IN CHINA

URUMIQI: On the surface, it is difficult to see why ethnic riots exploded in Xinjiang on July 5.

Ask most Han Chinese in the capital Urumqi and they would tell you that the different ethnic groups had lived happily together for decades and they enjoyed eating the food of the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority.

Ask the Uighurs, and they would also share stories of hanging out with Han friends and colleagues and welcoming them to the far-west region.

Days after the riots which killed nearly 200 people and injured over a thousand more, in some parts of the city, it was as if the eruption of violence had not occurred; Across the city, Han Chinese hawkers went back to selling vegetables in Uighur neighbourhoods. Urumqi seemed so at ease with its ethnic mix.

Uighurs protesting in Urumqi after the arrest of their family members on July 6, a day after the July 5 riots in Urumqi.
ST Photo: Peh Shing Huei

But drag the interviews out a little longer, scratch a little deeper below the surface, and a latent racism appears.

A Han taxi driver proudly tells The Straits Times that he does not discriminate against the Uighurs.

"I don't pick and choose my passengers. Han or Uighurs, it doesn't matter," he says.

But ask him why the Uighurs complain bitterly of discrimination, especially in jobs and businesses, and you get a different view :

"You know, they are lazy. They are not willing to work as hard as the Han people."

It's the same with the Uighurs. Dig a little deeper and you hear accusations that the Han are interested only in fleecing Xinjiang of its natural resources and jobs, and that they should leave the region because it does not belong to them.

A Uighur mother and her two daughters crying as they walked towards foreign journalists on July 6. The family started the subsequent protests by more than 100 Uighur women and kids.
ST Photo: Peh Shing Huei

Both groups have latched on to convenient racial stereotypes, some based on personal daily life observations, others long-held biases passed down generations.

In times of plenty and peace, the venting of such gripes may seem harmless.

So what if you think that someone, by virtue of his race, is stupid or lazy? It's not like you are going to bash his head in just because of that, right?

But when tensions run high, as it did on July 5 and the days after in Xinjiang, these ethnic stereotypes turn virulent and offer a handy justification for violence.

It becomes easier to kill Han because they have already been branded as greedy people, out to steal jobs away from ethnic minorities.

And Uighurs are fair game for mob attacks because they are seen as lazy and therefore have no right to be complaining about discrimination in the first place.


Uighurs looking on at the the paramilitary forces who set up barricades along the Liberation North Road
ST Photo: Peh Shing Huei

The violence in Xinjiang has been attributed to numerous factors, from poorly-implemented ethnic policies to even the influence of exiled Uighur activists, if the Chinese government's assertion is true.

But at its root is an ingrained, and seemingly harmless, racism, one that has been lurking in the minds of people for years, decades and generations before July 5.

Read about issues of tribe & territory in this week's Saturday Special Report.