Cultural
Rights and Uyghur Nationalism
Robert Guang Tian,
Ph. D*
Abstract
Nation, nationalism, nation-state, and nationalist movement are most
complicated concepts to be clarified by the scholars who have established the post-modernism
theory. Various approaches, such as political rights, economical rights,
ethnical identity power, etc. have been created to understand nationalism and
nationalist movement. Cultural rights are viewed as most important foundation
for nationalism in the post-modern time. It is suggested that Uyghur nationalist movement should realize that their
objectives need to be adjusted given the current international situation and
their limited resources. To fight for their cultural rights at this time
is more reasonable and attainable for the Uyghur
nationalist movement than to claim the independence immediately. It is
also suggested that the Chinese central government should be more tolerable and
flexible in terms of Uyghur nationalist movement
towards its cultural rights. As long as the both sides are willing to deal with
the nationalism through the approach of cultural rights a win-win situation is
for sure to be realized.
Key Words: Cultural Rights, Nationalism, Nation-state, Nationalist Movement, Uyghur Nationalism,
Introduction
My research interests on the Uyghur
nation and the up-growing Uyghur nationalist movement
comes from my personal experience and academic backgrounds. I noticed the
social and economic development of Northwest China, particularly, the
nationalist issue even when I was teenager in
According to my observation, the virtual aim for Uyghur nationalist movement (UDM) is independence, e.g.
independent from
Based on the studying the nationalist movement histories
of the world and the main theories of nationalism, I conclude that the essence
of nationalism is the ideology that reflects the values and identity difference
among nations, which in turn reflects the political, social, economical and
cultural differences among all the nations in the world. Among these
differences cultural difference plays an extremely important role for various
reasons as it is more easily to be identified and felt. How can nations’
independent cultural characteristics serve their political and economical
objectives? An inventory of the literature suggested that the previous studies
mainly focus on the identity of national interest and national movement but
few, if any, on the importance of cultural rights in national movement. On the
basis of former studies on cultural rights and global marketing I would like to
focus on the discussion of national cultural rights1 by taking the Uyghur nationalist movement in
1. Cultural Nationalities and
Political Nationalism
1.1 cultural nationalities
The definition of nation
remains ambiguous and extremely arguable. The different schools can be listed
as, a) community composed of the people who share the common cultural heritage;
b) because of the history discontinuity, and nation is regarded as something of
pure construction2. Nation is regarded as the result of history, an inevitable
result of different states competing for resources and spaces and, the
expansion of rationality. This explanation takes the emergence of nations in
line with western modernity and thus is a typical western definition3; c)
recognizing that nation resulting from modernity, this school stresses the
cultural connections with the ancient communities. Without the appeal of such
cultural connection and historical identity there would be no cohesion of
nation, or even the nation itself4.
Most researchers would like to articulate the nation in
terms of a vast human background and emphasize the concept of “cultural
nation”, which is regarded as the key to the birth, evolution and mobilization
of given nations. The primary national community is tribal nation; its core is
kinship. The common geography and kinships are essentials to the nation unit.
The primitive form of tribal nation is clan which is rarely seen presently
except for some places in
Therefore, the concept of nation originated from the
differences of human being in order to tell “selves” and “others”. Although
there are large quantities of differences among human beings such as race,
kinship, tract, class and profession, the essence of difference is rather
cultural. Nations pursue their rights for development in the same way as they
do for their political or religious rights; however none of them are the essence
of nation. The boundary of nation might be defined by natural geography,
political systems (modern state), kinship, religion, even language; it is
national cultures that immediately distinguish one nation from the others. A.
D. Smith upholds the argument that a typical nation should have such features:
common name as a social community; the common long lived tract; the common
heritage, legend and popular culture; common economy and pervasive rights and
duties prescribed by law and applied to all6.
1.2 political nationalism—national self-determination
Apparently, with the essence of
cultural community, the concept nation is distinguished from the political
concept of state. However, empirically the concept of nation is labeled with
political ideas and activities. It is mixed up with the ideology of various
sorts of nationalism or nationalist movements aiming to struggle for national
independence and national state that are highly politicalized.
Thus nationalism contains following basics:
a. The world is divided by
nations. Individuals have special passions and duties to their own nation.
Their loyalties and loves to their own nation are beyond to other nations
b. On the basis of judging the history and present
situations between nations, it demands dealing the relationships between
nations in the interests of its won national interests. When dealing the
relationships between nations the national interests is the unique principle
and standard. The national interests not only consist of economic and political
interests that are visible but also those invisible interests such as cultural
interests.
c. The highest target of nationalism is the survival and
powerfulness of the nation rather than an independent national state only. The
founding of an independent state is just a stage or means in the process of
pursing its highest target. However because of present world system in which
the sovereign state is the most active and powerful factor, the people tends to
think that building an independent state is the shortcut or inevitable way to
assure its survival and greater development. This belief developed wildly in
20th century to some kind of blind worship to “sovereign state” in the
international politics. Even some scholars take national independence as the
highest target of nationalism.
