Here is my translation, doubtless below par, of a recent interview with Rabiyä Qadir (Rebiya Kadeer, رابىيە قادىر) published on 6 May 2009 in the Italian Communist daily Il Manifesto.  Commentary follows.

Independence is impossible, we will struggle for autonomy

Rebiya Kadeer has lived her sixty years as though on a rollercoaster. The leader-in-exile of the Uyghurs of Xinjiang (a region of northwestern China, with a Muslim majority) has experienced long years of poverty and a brief, enormous wealth as a result of her trade throughout China; the honor of a seat in the National People’s Congress and the suffering of five years in police detention. These and other chapters of Kadeer’s life – three times a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize – are recounted in her biography, The Gentle Warrior [Die Himmelsstürmerin], just published by Corbaccio. A member of the Transnational Radical Party, on Monday and Tuesday, the “Mother of the Uyghurs,” as she likes to call herself, was in Rome, where she yesterday took part in a meeting of the Committee for Human Rights of the Chamber of Deputies. Over the next few days, she will address the assembly of the World Uyghur Congress, where her reconfirmation as President appears decided. We have discussed with Kadeer the strategies of the movement and the situation in Xinjiang, where the Uyghurs (about 8 million) complain of an attempt to assimilate them on the part of Beijing.

In the most recent stage of your life, you lead the World Uyghur Congress (WUC). What mark have you left while at the top of the umbrella of this Uyghur diaspora organization?

At the end of 2006, my objective had been to unite all of the Uyghurs dispersed across the four corners of the world, creating various associations that would be recognized in the World Uyghur Congress. These groups are making the world aware of the problems of our people and are busy promoting our language, history, and culture among the new generation forced to live far from East Turkestan (the name by which the Uyghurs call Xinjiang –ed.). And in the last three years, for the first time, our petitions were brought to the attention of the Parliament of the European Union, United States, and Germany, where I had the opportunity to speak.

Have you managed to maintain contacts with Xinjiang, despite the strict security measures enacted by the authorities in Beijing?

Since we have been branded a “terrorist organization” by China, it has been particularly difficult. Nevertheless, we have our ways. This is despite the fact that anyone who tries to access an internet page that talks about me or our organization will be treated as a “terrorist.”

Do you not believe that China’s economic development – which has brought construction and infrastructure to Xinjiang – is also to the benefit of the Uyghurs?

The only advantage in the development of East Turkestan is Beijing’s. While our natural resources – natural gas, petroleum, uranium, and others – are transferred to the Interior, we Uyghurs are excluded from the labor market and, through the prohibition of instruction in the Uyghur language, our culture will be wiped out. The economic marginalization of the Uyghurs has been achieved through the bingtuan [Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps – trans.], an enormous organization for military production – distributed mainly along the border with Central Asia – is intended to provide homes and work for millions of Han immigrants.

In your book, you recount the spontaneous protests staged during the 80s and 90s by the Uyghur population against the presence of Han colonizers. What about today?

Now, the only expressions of dissent that are allowed are those abroad. Since the opening up of the 80s and 90s, we have returned to a situation similar to that of the Cultural Revolution.

How are their relations with the Han, the ethnic majority in China?

They can have excellent relations with the Han, of understanding and of mutual respect. But the situation changed with the immigration to East Turkestan. Here we have made life impossible: The very fact of discussing politics, the problems of our people, brings the Uyghurs to be labeled as “separatists,” “Islamic fundamentalists,” “terrorists.”

Before the Olympics in August 2008, Beijing had distributed news of attacks in Xinjiang. What information do you have about these events?

They were staged. What we must stress is that[?], before the Games, 15 000 Uyghurs were arrested and locked up under accusations of “terrorism.” Thanks to the platform offered by the more important sports events, the Beijing authorities had manufactured a belief around the world that there were thousands of terrorists in East Turkestan, thus legitimizing further oppressive constraints on our people.

Last February, the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while visiting Beijing, said: We will pressure for human rights, but, in these economic times, other things come first. Have you lost your chief ally?

Unfortunately, at this time, the economic crisis is at the top of the agenda for the great powers. But our pressure on the State Department has continued, and I trust that we can continue to receive the support that we need from Washington.

You protested because Islamabad has recently extradited to Beijing nine Uyghurs who trained in Pakistan to attack China. Doesn’t Beijing have the right to defend itself?

In recent years, Pakistan extradited 21 Uyghurs captured in Afghanistan to the United States. These people were then declared innocent by Washington: Some of them found asylum in Albania, and the others still await freedom.

Let us leave the alleged terrorists aside. Are you not afraid that, in the condition of isolation in which Xinjiang has been constrained, there may have prevailed among its people a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam?

Traditionally, the Uyghurs have had nothing to do with fundamentalism. Every day, however, in East Turkestan, some Uyghurs are arrested because they have been accused of being Islamic fundamentalists. For Beijing, a “terrorist” and an “integralist” [one who adheres to an extreme or traditionalist interpretation of Islam, rather pejorative; some prefer "active Islam" or "political Islam" – trans.] are the same thing. These are labels that are applied to hide their policies towards us: prohibition on the distribution of Uyghur literature, the forced transportation of Uyghur girls into the Chinese interior, birth control, limitations on Islamic practice, immigration of millions of Han and the lack of work for us, execution of political prisoners. Xinjiang is the only region of China where they still condone death sentence for political prisoners.

If China grants real autonomy, will you renounce the dream of an independent East Turkestan?

We demand freedom. Today, only a minority of our people hope for independence. We fight for a true autonomy, such as that demanded by the Dalai Lama for Tibet. And this autonomy can only be obtained within a more general process: that of the democratization of China, one that benefits the whole population, not only the Uyghurs. If they give us liberty, we would be prepared to live with the millions of Han settlers who have been sent to our homeland.

