Analysis of this video is pending. It appears to be footage of the mosque incident on 7/14. It shows some guys stirring up some folks in a mosque, and then later actual footage of two men charging at the police with machetes and getting shot in the street.

This appears to be Urumqi — there is a red banner inside the mosque with Chinese characters. As for the scene outside with the men getting shot, there appears to be China Telecom advertising style signage on the side of the road, Chinese character banners, and the ubiquitous white barrier that separates the roads.

More analysis to come.

Dear readers, we interrupt your regularly schedule posting to bring you a neat old map.

What you see below is the 新疆總圖 or “General Map of Xinjiang.” This particular version is from the work 欽定新疆識略 Imperially-Commissioned Outline of Xinjiang, produced in 1821 by Song-yun, published again in 1894 as a typeset and annotated edition, and reproduced from that version by lithograph in 1962 in Taiwan. By the magic of modern digital technology, I have arranged the two halves of the map, previously printed conveniently on either side of a single page, into a complete image for your edification and mine.

"General Map of Xinjiang" - Click to enlarge!

The map was made by imperial decree in 1755 and completed four years later along with several other maps of the region. Although the map’s production apparently involved Jesuit missionaries under the leadership of an imperial censor, it does not resemble later maps that the Jesuits produced for the Qing court.

First of all, it’s oriented with south on top, as in older Chinese maps. Check out the place names. Continue reading →

Chinese consulate officials in Austrailia attempted to have a film withdrawn from Melbourne’s International Film Festival because it focuses on Rebiya Kadeer and her family. The festival’s director refused, and later commented to the media that he

“…had no reason to withdraw the film from the festival and she then proceeded to tell me that I had to justify my decision to include the film in the festival.

“No-one reacts well to strident approaches, or to the appearance of being bullied. I don’t think it’s a positive way of behaving,” he added.

He said he told Ms Chen he did not have to justify the film’s inclusion, “then politely hung up”.

This social faux paus on the of the Chinese might add fuel (in the form of public indignation) to the already tense relations between Australia and China. This occurs at a time when China has arrested an Australian businessman on charges of espionage. More details on Australian-Chinese relations can be found in an NPR report from this morning.

In an ironic twist, a number of Chinese bloggers have begun calling for Kurdish independence from Turkey — a riposte to increasingly vocal Turkish support for Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Appearing on Junshi.cn ["MilitaryAffairs.cn"] — a popular online military and national security discussion forum — this emerging theme comes on the heals of statements by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, who described the treatment of Chinese Uyghurs as “genocide.”

Not renowned for supporting independence movements in the main, the Junshi.cn blogger community has taken to classic freedom fighter rhetoric following a chain of three recent events: unrest in Xinjiang, the response from Turkey, and recent statements in the United States Congress deeming the death of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey (then the Ottoman Empire) from 1915-1923 as “genocide.” Chinese bloggers have taken up the US endorsed label and run with it. How, many bloggers have asked, can Turkey accuse China of genocide, when America has accused Turkey of the same? More to the point, many have taken issue with Turkey’s criticism, given the status of Kurds in present day Turkey. (To be clear, these are positions taken by bloggers. These are not meant to be read as the views of this author.)

One article in particular appears to have stoked the flames. The piece, which details US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s July 10 remarks in which she called the Armenian killings a “genocide,” gave bloggers just the ammunition needed to return PM Erdogan’s verbal fire. Here are some noteworthy (e.g., not laced with profanity, as was often the case) comments:

支持美国对土耳其奥斯曼帝国时期造成150万亚美尼亚人死亡的事件定性为“种族屠杀”。 [Support America's definition of the Ottoman Turk Empire bringing about the death of 1.5 million Armenians as "genocide."]

惨无人道的大屠杀，土耳其你们真是残忍，你们以前屠杀亚美利亚人，现在屠杀库尔德人，你们应该从地球上消失，中国人支持库尔德人建立自己的国家 [Inhumane massacre. Turkey, you are truly cruel. Now, the Kurds are the ones being massacred. You should be wiped off the planet. China supports the creation of an independent Kurdish country.]

So, it looks like we have a winner in the annual “What Country do Chinese Bloggers Hate Most?” competition. 2009 winner: Turkey! France, here’s hoping you enjoyed the honor while it lasted.

UPDATE: Looks like Chinese hackers hit the website for Turkey’s Embassy. (CLICK HERE — in Chinese)

Two Uighurs were shot dead by Chinese policemen today in Urumqi, according to the BBC. Another man was injured in the shooting. A spokesmen for the Chinese government claims that the shooting occurred as a result of the policemen trying to prevent the three Uighurs from attacking a fourth Uighur. The governent comments allege that the Uighurs were carrying what the BBC labels as “long knives and clubs” and that the police fired warning shots, which the men ignored.

Is it normal for the police to fire warning shots of live ammunition inside of a city? Moreover, why are the Chinese police not equipped with less-lethal weapons as means of detainment, such as Tasers?