Therefore we can sum up in this way: Nationalism is a
kind of ideology and activity conducted by a nation unit aiming to build an
independent state.
Anyway almost all the scholars stress the ideology,
social movement and political appeal of the term of nationalism, based on some
national elements such as national compassion, national consciousness and the
national identity. The core of nationalism is a political process aiming to
reach homogeneity among certain groups of people in the way of appealing to the
national right to attain the “state identity” in the name of nation. There are
different stages: national identification, consciousness of right, national
goal, national mobilization and realization of their rights. The priority is to
found an independent national state. We here call this kind of nationalism
“self-determination nationalism” whose essence is the founding a national state
through the self-determination right.
The “self-determination nationalism” recognizes and
promotes the self-determination right of every nation. It pursues national
independence. It consolidates the national proper pride and self-confidence and
helps mobilize the mass to fight and sacrifice in realizing its political aims.
It also preserves the unique national cultural tradition and enriches the
resources and lives of a nation. It supplies some legitimacy for its political
reign by stressing and respecting its national identity and tradition. Thus we
should say it supplies some legitimate basis for political governance.
However this political nationalism is dangerous at the
same time. This unreasonable nationalism counts for value relativeness
that opposes cultural varieties or universal civilization. With the intolerance
in cultures and ethics it paves the way toward political autarchy and
dictatorship. Some nationalist goes so far that they claim the absolute
sovereignty of nation state and exclude the individual autonomy. This would
extremely possible suppress or even deprive of the individual rights and
eventually bring up the absolutism with no check or balance. To the
nationalists who worship the self-determination the critical survival unit is
nation or race. All other things esp. the individual survival is of no
importance in context of the national interests. It proclaims the concentration
of power and resources and promotes the relativeness
that against universal value. It does not necessarily induce despotism but it
is easily used by despotism.
1.3 Practice of nationalism
In the 18th French
enlightenment the modern nationalist theory formed. The critical characteristic
is: to replace kingship with human rights; to replace the legitimacy of
kingship with Reason state; to combine the nationalist compassion with
individual self-determination or civilian’s choice of government. Thus the
human rights were re-emphasized and the nation state must be a democratic one
in which the equal basic rights of every individual would be protected. In
North America not only a constitutional state—the
There are obvious differences between the 18th
nationalism and the one in early
This new nationalism is somewhat ambiguous in its
contents in comparison with the former West European ancestor whose contents
are very definite. This new one emphasizes on the significance of nationalism
itself instead of concrete goals such as individual freedom. The typical
contributor to it is
Thus the nationalism is developed. It germinated in
Reconnaissance, grew up in religion reform movement, matured in French
Revolution which spread it to the whole world. However the teachings derived
from Napoleon and his army outside
1.4 Dual ways of nationalism
For nationalists, it is
imperative to make clear what they really want, the target. Externally the
nationalism is for national self-determination to achieve political
independence. It is justified to pursue for political sovereignty, because only
in sovereign state that a nation can enjoy freedom. In fact, nation-state is
both the end and the means for nationalists. Both national interests and
individual interests should be pursued in the movement. The participants in
nationalist movement fight for the whole nationalist interests and, for their
own personal interests too. As a matter of fact, nationalism in history
originated in Enlightenment Movement in which the individualism was the
critical dynamics. Yael Tamir
regards that liberalism and nationalism are in harmony. Nationalism shall not
separate itself with individual freedom and rights.
In modern nationalism one sees the philosophy for the
weak nation against the powerful one in 18th century. Nationalism was born with
the core and dynamics of individual rights. Because of the individualism the
nationalism was justified to fight against external oppression and, for
national cohesion. It is the individualism that determines the governance of
nation-state in which the state must safeguard the individual rights. Hence the
nationalism should identify, in a large sense, with liberalism. Studying the
pioneering nationalists as Herder and Mazzini, Gross
concludes that nationalism started from two critical principles, the worldlism and individualism. Fundamentally nationalism is
democratic and liberal. We should rather call liberal nationalism.
Enlightenment theories and the French Revolution not only accelerated the birth
of nationalism but also the various democracies. In turn the nation-state shows
tolerance. However, ironically, two opposite nationalism were developed because
of different surroundings: the liberal one and none-liberal one.