Some thoughts:

Rabiyä Qadir is a politician. Just as the Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Wen Jiabao, Tarja Halonen, Abdullah Öcalan or anyone else in a position of leadership must satisfy the demands and play to the sentiments of a diverse community, so must she. Previously, it has been easier to dismiss her as a figurehead, an actor in political theater, prone to yelling and ranting and riling up her base of angry Uyghurs, pan-Turkists, sympathetic Westerners, etc. In this interview, Rabiyä Qadir comes across as a much savvier player. The talking points are broadly the same, but she makes some key concessions.

The most surprising is when she declares that the goal of her movement is not independence, but human rights and autonomy, not only for Uyghurs, but for all of China. This is not just an imitation of the policies of the Dalai Lama, who is an obvious point of comparison; that, I think, is a useful conceit for helping a European audience understand her movement and the situation in her homeland. Rather, this broader humanitarian goal has been a theme of Rabiyä Qadir’s for some time, albeit one not usually shared or emphasized by the broader Uyghur or East Turkestan movement. Early on, she framed herself not only as the “Mother of the Uyghurs,” taking a page from the early modern nationalist playbook digested fully by her cohorts abroad, but also as someone fighting for the rights of everyone in Xinjiang, even Han Chinese. The Uyghur independence movement, as I know it, is a fractious organization staffed by elites whose navel-gazing obsessions with self-definition prevent it from being taken seriously or achieving much internationally. If Rabiyä Qadir can successfully get them to become a much more broadly inclusive organization, then she may prove to be the leader the movement needs to gain real political traction. This pragmatic and less overtly hostile or racist stance gives the Uyghur rights/independence movement a much more mature face.

Rabiyä Qadir also dodges a sensitive question about the PRC’s right to defend itself. What would happen if she conceded that point? It would be of no help to Beijing, which has no interest in presenting her as an authority figure. It would certainly upset a certain section of her base, particularly actual supporters of Islamic fundamentalist and/or terrorist groups operating in or on behalf of East Turkestan. These are people who, I think, are not yet in the company of the broader, more ethno-nationalistic movement, but who could be drawn into it and away from violent action. This may account for her admonishment of the PRC for conflating terrorists and Islamic activists. I think, rather, that she did not want to say “No.” If Rabiyä Qadir claimed that the PRC has no right to defend itself, she would lose credibility as a mature leader and certainly provide fodder for PRC propagandists who, as she frequently reminds us, label her a “terrorist.”

Overall, I think we are seeing Rabiyä Qadir come into her own as a leader. At the very least, she is getting better advice on statesmanship. It is somewhat sad, I think, to see the Uyghur/East Turkestani movement give up on its central hope of a free and independent state, one that has always been imagined with lofty ideals in mind. This new vision, however, demonstrates that the movement is not entirely mired in the pre-1949 past, but that certain influential segments of it are willing to engage with present-day political realities.

Recently, the following post, once found at this address, was passed on to me by a friend. It seems to have circulated on the Web since perhaps early November. It is a lengthy and impassioned plea for, at the very least, some respect and hope for the people of Xinjiang of all stripes, who, the author argues, have endured countless hardships for the benefit of their fellow citizens in the East. The author expresses despair at the dashed hopes of the Opening Up of the West and anger at the cancer left by atomic bomb tests in Lop Nor.

The whole document has a feeling of the old Yip Harburg song, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” “Once I built a railroad…”

My English translation is a little hurried. Comments are welcome.

Also, does anyone else think that the author must be from Korla?

今天的十大头条： 新疆人，对不起，谢谢你

Today’s Top Ten Leading Stories: Xinjiang People, I’m Sorry, Thank You

对不起，谢谢你
新疆的石油运走了，
新疆的天然气运走了，
新疆的棉花运走了，
新疆的钾盐运走了，
新疆的黄金运走了，
新疆的和田玉运走了
……

I’m sorry, thank you

Xinjiang’s oil was transported away,

Xinjiang’s natural gas was transported away,

Xinjiang’s cotton was transported away,

Xinjiang’s leopoldite was transported away,

Xinjiang’s gold was transported away,

Xinjiang’s Khotan jade was transported away

…

原子弹却降临在新疆了
……

The atomic bomb was indeed tested in Xinjiang

…

新疆，一百六十万平方公里的土地，一千九百万各族人民.我们世世代代生活在那片土地
上.我们骄傲，我们自豪.没有理由，就因为那片土地叫新疆.

Xinjiang, an area of 1 600 000 square kilometers, 19 000 000 people of every ethnic group. We have lived on that patch of earth for generations. We are proud, we feel proud. There is no reason, just that that patch of earth is called Xinjiang.

这片占祖国六分之一版图的土地，承载着什么，又蕴藏着什么.这里有四十七个民族的儿
女，或耕耘，或牧羊，或买卖，或采矿.千年的腥风血雨，早已被坎儿井的清清流水洗得
干干净净；千年的历史沧桑，早已被天山上的雪莲花薰陶得浓郁幽香.新疆人，无论什么
民族什么宗教信仰，都渴望自己的家乡能够拥有平等的发展机会与空间.

This patch of earth that occupies one-sixth of the area of our ancestral country, what does it contain, and what does it hide. Here there are the sons and daughters of forty-seven minzu, working the fields, or shepherding sheep, or buying and selling, or mining. One thousand years of bloody history have long since been washed clean by the clear flowing waters of the karez; one thousand years of great historical changed have long since been purged by the snow lotuses and Coumarouna odorata of the Tianshan until they are sweetly fragrant. Xinjiang people, no matter what their minzu or religious beliefs, all hope that their home can have the opportunity and time to develop fairly.

西部大开发，一个曾经让我们振奋不已的口号.一时间，就连塔克拉玛干边缘的万年荒山
上，也用白色的石头拼出了大字：西部大开发，新疆是重点，巴州要大干！

The Great Opening Up of the West, a slogan that once endlessly inspired us. At one time, even upon the mountains around the edge of the Täklimakan, uncultivated for untold ages, we used white stones to spell out big characters: The Great Opening Up of the West, Xinjiang is the focus, Bazhou will make a big effort!