Update: The Jakarta Post reports disconcerting details about the events:

Photos taken at the time show one policeman raising his rifle to strike a man. Beaten, the man in a blue shirt with blood on his right leg lay on the ground. Police formed a ring around him, pointing their guns up at surrounding buildings.

If what the Daily Mail reports is true, then it sounds possible that these men were shot at point blank range.

Police said the three men attacked them when they tried to pull them off a fourth Uighur, whom they had attacked with knives and rods. (Emphasis added)

One witness, Zhang Ming, a construction worker at a building site near the incident, said he saw three men with knives come out of a mosque and attack a group of paramilitary police standing in a cluster along the road. Riot police then chased them, beat them and fired shots, he said. (Emphasis added)

If this claim is true, and that the men were armed when exiting the mosques, then we can only expect more crackdowns on Islamic institutions in Urumqi and the whole of Xinjiang. Unfortunately, this man’s statement is impossible to verify, and given the current situation, there are numerous reasons why such a statement could be fabricated for propaganda purposes, or distorted for international media consumption.

Chinese military blog-watching may be a particularly unscientific form of analysis, but I’ll be darned if it ain’t the best place to find colorful, downright nasty things to say about people involved in the recent unrest in Xinjiang. Says one commenter about the East Turkistan Movement (blog article here):

杀… 杀… 杀. [kill... kill... kill.]

Another offers another angle on a similar theme:

必须严杀杀杀杀杀杀 [must severely kill kill kill kill kill kill]

Says another, paraphrased:

If the security forces don’t wipe them out, I’ll get my black society [mob] friends together, travel to Xinjiang and wipe them out on our own.

We can call this Chinese Harmony 2.0: harmony with Xinjiang characteristics.

A recent blog posting on Chinamil.cn — a blog network of the Chinese military community, by the Chinese military community, for the Chinese military community — asks, “What should China do about the East Turkistan problem?” It took a few days for the censor gods to begin permitting discussion of the issue, which was notably not phrased in ethnic language (e.g., it is not a “Uyghur” problem, only an “Xinjiang” problem). But once taken up, the issue has garnered a huge readership and stirred up reams of emotional comments.

There has been far more blog activity on the issue over at Junshi.cn, a similar forum for blogging national security and military topics. An interesting post (available here) covers a recent demonstration by supporters of the World Uyghur Congress in Canada, where some ethnic Chinese staged what appears to have been a calm and thoughtful counter-protest. The images are worth looking at; these are the images China is permitting its citizens to see. They include a young ethnically Chinese man with a homemade sign, pleading for peace in Xinjiang — reads his sign: the unrest was caused by “a minority of people” and is not a true ethnic clash. Also, there appears to be a guy with a Taiwan flag on his arm participating in the counter-protest (in the last picture). Coverage of the Canada counter-protest, which was described in the post as “Chinese abroad voicing their anger,” came with some fun digitally enhanced images. I will leave it to more imaginative minds than mine to interpret this one:

Exactly which contagion is he concerned about?

Worth noting, at least on Junshi.cn, there appears to be more interest in what might be called old-school military issues than in Xinjiang and counterterrorism issues — click here to see a list of recent blog postings on Junshi.cn and reader traffic data. More people continue to read blog postings about Taiwan issues and the American military than Xinjiang. Question going forward: Will terrorism take on a more central position in Chinese military debate, or will Taiwan continue to overwhelmingly define the dialogue?

The Turkish daily newspaper Zaman’s video news story, Urumçi’de çatışma,  about the Urumchi riots is stunning due to its visual misrepresentations. While the Turkish voice over focuses entirely on the situation in Urumchi, for an extended period of time, the Chinese language video footage that it uses is not of the Urumchi riots at all.

Rather, the footage is of the coup d’etat in Honduras, including scenes of the Honduras military confronting Honduran protestors, as well as the Honduran president-in-exile’s airplane and its attempt to land in the capitol. (For the exact clip, see the video at 00:29.) That this video is not about Urumchi is indicated by the Chinese headline, which reads: 洪都拉斯政变：回国受阻–塞拉亚转飞尼加拉瓜 (translation: Honduras Coup d’Etat: Blocked from Returning to the Country — Zelaya’s Plane Redirected to Nicaragua).

That this clip is unrelated to the riots in Xinjiang was not made clear; instead, it makes it appear to Turkish audiences that, not only are there riots in Xinjiang, but that the Chinese military has called in an air strike on the Uyghurs. One could argue that this was a mere oversight on the part of Zaman’s editors. However, given the previous statements made about the Urumchi riots by numerous Turkish government officials, and Zaman’s proximity to the current ruling political party, the AKP, one wonders if this was an intentional error meant to stoke outrage amongst the populace.