While the liberal nationalism supports for nationals
self-determination, it strongly emphasizes on rule of law, democracy, human
rights and citizenship. It argues for equal rights among all nationalities and
it carries the heritage of the philosophy of Enlightenment Movement. The
none-liberal one, on the contrary, tends to support for racial despotism. Only
on national self-determination the two nationalisms share common proposition.
While the liberal one takes individualism as its priority, the none-liberal one
takes nation-state. Externally the liberal nationalism takes the individual
rights beyond the state rights and argues for people’s control over government,
while the none-liberal one argues for individual’s submission to nation-state.
In such institutions individual and groups serve only as means inferior to some
supernatural state, the civil society makes no sense in the context of powerful
state.
Benjamin Constant remarked that the pursuit for freedom
might encourage violation of freedom, and some vicious cult toward collective
authority beyond individual. The victory of peoples’ sovereignty might go to
the disaster of people. The key here is to line up the boundary of political
power. The people sovereignty should not justify the unlimited government
founded even through legal procedures. Where is the boundary of power? It
is argued that individual rights and individual independence. Majority approval
shall not legalize any behavior; some behavior shall never be legalized8.
It is clear that the critical difference between these
two nationalism lies on the pursuit for “individual freedom” and “national
freedom”. Hayek said that the “national freedom” comes from the application of
original freedom, e.g. individual freedom, on nation. However, a free people do
not necessarily mean a people of free men. Collective freedom is not
necessarily the precondition for individual freedom9. When a nation struggles
for freedom to control its destiny, the term of “national freedom” emerges. In
this case the concept of freedom is applied to the group instead of individual.
The pro-individualist would usually support nationalist freedom
enthusiastically; however it shall not necessarily lead to individual freedom.
If nationalism is pursued within the context of the submission of individual
freedom, it will take individual rights as threaten or betray to national
freedom. The national independence and freedom, the none-interference
principles to a sovereign state would serve as a grandiose excuse to oppress
internal freedom. Without respect to individual rights and freedom, the
sovereignty is false; the sovereignty and freedom based on state rather than
individualism are doomed to be bankrupt.
2. National Cultural Rights and
Culture-nationalism
2.1 Cultural rights — a new highlight
Culture in the term of national culture means general
culture that includes beliefs, norms, system, traditional institutions and
social languages. Arts, literature and music are part of culture. They are
culture in narrow sense and take less important parts in the general culture10.
There are features for cultures. First, culture is immaterial. It includes the
whole living styles, beliefs, attitudes, preferences and philosophies etc. It
is reflected in various ways in politics, economy and society. Secondly,
culture stresses the common identity of groups. There are regional and global
cultures. However the critical one is national culture. Third, culture is of
both nationality and universality.
As the peculiar living style national culture is the
basis of national identity. Cultural intuition toward collective personalities
and various behaviors creates “we-group” that distinguishes itself from other
nations. National identity includes the recognition to national common belief,
which is critically important to national identity. Personal identity depends
on group identity, which means the continuing consciousness passed from
generations to generations in some groups. They share the memory of legacies
and personnel. Individuals attend cultural activities of social groups to gain
personal experience. He should learn group heritage such as cultural symbols,
history legacy and traditions outside his personal experience. Group identity
endows group sense and feeling to satisfy the requirement of being belonged.
The identity of individual to group or national culture requires mastery of the
core value in a given culture, including language, religion, social and family
tradition, and national history.. In this sense the
culture core value is the identity of the nation.
In Herald and
The requirement for belonging determines the value of
national spirits (volksgeist), which is the core of
national spirits. National spirits in turn determine the national culture.
National equality and national autonomy depend on the identification and
enjoyment of national culture. The key here lies on national cultural
self-determination. All cultures are equal in value and enjoy equal respect.
Communities grow spontaneously. They are different but equal. Each is
irreplaceable to the whole human society14.
Belonging is one of our choices but not the only one.
What makes it possible for us to choose is freedom. While pursuing affiliation
we should balance it with individual freedom carefully in order to avoid
affecting individual freedom. Though we acknowledge the shared features such as
common region, religion, tradition, norms, customs and language, these common
features can not replace individual’s personality. When not applied to
individuals the term identity is outlined and inhuman. It is an ideological
abstract of collectivism that enforced by some born creativity and all other
none-inheritable factors, geological or social pressure. It abrogates
individual’s precious freedom of what and how to choose if the cultural
identity is enforced to individuals. Hence the free right of choice should be
another aspect of national cultural rights.
National cultural rights negate cultural protectionism
or cultural relativeness in veil of romanticism,
which adheres to the superiority of local cultural institutions and opposes to reason.
