Left Flank

ESWN reminds its readers about joining the pro-Tibet bandwagon, and I agree. And, not just because I trust Rebecca MacKinnon implicitly. As I've argued before, on this blog, and also contra-TNR (it would take too long to find the comment on the TNR site), why stop at boycotting the Olympics when ending them permanently is so much more beneficial?

Beijing is doing much that's distasteful, like blocking communication and roughing up protesters. Even EU leaders are strongly considering an Olympic boycott, which is enough to embolden even the most cowardly. TNR's Joshua Kurlantzick piles on even more transparently.

The charges, though absurd--it's the Dalai Lama--are hardly unique. In fact, they're of a piece with a new tactic the Chinese government seems to have developed: using Olympic security as an excuse to crack down, beyond any sense of proportion, on its "enemies."

Take the case of the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group located primarily in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. (Though primarily Buddhist, Confucian, and atheist, China has a Muslim population of one to two percent.) Earlier this month, China announced that Uighur terrorists had targeted the Games, a claim that understandably drew headlines around the world. Given the Games' horrific history of terrorist attacks, many sporting fans probably breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that the Chinese authorities had busted a plot hatched by militant separatists.

The Uighurs? Is Kurlantzick trying to launch his own central Asian state with disaffected anti-Han groups in tow? That he's right has nothing to do with Beijing, Tibet, or the Olympics!

The World Uyghur Congress believes that the unrest is a huge challenge for the Chinese government's controversial rule of Tibet, casting serious doubt on the Chinese government's promises to improve its human rights situation ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games. The harsh crackdown on peaceful Tibetan protesters reveals the brutality of Chinese rule in Tibet which flatly contradicts the core of the Olympic Spirit founded upon universal moral principles.

The World Uyghur Congress also urges the world community to exercise more pressure on the Chinese government to cease using military force against the Tibetans and Uyghurs, and instead seriously seek political solution to their legitimate aspirations, ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

It's a political statement, not the gospel! However much one might agree that the Uighurs are in bad sorts, let's not swap careful consideration for slavish and convenient groping for fashionable trends.

In 1945, a rebellion led to the creation of a short-lived independent republic in the Yining region close to the Soviet Union. But in 1949, this was abolished after the Russians told the Uighurs to co-operate with Mao. An earlier East Turkestan, in 1933, had lasted only a few months. Since 1949, Chinese rule has never been seriously challenged, although the authorities say there were more than 200 «terrorist incidents» between 1990 and 2001, causing the deaths of 162 people. The most recent unrest of any significance occurred in 1997, with the Yining riots. Three bus bombings in Urumqi and an explosion in Beijing that year were also blamed on Xinjiang separatists.

Calls for independence are still heard among members of the Uighur diaspora. Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman and former political prisoner who was sent into exile in America by China in March, has become a prominent cheerleader for the cause. She has been labelled a «terrorist» by the Chinese government and her family members in Xinjiang have been harassed by the police. Amnesty International says the government's accusations «have not been backed up with any evidence» and appear to be aimed at discrediting Ms Kadeer and her associates as part of a broader political crackdown in Xinjiang.

But at the beginning of October, official celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the founding of what China calls the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region passed without disruption. Tight security for the events reflected the authorities' continuing fear that, though subdued, separatists could still pose a security risk. Yet China plainly does not worry that Xinjiang might descend into a Chechnya-style conflict. And for all its warnings of terrorist dangers, it appears convinced that, just as rapid economic growth has bought respite from radical political demands in other parts of China, the same formula could well work in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is a prize worth keeping for more than just reasons of national pride. As China searches for fuel to power its economic development, its gaze has inevitably turned westwards to the province's rich endowments of coal, oil and natural gas. Driving along the edge of the vast Taklamakan desert, the vista is of endless tracts of wells and drills. Official hyperbole makes it hard to tell how much oil and gas Xinjiang really has. But the province is a focal point of exploration by China's largest oil and gas producer, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).

The discovery of Xinjiang's Kela II natural-gas field laid the foundation for a 4,000km (2,500-mile) pipeline that began pumping gas from Xinjiang to China's east coast last year. Three years ago, the oilfields of the Junggar basin, in northern Xinjiang, broke the annual output record for Chinese oilfields by crossing the ten million tonne mark. In 2004, the Tarim basin oilfields chipped in with five million tonnes.

With its borders with Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan, among others, Xinjiang is also China's principal gateway to the energy reserves of Central Asia. Chinese oil experts are frequent visitors to Almaty and Tashkent, where they hammer out some of the biggest deals in the global energy market today. The first phase of an oil pipeline stretching from Kazakhstan to the border town of Alashankou, in Xinjiang, is soon to be completed. The two countries are also exploring the feasibility of a natural-gas pipeline.

Dissent among the Chinese is perspicacious, although the Potemkin treatment is unnecessary. An historic summit between western and Chinese media, including bloggers would be a good start.