曾经告诉过我们，创世未有的发展机遇降临在了我们的头上；曾经告诉过我们，克服与忍
受暂时的损失与困难，因为长远的幸福是属于我们的；曾经告诉过我们，资源埋在地下永
远变不了金钱；曾经告诉过我们，大型基础设施建设会带动新疆人的就业；曾经告诉过我
们，长长的管子把石油天然气送到了内地，长长的管子还会将大把大把的税收送到新疆人
的手中……

Once they told us, an opportunity for development the likes of which the world had never seen had fallen on our heads; once they told us, endure and withstand temporary loss and hardship, because long-term fortune belonged to us; once they told us, resources buried underground would never become money; once they told us, the construction of large-scale basic-level facilities would spur the employment of Xinjiang people; once they told us, long pipes would take oil and natural gas to the Interior, long pipes might still bring piles of tax revenues to Xinjiang people’s hands…

曾经……

Once…

新疆是一个什么样的地方？涓涓细流会将天山与昆仑山的雪水送到牧区农场，一眼望不到
边的大草原，遍布着牛羊……新疆，就是这样一个地方，绿洲农业，咱不靠天吃饭，旱涝
保收；高山草甸牧业，咱不愁一个月不下雨草场就会旱死.新疆没有发生过饥荒，三年自
然灾害时期，内地人就是扒在火车车厢底下也要来新疆，就算是在星星峡被当作盲流拦住
遣返回原籍，也要在半道上跳下火车徒步进新疆.新疆，就是这样，那里有土地，那里有
雪水，那里，有希望.

What kind of place is Xinjiang? Brooks and streams may carry the meltwaters of the Tianshan and Kunlun Mountains to pastures and fields, a grassland the edge of which the naked eye cannot see, covered in cows and sheep… Xinjiang, it’s just this kind of place. Oasis agriculture, we don’t depend on Heaven to eat, the harvest is protected through draught and flood. Animal husbandry in the mountain grasslands, we don’t worry if the ranges dry out after a month without rain. Xinjiang has never had a famine, a three-year period of natural disasters. People from the Interior even want to cling to the bottoms of train cars to come to Xinjiang. Even treated in the Starry Gorge [a gorge in the Hexi Corridor] as aimless migrants, barred, and made to return to their place of origin, they want to jump out of the train on the way and walk into Xinjiang. Xinjiang, it’s like this. There is land there, there is meltwater, there is hope.

我们觉得自己生活得很幸福.

We felt that we lived happily.

可是，突然有一天，人家告诉我们，人家来帮咱们了，咱们的生活会更好更好了！这个时
候，我们心存感激，我们同样被从那种平静的生活中唤起而后振奋，因为我们被告知
，会有更大的希望！

But, suddenly one day, someone told us, there’s someone coming to help us, our life is going to be better, better! At this time, we felt appreciative. We, too, were stirred up and excited out of that peaceful and tranquil kind of life of ours, because we were signaled, we may have even more hope!

……

…

一晃八年了.

All of a sudden, eight years passed.

当初为我们憧憬过美好蓝图的人啊，你们在哪儿呢？

Those of you who looked forward to a beautiful blueprint for us, where are you?

请来看看我们的新疆.

Please come and look at our Xinjiang.

西部大开发，究竟是什么？

The Great Opening Up of the West, what is it really?

资源，包括那些具有战略意义的能源，被那条长长的管子送到了沿海地区.这，我们不计
较.可是我们又得到了什么？就业机会吗？看看那些从事新疆能源开发的企业，不都是内
地的大型企业吗？咱们新疆人的孩子，又何曾享受过这样的就业机会.西安石油学院毕业
的新疆孩子，想要进新疆的石油单位工作那是难上加难.因为这些待遇优厚的工作岗位，
全部都被这些内地企业自身的员工所占据.你可以随便去一家石油石化单位听听，遍地北
京口音、东北口音、山东口音，就是没有新疆口音.那咱们新疆的孩子能在石油单位找到
工作吗？不是不可以，而且还基本专业对口：加油站给汽车加油.带动相关产业的发展吗
？要知道，西气东输的管道，是在宝鸡生产的.高水准的生活吗？你知道在上海一方天然
气是多少钱吗？一块二；你知道在新疆一方天然气是多少钱吗？一块二毛五.而你知道新
疆人的工资水准是多少吗？一个教龄三十年的中教高级教师，月薪不过两千五，这还是
06年加薪后的工资；一个五十岁的正厅级干部，月薪加补贴不过三千块.那么普通老百姓
呢？工人、农民、一般公务员呢？我们在消化着巨大的剪刀差，我们在默默无闻得为东部
的大发展埋单.

Resources, including those power sources which hold a military significance, have been taken away by those long, long tubes to the coastal regions. This, we don’t bicker about. But what have we then received? Employment opportunities? Look at those enterprises that handle the exploitation of Xinjiang’s resources, aren’t they all big companies from the Interior? The children of we Xinjiang people, how then have they enjoyed these kinds of employment opportunities[?] Xinjiang kids who graduate from Xi’an Oil Institute, if they want to enter a Xinjiang oil work unit, that’s harder than hard. Because these generously-paying work positions, all of them have been taken by those big companies from the Interior’s own employees. You can go to any oil work unit and have a listen, it’s all Beijing accents, North-Eastern accents, Shandong accents, but there are no Xinjiang accents. So can kids from our Xinjiang find work in an oil work unit? It’s not that they may not, and what’s more they are proficient in the most basic profession: putting gas in cars at gas stations. Does this spur the growth of related industries? You have to know, the pipe that take Western gas to the East, this was built in Baoji [a city in Shaanxi with an amusing name]. And a high standard of living? Do you know how much a cubic meter of natural gas costs in Shanghai? 1.2 RMB. Do you know how much a cubic meter of natural gas costs in Xinjiang? 1.25 RMB. And do you know how much the standard salary of a Xinjiang person is? A high-level middle-school teacher with thirty years’ experience, his or her monthly salary is not above 2500, and this is after the pay raise in ’06. A fifty-year-old main-office-level [正厅级?] cadre, his or her monthly salary is not above 3000 RMB. So what about regular everyday people? Workers, peasants, normal service personnel? We are digesting an enormous disparity. Unknown to the public, we are paying the bill for the great development of the East.

