Tibet present a geopolitical security\nnightmare for China\u2019s military given their relative geographic isolation and\nthe sparsity of the population throughout the regions. With physical geography\nagainst them, alongside the militarisation of the landscape and deployment of\ntroops, China resorts to forceful cultural strategies of control over the minds\nand souls of its minority populations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Tibet, religion is life itself and Tibetan Buddhism permeates all areas of culture, society, the urban landscape and daily life. With the invasion of the People\u2019s Liberation Army in 1951, Tibetans were branded as militant separatists<\/a> whose nomadic and spiritual lifestyles stood as a barrier to China\u2019s pursuit of modern progress. In modern times, the Chinese state continues its cultural repression in Tibet by restricting the liberties of monasteries, secularising education and persecuting any public show of loyalty to the Dalai Lama<\/a>. This battle against minority ethnoreligious identity in Tibet is mirrored in Xinjiang, revealing the state-wide program of eradicating oppositional or alternative identities from its population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image Author’s Own<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In\nXinjiang, Islamic faith and Uyghur culture present a similar threat to Chinese\nhomogeneity, with Uyghurs also portrayed as violent, extremist separatists<\/a>. Blaming Islam as the root of\nviolent protests in the region is tactical and seeks to legitimise the cultural genocide<\/a> in Xinjiang. Practicing and\npreaching Islam is highly restricted in Xinjiang<\/a> and, as in Tibet, religious\nleaders are frequently victims of violence and intrusive surveillance. Using\nthe rhetoric of waging war against the \u2018three evils\u2019<\/a>\nof extremism,\nseparatism and terrorism, Islam in Xinjiang and Buddhism in Tibet are presented\nas the root of these \u2018evils\u2019. Under this guise, aggressive secularisation and\nreligious persecution are presented as legitimate and essential. The\ninternational community is not fooled by this convenient rhetoric and must\nurgently act against this blatant abuse of human rights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minority\ncultures around the world are kept alive through traditional languages engaging\npopulations in a distinct culture with literature, song and oral history\ncreating a sense of shared belonging and common heritage. In schools, Uyghur\nand Tibetan children learn only Mandarin in an attempt to eliminate the next\ngeneration\u2019s access to their heritage and culture<\/a>. Furthermore, diluting the\npopulations in these regions with Han Chinese immigrants reduces the power of\nculture as immigrant culture fights to exert influence. Along with the\ntragically inevitable efficacy of population control<\/a> via forced sterilisation in\nXinjiang, the culture may be able to retain its potency but there will be\nincreasingly fewer individuals able to listen and partake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xinjiang\u2019s\n\u2018Vocational, Educational and\nTraining Centres\u2019<\/a>\ncan hardly be mistaken as a reincarnation of the Maoist era \u2018re-education\ncamps\u2019. The size of the camps and the force of their methods reveals the intensity\nof the Chinese state\u2019s fear regarding the religion and culture of its\nminorities. Where latent cultural methods of control have failed, albeit\nimplemented with force, the state has returned to Maoist oppression. The camps\nendeavour to reshape the identity of their prisoners by exerting psychological\npressure and indoctrination. Cultural cleansing will fail by even the most\ndetermined powers unless the identity and soul of a person are reshaped, and\ntheir allegiance is torn away from a spiritual being and their community. The\nloyalty of the soul is malleable, and the Chinese state is relentless in\nacquiring it for its own purposes. The international community must learn\nlessons from history and take action to prevent this most heinous pursuit of\ncultural genocide in Xinjiang and Tibet. <\/p>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The periphery territories of Xinjiang and Tibet present a geopolitical security nightmare for China\u2019s military given their relative geographic isolation and the sparsity <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,40,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-foundation4uyghurfreedom","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}