China on collision course with Turkey?

Treatment of Uighurs becomes focal point

A Chinese crackdown in its westernmost Xinjiang province on Uighurs – called separatists and terrorists by Beijing – could be just about to create a serious rift with Turkey, given that the Uighurs are an ethnic Turkic group, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The Turkish public and press are expressing outrage over the ongoing Chinese response to Uighur demonstrations that have resulted in riots between the ethnic minority and the larger Chinese population over the last week.

At least 156 people have died, although some Turkish sources, such as the Uighur solidarity group Seyit Tumturk, suggest the death rate could number between 500 and 800 people, with thousands injured.

The Chinese government has deployed thousands of troops trained to handle rioters to the western-most province.

In Turkey, the government has expressed a growing concern over the way Chinese troops have treated the Uighurs, although initial criticism was tempered by the fact that Turkish President Abdullah Gul recently paid an official visit to China with eight Turkish companies and signed $3 billion in contracts.

If the violence in the province continues, the Turkish government's reaction may become more serious, particularly in the area of trade relations which have been on a downward spiral as a result of the global financial crisis. Ankara also could break off diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Already, China's actions against the Uighurs are prompting such a reaction. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tawip Erdogan denounced China's behavior as "savagery" and called on the Chinese government to "give up efforts to assimilate the country's Uighur minority." He's even gone so far as to declare the violence against the Uighurs as "genocide."

The riots broke out July 5 in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, between the minority Turkish ethnic Uighurs and Chinese residents following a brawl in a toy factory.

The brawl resulted in the death of two Uighurs. In turn, Uighurs responded by attacking the police and local Chinese. Thousands of Chinese troops now occupy Urumqi. One report said that Chinese troops were arriving in Urumqi's city center in trucks with such slogans as "We must defeat the terrorists," referring to the Uighurs.

The underlying cause of such a violent outburst has been developing over the past three decades, with little effort by the Chinese government to defuse growing anger between the two groups.

In fact, the Chinese government for years has imported Chinese to dilute the concentration of Uighurs, who at one time were a majority and regard the western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region as Uighurstan or East Turkistan. The Uighurs are the largest group of Turkic people living in Central Asia.

But to Chinese authorities, the Uighurs are terrorists. And Beijing even has sought to get the United States to make such a declaration.