乌鲁木齐与库尔勒，一北一南，南北疆的领头城市.让我们来听听这两个城市老百姓的故
事.

Ürümchi and Korla, one in the South, one in the North, the leading cities of North and South Xinjiang. Let us listen to the stories of the everyday people of these two cities.

乌鲁木齐，一个人口二百万的大城市，却拥有着一个长期困扰老百姓生活的难题：打车难
.上下班的高峰期，老百姓往往站在零下二十多度的严寒里，半个小时打不上一辆车.你要
问出租车都到哪儿去了？问一百位司机九十九个都会告诉你：加气站排队加气呢！乌鲁木
齐的出租车烧液化气，新疆是产油的地方，怎么会缺液化气呢？独山子石化的同志们会耐
心的告诉你：新疆同胞们，咱们忍忍吧，新疆的石油和天然气得保证西气东输和内地大城
市用油的需要……当北京的出租车换上了大排量的伊兰特时，当上海居民的厨房里冒出了
纯蓝的灶火时，请想想，生产石油与天然气的新疆人民，还在寒风里站着；新疆的司机，
还排在一眼望不到头的长队里焦急的等待，而这些司机，也得吃饭也得买房也得供孩子上
学，他们本来可以拉活的时间，白白的耗在了等待上……

Ürümchi, a city with a population of 2 000 000 [actually around 3 500 000, now], indeed has a difficult long-term problem for the lives of everyday people: it’s hard to get a cab. At rush hour when people get on and off work, everyday people often stand in the more-than-negative-twenty-degrees bitter cold. Even after half an hour, they cannot get a cab. Want to ask where the cabs have gone? Ask one hundred drivers and ninety-nine will tell you: they’re in line at the gas station to get gas! The cabs of Ürümchi have been converted to run on natural gas, but Xinjiang is a place that produces oil, so why convert them to run on natural gas? The comrades at Dushanzi Petroleum will patiently tell you: Xinjiang siblings, let’s sit tight, eh? Xinjiang’s oil and natural gas have to guarantee the transportation of Western gas to the East and the oil-use needs of the big cities in the Interior… When the taxis of Beijing are traded for great lines of Elantras, when in the kitchens of Shanghai a pure blue stove-flame is lit, please think, the people of Xinjiang who manufacture oil and natural gas are still standing in the bitter wind. Xinjiang’s drivers are still waiting impatiently in a line, the end of which cannot be seen, and these drivers, they also have to eat and give their children schooling. When they could be making a living, they are wasting their time pointlessly waiting…

库尔勒，一个新兴的石油城市，南疆经济的桥头堡，塔里木油田指挥部所在地.石油人来
了，我们端着哈达欢迎您！指挥部建设需要用地，可以！您知道现在塔里木油田指挥部的
所在地过去是什么吗？是上千亩的良田，是库尔勒的各族人民世世代代耕作的良田.祖国
需要，石油人需要，我们无怨无悔，献出了这片沃土.可是，时至今日，塔指的一栋栋高
楼大厦建起来了，五星级公寓建起来了，塔里木油田的一口口油井喷油了，塔里木大气田
的天然气送到东方了，有谁想过那些失去土地的农民现在在干什么？那么请到库尔勒的街
头看看吧.扫大街的环卫工人，清一色的少数民族职工，问问他们原来是干什么的？他们
会遥望一片繁华的塔里木油田指挥部，告诉你，那里曾是我的家.这还是解决了就业的，
那些数以千计的失去土地的农民呢？他们没有技术没有知识，库尔勒的环卫战线也不可能
安排那么多的人.请到库尔勒河的葵花桥头看看吧.每天早晨，都有黑压压一片的壮劳
力，集中在这里，被需要临时工的老板们挑来挑去，幸运的，被挑中，干一天临时工，挣
些前，第二天早晨继续到这里来撞运气；不幸的，过了中午还没有被挑走，就只好回家饿
肚子，祈祷真主明天能赐给他一个临时工的机会……

Korla, an up-and-coming oil city, the bridgehead of the Southern Xinjiang economy, the place of the headquarters of Tarim Oilfields. The oil men came, we welcomed you with qadaqs! [a blue scarf given by Mongols to guests] The Headquarters needed land to be constructed, sure! Do you know what the current location of the Headquarters used to be? It was thousands of mu of good farmland, the good farmland worked by generations of the people of Korla of all kinds. The ancestral countries needs, the oil men need. We didn’t complain or regret. We gave up this patch of fertile land. But, up until the present day, the big buildings and towers of the Tarim Oilfields Headquarters were built, five-star apartments were built, the oil wells of the Tarim oilfields spurted oil, and the natural gas of the Tarim natural gas fields was sent to the East. Has anyone thought of what those people who lost their land are doing now? Then please go to the streets of Korla and have a look. The sanitation workers who sweep the streets, all of them minority workers, ask them, what did they used to do? They may look at the glorious Tarim Oilfields Headquarters in the distance and tell you, that was once my home. Is this solving the employment problem, those thousands of workers who lost their land? They have neither craft nor knowledge, nor can Korla’s Sanitation Front arrange so many people. Please go to the head of the Kuihua Bridge over the Korla River and have a look. Every day in the early morning, there are endless and dense mobs of strong laborers. They concentrate there, picked out by bosses in need of temporary labor. The lucky ones, picked out, do a day of temporary work, earn some money, and, on the next day, return here to try their luck. The unlucky ones, who have not been picked out by after noon, have to go home hungry and pray that, tomorrow, they will be granted a temporary work opportunity.

