Ethnic Issues in The People's Republic of China - Tensions With Uyghurs

Tensions With Uyghurs

A Uyghur proverb says "Protect religion, Kill the Han and destroy the Hui".(baohu zongjiao, sha Han mie Hui 保護宗教，殺漢滅回).

Anti Hui poetry was written by Uyghurs.

In Bayanday there is a brick factory,
it had been built by the Chinese.
If the Chinese are killed by soldiers,
the Tungans take over the plundering.

It was also alleged that a Uyghur would not enter the mosque of Hui people, and Hui and Han households were built closer together in the same area while Uyghurs would live farther away from the town.

Sometimes Uyghurs regard Hui muslims from other provinces of China as fakes and refuse to eat food prepared by them. Uyghurs view food prepared by Hui as unpure and will not buy meat from Hui, and protests by Uyghur teachers in 1989 at Turpan erupted because Uyghurs refused to eat food prepared by Hui.

Children who are of mixed Han and Uyghur ethnicities are known as erzhuanzi (二转子) and Uyghurs call them piryotki. They are shunned by Uyghurs at social gatherings and events.

Some have accused the Chinese government as well as certain Han Chinese citizens of alleged discrimination against the Turkic Muslim Uyghur minority. This was used as a partial explanation for the July 2009 Ürümqi riots which pitted residents of the city against each other along largely racial lines. An essay in the People's Daily described the events as "so-called racial conflict" while several Western media sources labeled them as "race riots".

In July 2009, a report in the The Atlantic highlighted a help wanted sign in the traditionally Uyghur city of Kashgar which explicitly stated that "this offer is for Han Chinese only."

It has also been reported that unofficial Chinese policy is to deny passports to Uyghurs until they reach retirement age, especially if they intend to leave the country for the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Tensions between Hui and Uyghurs arose because Qing and Republican Chinese authorities used Hui troops and officials to dominate the Uyghurs and crush Uyghur revolts.

Hui population of Xinjiang increased by 520 percent from 1940–1982, average annual growth of 4.4 percent, the Uyghur population grew at 1.7 percent. This increase in Hui population led to tensions between the Hui Muslim and Uyghur Muslim populations. Some old Uyghurs in Kashgar remember that the Hui army at the Battle of Kashgar (1934) massacred 2,000 to 8,000 Uyghurs, which caused tension as more Hui moved into Kashgar from other parts of China.