China's Far West provinces (inc. Tibet)

[davidbfpo]

Strange incident in a rather remote setting:

A violent encounter on January 23 between Kyrgyz border troops and alleged intruders from China’s Xinjiang province about 40 kilometers inside Kyrgyz Republic territory from the Chinese border left twelve dead, including one Kyrgyz citizen who had originally confronted the group.

Two reports:http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67972 and http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/xinji...in-kyrgyzstan/

[AdamG]

A powerful earthquake struck a sparsely populated area of China's far western region of Xinjiang on Wednesday, damaging some houses, though no casualties were reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude-6.9 quake was centered 268 kilometers (167 miles) east-southeast of Hotan at a depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). The China Earthquake Networks Center measured the quake at magnitude 7.3 and said at least 20 smaller aftershocks ensued over the following two hours.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...clear-22475243

[davidbfpo]

Another incident today in Xinjiang, with eleven "terrorists" shot dead by the police and three killed by their own IEDs:

The terrorists, riding motorbikes and cars, attacked a team of police who were gathering before the gate of a park for routine patrol at around 4 p.m. in Wushi County in the Aksu Prefecture," Xinhua said in an English-language report.

"Police said the terrorists had (an) unknown number of LNG cylinders in their car which they had attempted to use as suicide bombs. Several terrorists were shot dead at the scene," it added.

Eight were killed by police and three died "by their own suicide bomb", Xinhua said.

Wushi lies close to China's border with Kyrgyzstan. Last month the Kyrgyz government said its border guards had killed 11 people believed to be members of a militant group of Uighurs.

Link:http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/...A1D0IE20140214

[Firn]

I think the core issues have already been mentioned in the first two pages in this thread by tequila and ja6345a. The Chinese leadership has employed massive amounts of investments to ease access to the regions population and ressources and settle Han Chinese in it's cities to assimilate and control the locals. Armed violence against such rather overt policies should not be surprising.

Let's just look at the public investement per capita and it's relative share compared to the private sector. We have no good numbers but all what I have read indicates that public pie dwarfes even the Chinese national one. Practically almost all the economy is controlled by the state and to a lesser degree private Han Chinese. It should be no surprise as the locals will have a very low chance to get a credit or work. Almost all the public jobs seem to be occupied by Han Chinese. I would not surprise me if both regions had one of the highest amount of security forces per capita, needless to say mostly Han.

Altstadtgassen weichen geraden Straen die lassen sich besser berwachen

Die Beamten eilen durch die Altstadt, Grtel auf Bauchnabelhhe, Lederschuhe im Staub. Sie sind gekommen, den Abriss zu besichtigen. Einer der Beamten hebt, zwischen Ruinen stehend, zu einer Rede an: "Das Abrisstempo ist hoch, doch es muss noch hher werden. Je schneller wir abreien, desto besser." Der Beamte betet Zahlen herunter: abgerissene Huser, im Abriss befindliche Huser, abzureiende Huser. "Unser Tempo und unsere Begeisterung sind gewachsen. Wir werden den Plan erfllen!"

If you read such an other stuff you can only get the impression that the Chinese are vastly overinvesting to create work for Han. Some of it might even have some sense in it's own sake, but it mostly points one way.

The Han inflow is especially large if we take into account that the huge migration flow of the last decades went to the coastal regions, for obvious reason. There is hardly any private sector with attractive jobs in the far West, as the labour-intensive industries are far from any cluster and face large transport costs compared to their competitors in the East. With the often razor-thin margins in that sort of business they are just priced out of the market. Knowledge-intensive industries are obviously completely out of question. Only the big subventions or threats it is possible to get big companies to invest there. I'm a shareholder of VW and followed it's strategy in China:

"Wenn man irgendwo als erster produziert, muss man sich vielen Herausforderungen stellen", sagte der Sprecher. Bislang seien das Presswerk und die Lackiererei noch nicht fertig. Die Provinzregierung kmmere sich um die Logistik. VW habe auch in anderen Regionen Chinas eine Vorreiterrolle bernommen, und in wenigen Jahren werde auch niemand mehr an dem Werk in Westchina zweifeln.

Die "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" hatte berichtet, VW habe Schwierigkeiten in Xinjiang offenbar unterschtzt und auf Probleme bei Lieferanten, Personal und Logistik verwiesen.

Chinas Regierung ruft seit einigen Jahren chinesische und auslndische Firmen auf, sich strker im Westen des Landes zu engagieren. Das von der muslimischen Minderheit der Uiguren bewohnte Xinjiang gilt seit Langem als Unruhegebiet. In den vergangenen Monaten gab es wieder blutige Zwischenflle. Die chinesische Regierung wirft uigurischen Gruppen separatistische Bestrebungen und Terrorakte vor. Das Turkvolk fhlt sich durch die chinesische Fremdherrschaft politisch, religis und auch wirtschaftlich unterdrckt.

Clearly the company man does his job and talks how attractive it is but it is pretty much a small plant to show good will. I would love to see the flow of parts, I'm sure most comes in a highly efficient manner from high-quality regional suppliers.

[Firn]

Just 15 minutes in Google Earth show the sheer pace and scale of construction in Xinjiang. Follow the G3012 from Urumqui south to Bayingol and you will be amazed. In this isolated part of the world quarters after quarters get built, some in old DDR style, some in pseudo-native fashion. In many cases you can see the whole process in one picture as forty or so buildings are at the various stages. The difference in size between the historic quarters with one-two store houses and the modern ones with multi-store buildings is sometimes huge.

Of course there vast windfarms and new coal powerplants getting build. Lots of road building and some plants as well as activities I do not understand. Little traffic on the broad G3012 which is also ver well protected against the harsh environment east of Hoxud. Look at all the cement which went into those protective triangles of walls. It gets even better, there seems to be a second autobahn getting build nearby. It starts from Hoxud, runs towards the east alongside the G3012 and then turns north-east with two big tunnel projects cutting through considerable hills.

I will measure them later. It was a fun ride.

[davidbfpo]

The attack @ Kunming train station is on the thread

This short Open Democracy article provides some context:

The recent attacks on Kunming train station represent a watershed moment in China-Uyghur relations, as Uyghurs across China face widespread recriminations.

The author, who appears to have been in China, is:

Liam Powers received his PhD in Chinese studies, his research focuses on Uyghur youth identities.

Link:http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensec...kunming-attack

[davidbfpo]

A Norwegian Peacekeeping Research Centre has published a short analysis:

....a number of accounts from academic and non-Chinese media sources, as well as human rights organisations, have questioned the official explanation of many such incidents. Critics accuse the government of lacking transparency and failing to offer reliable evidence, and claim that it is failing to acknowledge the widespread and diverse grievances of people in Xinjiang. This report aims to reconcile these different narratives of dissent in a region of growing significance for China’s economy and energy security.

Link:http://www.peacebuilding.no/var/ezfl...93a481eb96.pdf