这还只是能源.其他资源呢？黄金呢？钾盐呢？玉石呢？

This is all still just energy. What about other resources? Gold? Leopoldite? Jade?

大规模的开发，富起来的到底是谁？

Large-scale exploitation, who’s really getting rich?

西部大开发，过了八年了，我们为什么只看到一个个资源项目上马，却很少看到科教文化
卫生人才方面的扶持与投资？要开发一个地区，资源是一条路；可是资源开采完了呢？我
们还能拥有什么？没有科教与人才的积累，到底还有多大的发展空间？

The Great Opening Up of the West, it’s been eight years. Why have we only seen a few resource projects get going, but not seen any assistance or investment in terms of popular science, culture, sanitation, or training? In order to open up a region, resources are one road, but what about when the resources are all exploited up? What can we have? Without an accumulation of popular science and talented people, how much room is there then for development?

你可曾知道，堂堂新疆大学历史系的学生们在校图书馆里竟然找不到《万历十五年》这样
非常普遍的书籍？你可曾知道，堂堂华夏第一州–巴音郭楞蒙古自治州，竟然没有一所
正规的图书馆、博物馆？大城市如此，小城市与农村又是怎样？西部大开发，为什么我们
很少见到这样的项目与投资？

Are you aware that the students of the great Xinjiang University’s History Department cannot find extremely common books like Wanli Shiwu Nian in their library? Are you aware that the great First Prefecture in China, Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, still has not a single regular library or museum? Big cities are like this, so what can small cities and villages be like? The Great Opening Up of the West, why do we so rarely see projects and investment like this?

新疆人，老实巴交的新疆人，被内地人动不动就称作野蛮人的新疆人……就这样默默无闻
的承受着一切……换个角度思考，如果北京的出租车司机成天排队加不上油，会是怎么样
？如果山东的农民成批成批的失去土地，就像库尔勒的农民那样，还会不会如此沉默的承
受一切？

Xinjiang people, honest Xinjiang people, Xinjiang people who cannot move for the Interior people are who are called barbarous… Unbeknownst, they have borne all of this… Thinking about it from another perspective, if Beijing’s taxi drivers were in line all day and could not get gas, what would it be like? If the peasants of Shandong lost their land bit by bit, just like the peasants of Korla, would they still quietly bear all of this?

前两天，把原子弹空投到日本领土的美军飞行员去世了.又一次引发出关于核武器的大规
模讨论.在一次次的讨论中，你们可曾想过，在遥远的罗布泊，曾经露天爆炸过原子弹？
在美丽的孔雀河－塔里木河流域，曾经无数次的进行过地下核试验？当看到新疆刮起沙尘
暴的新闻后，你们第一个想到的肯定是：新疆那个荒凉的地方……有谁想过，从罗布泊刮
来的沙尘暴，会给世世代代居住在那里的老百姓吹来什么？

Two days ago, the American pilot who dropped the first atomic bomb on Japanese soil passed away. [The pilot, Paul Tibbets, died on 1 November 2007, dating this document to perhaps 3 November.] This once again attracted a large-scale discussion of atomic weapons. In the course of one such discussion, did you perhaps think how, in distant Lop Nor, an atomic bomb was once tested in the open? How, in the beautiful Kongque River – Tarim River Basin, there were once conducted countless underground nuclear tests? After seeing the news of the sand storms in Xinjiang, what you first thought was certainly: Xinjiang, that desolate place… Who thought, the sands that storm from Lop Nor, what will they blow to generations of people who live in that place?

一个个身边的亲友倒下了……问问原因，不是肺癌就是食道癌.新疆是著名的长寿之乡，
祖祖辈辈生活在辽阔农村的百姓，呼吸着新鲜空气，吃着五谷杂粮，周围没有任何现代工
业的痕迹，怎么会一个又一个的患上癌症呢？你们可曾知道，就在罗布泊地区的巴音郭楞
蒙古自治州，进入八九十年代以来，已经成为癌症重灾区.胡总去探望艾滋病人了，温总
去河南艾滋病村了，这是时代的进步，这是party和go-vern-ment的关怀.可是，一个因为
长期受到核辐射而成为癌症重灾区的地区，却为何从来没有被报道过，从来没有人正面回
答这个问题？

Some close friend or relative has fallen… You ask the reason, and, if it’s not lung cancer, it’s esophageal cancer. Xinjiang is a place of famed longevity, and the generations of everyday people that live in the expansive villages, breathing fresh air, eating fresh grain, with no traces of modern industry around them, how does one after another get cancer? As you may know, in Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in the area of Lop Nor, since the beginning of the eighties or nineties, it has already become a cancer disaster area. President Hu always goes to visit AIDS patients, Premier Wen goes to AIDS Village in Henan. This is a generational improvement, this is the party and go-vern-ment showing they care. But, a place that has long received nuclear radiation and become a cancer disaster area, but why has it never been reported, why can no one ever answer this question directly?

一次核试验，中国人民从此站起来了，不用受纸老虎的威胁了；可是千千万万个无辜又无
知的新疆人却倒下了，可悲的是，就连他们自己，也并不知道这究竟是为了什么，更何况
他人？

One atomic test. The people of China from this point on stood up. They no longer had to accept the menace of the paper tiger. But countless poor and ignorant Xinjiang people fell. What is lamentable is that, even they themselves did not know why this was, much less anyone else?

