ISAS Insights

China is moving aggressively to bring development and modernisation to Xinjiang, its western most provinces. The Autonomous Region, as the Chinese call it, covers one-sixth of China's landmass but has only one-eightieth of its population. It borders six Central and South Asian countries. More than one-half of its population of 20 million people is made up of the people Beijing refers to as the ‘minorities’. More than 90 per cent of Xinxiang's minorities are Uyghurs. These are Muslims, speak classical Turkish and have become restive. They have several grievances, among them, the perception that their presence in the region is being diluted by the arrival of Han Chinese who now make up 41 per cent of the population. The region was the scene of a major uprising in 2009 staged by a segment of the Uyghur population. Hundreds of people were killed when Beijing used force to bring the rebels under control. This led the Chinese central government to rethink its strategy by focusing on the opening of the Autonomous Region to the countries in its neighbourhood. One part of this initiative was the China-Eurasia Expo held in Urumqi, Xingjian's capital, for five days from 1 to 5 September 2011. It attracted some 50,000 officials from China and 30 other countries. As China looks west to developing and modernising its own territories, as a natural corollary, it also seeks to create a friendly external environment, particularly its Muslim-majority close neighbours like Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh to facilitate the achievement of its domestic agenda.