The Turkish government has offered Rebiya Kadeer the opportunity to visit Turkey, as reported by Today’s Zaman. Given that her two previous attempts to visit Turkey were denied, this unprompted invitation is significant. Moreover, the fact that her invitation was confirmed publicly by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan only serves to confirm how seriously the Turkish government is taking the recent events in Xinjiang.

According to the Turkish Daily News, Prime Minister Erdoğan went so far as to state that

“On the one hand, we will talk about universal human rights, and on the other hand, we will just watch such incidents. It’s incredible,”…

“I expressed my views [about the incidents] to the head of the states and prime ministers during my meetings here. I already used the word ’atrocity’ [while describing the incidents in China]. I am behind my words,” Erdoğan said, adding, “Well, I don’t think any other word could better describe such incidents, which are almost genocide, where hundreds of people were killed and more than 1,000 people were injured.” (Emphasis added)

The history of Turkey’s relationship with China, as well as its relationship with the Uyghur communities in Xinjiang and in the diaspora, is complex. Yitzhak Shichor’s new piece, “Ethno-Diplomacy: The Uyghur Hitch in Sino-Turkish Relations” offers a nuanced, succinct, and astute analysis, placed in historical context, of Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies regarding China and the Uyghurs.

The following is a letter from an anonymous foreign traveler currently in Kashgar, Xinjiang. The New Dominion presents this letter for the consideration and edification of its readers. There has been little news out of Kashgar since Sunday, and this may shed some light on Monday’s demonstrations and the events that followed.

Two days before rioting broke out over Xinjiang, I hopped a plane bound for Kashgar. I got stuck a little in Urumqi, but made it to Kashgar eventually. The events below record my adventure as you can call it, being stuck in the middle of the chaos in what basically became a police state for three days (and remains so today).

When I arrived in Kashgar, it was “business as usual”: Uyghurs being Uyghurs, i.e. speaking their Turkic language, praying five times a day, and living in and around the Old City. Of course, I was disappointed by the Chinese-built shopping malls, massive highways, and blatant destruction of Uyghur cultural sites (including tombs) and discrimination against the Uyghurs. There are signs everywhere in Chinese reading: “Follow the Communist Party for 10000 years.” “Give up superstition, embrace science, embrace modernity.” “The many peoples of China are one: Hate Separatism from the Motherland.” It’s not a good feeling entering the city.

But a cab drive away (one cab drive too long) and I was basically back in the Middle East. It felt like home. Kebabs everywhere. Hummus, tabouli, green tea with mint. The Old City was “heartening” if tragic… bulldozers, bulldozers, bulldozers. I saw a few mosques come down, probably a few hundred years old each.

Kashgar of course was magical… what was left. Continue reading →

The Chinese media response to ongoing unrest in Xinjiang has been noteworthy for the advertised speed and breadth of its coverage. (To say nothing of its accuracy.) Contrast what we have seen so far with coverage of last year’s violence in Tibet. Caught somewhat off guard by criticism about journalistic access — or lack thereof — as events unfolded in Tibet, it appears the Chinese government has taken a different, more proactive approach this time around. Take a look at the English language website set up over at Xinhua by clicking here. English language coverage has been pumped out rapid fire — this time, they were ready.

Not to be outdone, ChinaDaily quickly put out a piece — in English and primarily for Western consumption — announcing support from Britain, the United States and Turkey for the Chinese government response to the unrest. The Tibetan model seems largely to have been to take on conflicting foreign media accounts by pointing out perceived errors in reporting and raising accusations of bias. It looks like a new Xinjiang model has emerged: simply beat the Western journalists to the press (then point out errors and claim bias).

• Pictures of the events have appeared almost as they occur: pictures here (caution: graphic images).
• A press conference was held and foreign journalists were given the chance to ask questions (who knew a press conference would be such a photo-op?): pictures of press conference here.

It remains to be seen just how much access journalists are truly getting in cities other than Urumqi. The Beijing Olympics gave the Chinese government cause to rethink its approach to media relations during mass events. Has the government had a change of heart, however slight? Hopefully, but doubtfully. Regardless, at least there is an acknowledgement that journalistic access should be the default and restrictions should be the exception. We will leave you with excerpts from a curiously self-aware article about the noteworthiness of the Chinese media response, written by, well, the Chinese media:

More than 60 overseas media have sent journalists to Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang region, after a riot broke out in the city Sunday, leaving 156 people dead and 1,080 others injured.

. . .

“We disclosed information shortly after the incident. We welcome domestic and overseas journalists to come and see what happened,” Hou Hanmin, deputy head of the publicity department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Xinjiang regional committee, said Tuesday.

. . .

Urumqi authorities have opened a news center, equipped with more than 50 computers with Internet access, to both Chinese and foreign journalists since Monday afternoon.

UPDATE: An article released today by AFP echoes and follows up nicely on this posting. View the AFP article here.

UPDATE 2: Rebecca MacKinnon now has a piece continuing this line of analysis. Her rendition can be found here. As usual, she’s quite brilliant.