新疆的石油运走了，
新疆的天然气运走了，
新疆的棉花运走了，
新疆的钾盐运走了，
新疆的黄金运走了，
新疆的和田玉运走了
……

Xinjiang’s oil was transported away,

Xinjiang’s natural gas was transported away,

Xinjiang’s cotton was transported away,

Xinjiang’s leopoldite was transported away,

Xinjiang’s gold was transported away,

Xinjiang’s Khotan jade was transported away

…

原子弹却降临在新疆了
……

The atomic bomb was indeed dropped in Xinjiang

…

新疆，是祖国版图不可分割的一部分；新疆人，是十三亿中国人的一部分.我们渴望祖国
的富强，我们祝福兄弟省市人民的富足，但，我们也是人，我们也有不高的要求：新疆与
新疆人，能够得到公正与公平的发展机遇，能够从这片土地所赐予我们的宝藏中得到实惠
的利益，能够有一个更为美好的明天，和祖国人民一样，在资源枯竭之后，仍然留有希望
.

Xinjiang, it is an inseparable part of the map of the ancestral country; Xinjiang people, they are part of the 1.3 billion Chinese people. We hope for the fortune and strength of the ancestral country. We congratulate the people of our brother provinces and cities on their wealth. However, we are also people. We also have requirements that are not high: Xinjiang and Xinjiang people, if they are able to receive an equitable and fair opportunity for development, if they can receive some practical benefit from the treasures of ours that are taken from this patch of land, if they can have a better tomorrow, as the people of the ancestral country, and after the resources are exhausted, yet leave behind a little hope.

朋友们，无论你在祖国的何处，当你享受这阳光下的和平的时候，请你想想那些为祖国的
和平而无知的承受着原子辐射的新疆人，对他们说一声：对不起……

Friends, no matter where you are in the ancestral country, when you share in this peace in the sunlight, please think of those Xinjiang people who, unbeknownst, for the peace of the ancestral country received radiation from the atomic bomb, and say to them, I’m sorry…

朋友们，无论你在祖国的何处，当你享受充足的能源供应与高速经济发展带来的实惠的时
候，请想想那些为另一部分人先富起来而默默承受着所有阵痛的新疆人，收起曾经对新疆
人的种种歧视与不屑，收起那些”援助新疆，支援边疆”得了便宜还卖乖的”豪言壮语”，对
他们说一句：谢谢你！

Friends, no matter where you are in the ancestral country, when you share in the practical benefit that comes from the sufficient provision of resources and the high speed of economic development, please think of those Xinjiang people who, unbeknownst, endure pains for another group of people to become wealthy first. To those who have received all kinds of discrimination and disdain against Xinjiang, who have been cheated and bamboozled by the “grandiloquence” of phrases like “assist Xinjiang, support Xinjiang”, say to them, thank you!

我们的要求并不高，一千九百万新疆人民，在无力改变现状与全局时，在仍然需要长时间
为东部的发展做出牺牲时，只需要得到别人真诚的尊重，只想听到一句诚心的：

Our requirements are not very high. 19 000 000 people, at a time when they are powerless to change the present and overall situation, at a time when they still need to sacrifice for a long time for the development of the East, only need to receive others’ sincere respect. They only need to hear one sincere:

新疆人，对不起，谢谢你.

Xinjiang people, I’m sorry, thank you.

Last week, we reported on a joint venture by Australia’s Arrow Energy and the XUAR regional government with the aim of opening up and exploiting coal seams in northern Xinjiang (Jungharia), looking especially to the abstraction of “coal bed methane”. The company has reported more details
of the coal-mining venture, reportedly taken up with the Ürümchi Geological Exploration and Development Company of the Xinjiang Geological Survey. Now the same company is planning to begin work on exploiting the PRC’s largest condensate gasfield, the Dina-II field, located in the Tarim Basin. The gas will go straight to Shanghai through the West-East Pipeline (WEP). China National Petroleum is building the site itself, which is planned to open in June 2009. Now, it seems, a Korean company, ecoeye, wants to get in on the action. The company approached the XUAR Investment and Development Office with overtures towards cooperation on 21 March. ecoeye has already invested in coal fields in Qäshqär and in Henan Province. (From this last article, one gets a sense that ecoeye is dedicated to safety, though this is not directly stated. Indeed, the author implies that, although 70-80% of coal mine accidents in the PRC are from coal gas explosions, coal gas is a low-pollutant energy source, so it’s all cool.)

It’s tax time in Xinjiang. Statistics show that the average small business in Ürümchi pays 325 RMB of National Tax every month, an average that increases to 375 RMB in Tianshan District and gets as low as 151 RMB elsewhere. The Ürümchi City National Tax Office announced on 26 March the creation of a computerized system for calculating individual household and business tax quotas, to be completed by early May. It will be activated on 1 July.

The XUAR and Ürümchi governments still seem unable to keep a hold on those prices and their rapid increase under the influence of perfectly natural market forces. There has actually been an agreement formed between the Sugar Manufacturing Industry Working Committee and sugar beet farmers nationally – Xinjiang is #4 for sugar beet farming in the PRC – to increase the price of sugar beets by 20% to 300 RMB/metric ton. Sugar prices fell in the autumn, but now, in order to keep the area of sugar beet cultivation land steady, the government has intervened in the price of beets, taking advantage of its stores of sugar in Xinjiang. Since 29 January, the City of Ürümchi has also been monitoring the pricing practices of seven major companies operating in the city, tracking the prices of six different products. The investigation found inconsistencies in bookkeeping which are meant to have contributed to the overall trend towards inflation. Still, it seems like the government is trying to trivialize the global problem of inflation by passing it off as a temporary, locally-based problem caused by a few major corporations. Supposedly, some of the inconsistencies in their accounting were related to cooking oil. Perhaps that’s why the price of cooking oil is meant to be dropping?

In this week’s international trade news: foreign trade with the XUAR increased75.7% from January to February. This was most likely a result of land routes being opened to motor travel. However, on 20 March, Kazakhstan announced that it is implementing a temporary ban on the importation of flowers from the PRC, most of which would flow through Xinjiang, owing to the discovery of parasites (western flower thrips) on Chinese plants.

