The Cross Strait Times

So an Tibet and Taiwan province are not the only two regions of china that wants to become independent.   Xinjian or Eastern Turkistan also wants to become independent.  Below is some hisotrical background on Xinjian 

Uygur of Xinjiang

Nationalist Period and Uygur East Turkestan Republic

The Nationalist government that came to power in China in 1911 after usurping power from the Manchus always had a weak control over Xinjiang. In the 20th century a Han Chinese warlord, Yang Zengxin, gained control of Xinjiang and was later appointed governor. Yang was assassinated in 1928. Sheng Shicai, who claimed to be progressive, usurped power in Xinjiang in the “April 12″ coup of 1933. Sheng Shicai declared six major policies — anti-imperialism, amity with the Soviet Union, national equality, honest government, peace and national reconstruction.

East Turkistan Republic Army Circa, 1944

In the same year, Britain encouraged Mohamed Imin, who dreamed of a greater Turkey, to found the Hotan Islamic Republic, and Maula Shabitida, an advocate of greater Islam, to set up the East Turkistan Islamic Republic. Japanese imperialism in 1937 masterminded the plots by Mamti and Raolebas to form an “independent” Islamic state, and Mamti, in collaboration with Mahushan, rebelled. However, all these separatist efforts failed.

The Chinese Communist Party began revolutionary activities in Xinjiang in 1933 Part of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army went to Xinjiang in 1937. Later Sheng Shicai turned to the Kuomintang/Nationalists government.

On January 5, 1945, as a result of the Three Regions Revolution The Eastern Turkistan Republic was set up. The “Three Regions Revolution” was so called because it covered the three Xinjiang districts of Ghulja, Altay, and Chochek and covered more then 20 percent of Xinjiang and consisted about 25 percent of the region’s population, it strongly challenged the Nationalist Chinese sovereignty not only in these three districts, but also throughout all region of Xinjiang

The East Turkistan Republic passed a political agenda which stated it’s aims were :

End Chinese rule in the land of Eastern Turkistan.

Establish a free and independent Eastern Turkistan based on equality for all nationalities.

Develop Eastern Turkestan by promoting industrial, agricultural and animal husbandry as well as private businesses. and had as an aim to increase people’s living standard.

Establish Islam as the state religion however promote freedom of religion for non Muslims..

Develop education, culture and health standards of Eastern Turkistan.

Establish friendly relations with all the democratic countries in the world, especially with the neighboring USSR. In the mean time, promote a political and economic relations with China.

Raise an army in order to protect Eastern Turkistan’s peace by recruiting people of all ethnic nationalities to establish a strong east Turkistan Republic Army .

Socialise Banking, Post Service, Telephone and Telegraph, Forestry and all underground wealth which was to belong to the nation.

Eliminate individualism, bureaucracy, nationalism and corruption among the government officials.

From the formation of the ETR until 1949 when Communist Chinese government took control over the three districts,the ETR had effectively existed for about 6 years and was a de facto independent nation.

During its administration, the ETR government formed an army of about 25,000 members and completely wiped out the Chinese Nationalist Army forces within the three districts and greatly weakened the control of Nationalist over the whole of Xinjiang. At the time the Chinese Communist Party commented that the “Three region revolution contributed a great deal for the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang and for the victory of people’s democratic revolution in whole China.”

In August, 1949, in a letter addressed to one of the leaders of ETR Akhmetjan Khasim, Mao Zedong wrote: “Many years of your struggle is one of the component of whole Chinese people’s democratic revolutionary movement.”

This statement implies the importance of Three Regions Revolution toward the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

It is a historical fact, and one pushed by the Chinese Communists in an effort to legitimise their rule over Eastern Turkistan, that the “nation” was peacefully handed over to the communist Chinese state. The reasons for this peaceful handover are many, being outgunned not the least, but one of the main reasons is that the Chinese government promised the Uygur that they would have autonomous self rule in Xinjiang post the Communist takeover.

The tragic and mysterious death of a majority of the leaders of the ETR government on August 27, 1949, signaled a decline of the influence of the ETR and made the transition to power easier from the Communist point of view . 11 members of the ETR’s highest officials were reported dead as a result of an airplane crash in the mountains around the Soviet Lake Baikal on their way to Beijing to attend the “Political Consultant Conference”. Whilst there is no real evidence that this was anything other than an accident it was certainly providential in depriving the Uygurs of a group of people capable of negotiating with the Communist Government.

Shortly after this event, the Chinese government started to consolidate it’s power over the ETR, by, first, “promoting” the remaining higher ranking ETR officials to Urumqi and other regions where they had less personal influence, and second, dismissing the ETR National Army and transforming it into “agricultural” units.

Most of the remaining ETR officials from that time who had been assigned to work in the provincial government were eventually prosecuted or displaced in 1950’s during the so-called “Against Right-Wing” campaign, and finally in the 1960’s during the “Cultural Revolution”.

On the Nationalist government side Tao Zhiyue, the Commandant of the Kuomintang Xinjiang Garrison, and Burhan Shahidi, Chairman of the Kuomintang Xinjiang Provincial Government, who controlled the remainder of Xinjiang not under ETR rule accepted the Chinese Communist Party’s peace term and Xinjiang was taken over fully in October, 1949.”"”"”"

So many mainland chinese i have met always argues that if China becomes democratic, china would break apart.   There is some truth in that argument because usually in a nascent democracy politicians usues differences in groups of people to gain popularity instead of focusing on actual policy debate.  This is very evident in Taiwan right now.   So to have democracy in China I would believe many politicians would take advantage of the cultural differences and ethnic differences to create an even wider rift among the chinese population for their own political gains.   So what can be done?   How best to create a unified but democratic China?   I believe the solution is not in the One nation Two system model that the CCP has been trying to sell.    In order to make people want to be a part of China, it needs to open up and allow everyone to participate.  Protect minority rights, and allow freedom of religion create an equal playing by having a strong rule by the law society.  This will allow minority groups to want to part of China……………..In my opinion a china that has to force people to be chinese is a china not worth having.