This winter’s uncommonly cold temperatures have affected rural production all over Northern Xinjiang. According to the XUAR Forestry Office, the XUAR will have to collect at least 30 million RMB to make up for losses in fruit production and provide for better protection from low temperatures in the future. Losses from the worst winter storms in fifty years, which have affected 54% of Xinjiang’s fruit-growing land, are estimated at 293.6 million RMB. Luckily, the Forestry Office’s goal seems to have been exceeded by 2 million RMB. Fruits and nuts are not the only agricultural products affected by the weather, however. The death of 41.8% of the bees in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture’s apiaries has caused a financial loss of 1.14 million RMB.

So, why is Ürümchi unseasonably warm? Word on the street is, the short-sleeve weather that fell upon the city earlier this month, blamed on global warming, has been contributing to the outbreak of measles, which we have
reported on previously. On the other hand, people have turned off their coal stoves, making Ürümchi’s skies clear and the air positively pleasant. (But don’t leave your windows open all day, or you’ll come home to a dust-encrusted apartment.)

The City of Ürümchi is taking steps to control the rise of prices. Note that, in Xinjiang, a consistent rise in commodity prices over time is not inflation, but a natural effect of market forces. Well, anyway, those market forces are clearly getting out of line, as food commodity prices increased 5.4% in 2007 alone, about as much as they had in the previous three years. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s affected a clear increase in everyday foodstuffs, one bemoaned by Ürümchiliks of all stripes. Example: restaurant menus have been changing all over the city since December. One plate of polo was 5-7 RMB not long ago; now it’s 8-12 RMB. (Suyuq ash prices have increased from 3-4 RMB to a typical 5 RMB. I love suyuq ash.) The city has set aside 20 million RMB, double last year’s amount, for agricultural development, including the building of greenhouses. The city will provide loans to agriculture businesses to increase production. Businesses providing foodstuffs will be temporarily prohibited from altering their prices without first applying to the government for approval. Aid to school cafeterias and low-income families has also been increased. (That’s right, fight those “natural market forces” with cold, hard socialism!) The XUAR’s grain reserves are also meant to be sufficient for the task of maintaining the stability of market prices. The XUAR has also achieved a goal, set in 2003, of storing up 20 000 metric tons of beet sugar in China’s only white crystal sugar storage area. Where is this place, and may I bring a spoon? The stores are meant to help control sugar prices, which have likewise increased and are predicted to rise further.

There is news for domestic and international trade and travel. First, the PRC’s only land port with Tajikistan, Qarasuw, has been approved for use during all weather conditions. Starting this year, it will be open constantly from 1 May to 30 November. Last year, 12 500 tourists, 56 300 metric tons of goods, and 250 million USD of trade passed through the port. Over the past five years, Chinese and foreign financial organizations, including the Asia Development Bank and Development Bank of China, have lent Xinjiang a total of 24.6 billion RMB for road construction and maintenance. This has contributed to the construction of over 60 000 kilometers of new roads, including Southern Xinjiang’s second express highway, Route 314 from Korla to Kucha, currently under construction. Australia’s Arrow Energy has signed a contract with the XUAR Geology and Ore Office to develop coal seams in the South Jungharia and East Jungharia coal fields.

The economic news has also paid some service to an Ürümchi landmark, the Shuangxing Old Goods Market, where I got my bookshelves. Trade at the market has already hit a high point, as at other used goods markets, with sales volume up 30-40% from this time last year. About 20% of customers are students, 20% are unmarried workers living on their own, 10% are families in poor financial circumstances, and 40% are migrant workers. The jump in sales probably has something to do with the natural increase in prices caused by market forces.

Xinjiang, like the rest of China, just never stops building. In the next year, over 20 000 earthquake-resistant housing buildings are planned for construction in Ürümchi. In addition, 9000 current structures are planned for quake-proofing. This may have something to do with the recent earthquakes on the Xinjiang/Tibet border. If you have recently been to Ürümchi, you may have noticed a gigantic pit between Hongshan Park and the Bogeda Hotel, near Edo no Sakura Japanese Restaurant, where the city government used to be until 2004. This is one of two areas adjacent to Hongshan Park slated for redevelopment, and work is finally beginning. High-class apartments on the site are already being sold for 8300-8800 RMB/m². (A typical nice, new apartment in the city goes for around 3500 RMB/ m².) These will be located right next to a greener Hongshan, part of a larger project to connect People’s Park and Hongshan via a “Hetan Green Corridor” along the current Hetan Express Highway. Property values in the area are already rising. It is hoped that filling in the pit will bring some life back to the area, which has been quiet since the government moved. (The Bingtuan headquarters just down the road doesn’t really have the same “community” feeling.) However, it is hoped even more that a great deal of business will go on just outside the gates of the new Hongshan Park.

This week saw a massive migration of herds and their flocks take a detour through Aletai City, the opening of a massive, Xinjiang funded tin-zinc mine in Tajikistan, the completion of this year’s Patriotic Muslim Cleric Training Program, new highs in yearly cotton and gold production, the first draft of the translation of the Kyrgyz epic poem Manas to Mandarin Chinese, and more, under the break.

Xinhua Network News Xinjiang Channel 新华网新疆频道

• 17 December 2007:The “port” of Kalasu (see in Google Earth) on the China-Tajikistan border in Tashkorgan County of Kashgar Prefecture, officially closed for the winter on the 30th of November. The original closure was scheduled for the 30th of October but an extension was requested due to the volume of traffic through the port. This year Kalasu saw record highs, including the export of 4046 vehicles, 55 thousand tons of various goods, and 250 million American dollars worth of materials. Workers at Kalasu attribute this rise in commerce and trade to improvements in the Tajik economy.
• 17 December 2007: An explosion in a coal mine exploration well located in Wuqia County resulted in 4 deaths and 2 injuries.
• 17 December 2007: Herders and their flocks crowded the streets of Aletai City recently due to a recent drought that caused their customary winter pastures to supply insufficient water and feed for the animals. Snows in northern Xinjiang have come a month late, throwing off the ecological balance in the area by delaying the much needed water supply which constitutes the base of the region’s wintertime environmental structure. Aletai officials quickly mobilized and organized a program to migrate the herders from their traditional winter pastures in the E’erqisi and Wulungu river valleys to untouched pastures in the Sawu’er Mountains. Units of cadres, doctors, and veterinarians escorted 10 thousand herders and their 55 thousand animals from their old pastures, through Aletai City, to their destination from the 8th to the 14th.
• 18 December 2007: A cooperation agreement was drafted and signed by delegates from Xinjiang Medical University’s Erfu Hospital and Zhongnan University’s Xiangya No. 2 Hospital. The agreement was announced in a ceremony on the 15th. The Erfu hospital, located in Hunan, is renowned across China for being one of the top hospitals in the country, particularly in the field of cardiovascular surgery. The cooperative effort will focus on improving cardiovascular facilities in the Xinjiang hospital and devising better systems for providing better treatment to high-risk Xinjiang residents.
• 18 December 2007: The groundbreaking ceremony for Xinjiang’s largest foreign project, the A’erdeng-Tuopukan lead zinc ore mine in Tajikistan, was held on the 15th. The event was notable enough for XUAR Vice-Chairman Hu Wei to personally attend. The Xinjiang Tajikistan-China Mining Company invested 73 million dollars for the creation of the facility which, after constructed, will have the ability to mine and process 100 million tons of the projected 600 million tons total. Later expansions of the facility will permit continued exploitation of the mine’s underground resources.
• 18 December 2007: This year’s Patriotic Muslim Cleric Training Program ended satisfactorily and XUAR Chairman Ismail Tiliwaldi attended the closing ceremony and gave a talk exhorting the imams and religious workers who participated in the program to vigorously contribute to socialism and social harmony.
• 18 December 2007: The regional Gold Administration Bureau has announced that for the year of 2007 from January to November, a total of 6665.73 kg of gold has been minded so far. Given average monthly mining rates and mining forecasts, the total accumulated amount of mined gold is expected to pass 7 metric tons by the end of the year, making a new all time high.
• 18 December 2007: The Agricultural Bureau of the XPCC has verified that a cotton farm run by the 33th regiment of the 2nd Agricultural Division has reached a yield of 280 kg of cotton per mu, breaking a national record and demonstrating for the fourth year in the row that the XPCC cotton fields along the Tarim river north of the Taklamakan are the highest producing cotton fields in China.
• 19 December 2007: Pollution has gotten even worse in Urumqi over the past few days, with the pollution index hitting a high of 340. According to the article, the air has becoming so thick that an artificial fog has enshrouded the city and a choking smell hangs in the air. It even goes so far as to strongly recommend wearing face masks when outdoors.
• 19 December 2007: 200 million yuan is going to be invested in a new effort to reduce class sizes in Urumqi. Starting next year, elementary school classes will be limited to 50 students and middle school classes will be limited to 46 students. The 200 million yuan investment will be used to construct 22 new school campuses in 4 of the city’s center neighborhoods in order to accommodate the reallocation of students.
• 19 December 2007: 18,850 extremely impoverished households across Xinjiang will receive a bag of flour, a bag of rice, and two buckets of cooking oil. The donations are a part of the effort to help impoverished households prepare festivities for Qurban, New Year’s, and/or Spring Festival.
• 20 December 2007: The first draft of the Chinese translation of the Kirghiz epic poem “Manas” has been completed by over 30 scholars from the XUAR Literary Union and from the Kizilsu Kirghiz Autonomous Prefecture. All 230 thousand lines of the poem have been translated but the draft is currently being reviewed by experts from Chinese Academcy of Social Sciences and the Central Nationalities University. The final edited version of the epic poem is expected to be published August of next year.
• 21 December 2007: Hospitals in Urumqi are reporting the continuous, high-level pollution that has been plaguing the city for the past several days is having a significant effect on the health of residents. The respiratory, ear-nose-throat, and fever departments of Urumqi’s major hospitals are seeing almost 100 patients with pollution related ailments every day. The lead physician of Urumqi’s health care advisory service has no doubts whatsoever that pollution is the cause of this spike of ailments; furthermore, he recommends that all residents, especially the elderly and children, minimize their time outside and wear face masks should going outdoors become an absolute necessity.
• 22 December 2007: As part of a continuing effort to improve the food production industry in Urumqi, the city government has closed over ten thousand unlicensed food industry businesses over the past year. Restaurants, wholesale food businesses, and foodstuff markets must pass sanitary inspections, safety inspections, and obtain the proper licenses or otherwise face the possibility of being shut down by the city’s Industrial and Commercial Bureau.

Other News

• 17 December 2007: Forbes announces that the Asian Development Bank will provide 150 million American dollars to help Xinjiang develop its transportation infrastructure, particularly to improve the Korla-Kuche stretch of the Urumqi-Kashgar road system.
• 20 December 2007: Reuters covers the recently launched joint anti-terrorism exercises conducted by India and China. Although the exercises are being held in Yunnan, both countries have stated anti-terrorism as one of the goals of the training regimen and Reuters cannot help but note similarities between Xinjiang in China and Kashmir in India.
• 21 December 2007: China View has an English language version of a Xinhua article on this year’s total gas production in the Tarim Basin. By the end of the year, the total gas produced by the Tarim gas fields is expected to reach 15.5 billion cubic meters, a 40% increase since last year. Moreover, this year 12 billion cubic meters of the extracted gas were sent to China’s east coast through a pipeline that begins in Lunnan in Southern Xinjiang and ends in Baihe outside of Shanghai (See in Google Earth).