It denies the universality of formal reason and formal justice and relies on
local culture to realize innovation. The academic arguments lie on the
uniqueness of national cultural community supported by ethnics, cultural
anthropology and national mythology. It claims that every society has its
national features that can not and should not demolish. In the view of cultural
protectionism there exist no universal human norms.
No culture remains unchangeable. None lasts forever
especially those modern and vivid one. The national cultural right is by no
means against the cultural development in line with the modernity, or it will
be blocked and dying. In modern society while there is less and less specialty
or locality and some traditional institution is disappearing, there are more
chances than before for further development. The extremist protectionism
reveals a kind of slack and unhistorical understanding toward culture. Only
those who care for the destiny of national civilization and holds confidence in
it can be a peaceful nation. The confidence comes from two parallel cultural
processes. One is the abundant absorption of all creative elements from all
other civilizations, the other one is to study comprehensively and innovate
creatively its own national civilization. Serious self-criticism and
self-enrichment are necessary. To a given nation these processes mean the raise
of national reasonability to control its destiny and meet the challenges. To
the whole world it means interactions that are critical to its further
development. To sum up, national cultural rights underline the national
cultural development rights.
Therefore, national cultural rights ague for not only
the combination of uniqueness and universality, but also the unification of
group value and individual freedom. It is a combination of individual rights
and national collective rights. It embraces the self-determination right and
independency under certain conditions. It focuses more on what base it relies,
and on what kind of independence and self-determination it cherishes.
2.2 Culture-right-nationalism
National culture connects closely with nationalism.
Elements of nationalism, such as national identity, national mobilization,
national interests and political pursuit, are all based on national culture. C.
J. Hayes wrote that “nationalism is a cultural phenomenon” 15. Nationalism
itself is not necessarily the threat to democracy. As a matter of fact the
national identity in cultural sense is the necessary precondition to democracy
(though not sufficient condition). Modern democracy requires some mass identity
that the cultural nation can afford. Appealing to emotional loyalty, cultural
nation is the most special and smallest community that covers all ages, sexes
and classes. When he holds that nation is culture, Tamir
also concludes that nationalism is cultural rights16.
It is worthwhile that nationalism in sense of cultural
rights is not the cultural nationalism as understand. H. Kohn regards the
“cultural nationalism” as a reactionary ideology and movement to Western
nationalism in “The Idea of Nationalism”. Western nationalism is rational and
political while the Eastern nationalism is cultural and mysterious. The copying
reaction to Western rational culture is the weapon of backward society to
compensate its psychological inferiority and humility when facing the more
technologically advanced Western civilization17. E. Gellner
further argued that the cultural nationalism is the creation by intellectuals
in backward society. It blocks the advancing and modernity of nations. A. D.
Smith said that cultural nationalism airs obdurate society. It is the most
conservative and anti-freedom kind of nationalism18.
On the contrary, cultural-right-nationalism holds the
disconnection between nationalism and traditional national self-determination.
Just as Feliks Gross separates ethnicity from
politics, the liberal way to resolve this knot is to separate nation-state from
nation-culture. This is totally a new road toward liberalism19. He cites the Branislav Malinovski “cultural
autonomous rights must be endowed to all nations, races and minority groups.
Political rights shall by no means be connected with ethnicity, which will
bring about the explosion of nationalist danger.” After all, nationalist fights
for nation, instead of state; for all group interests that might be realized
through state machine. Indeed the state is the protective shell for nation but
it is not the exclusive way. More accurately the eventual aim of nationalism is
to gain a cultural independence and cultural development though often through
national self-determination and nation state. Hence the
culture-right-nationalism acknowledges in one respect that the nationalist
issue will not be resolved automatically with the growth of globalization, in
another respect it tries to afford liberalist guidance in pursuing nationalist
interests. It is mainly cultural, open and liberal nationalism.
Further this culture-right-nationalism takes the
national culture as ends rather than means. Accordingly it takes the political
pursuit as means to national culture. Now that nation is primarily a cultural
phenomenon, the care for national destiny focuses on developing its culture
peacefully, independently and prosperously. All political and economical
pursuit shall serve this ultimate end. It is irrational and aimless if
nationalist movement deviates from this ultimate end. A just world shall
protect all cultures. Although some regional cultures are still subject to traditional
religion, for example the Islam and Buddhism, their political choice must be
changed. Culture-right-nationalism shall transcend the concern toward national
destiny to some secular culture and modern political institutions, and
eventually to a modern social ethnic system and “religion substitute”20.
Culture-right-nationalism affirms the necessity and
significance of group value by emphasizing particularly on that they are
necessary to the individual identity. National identity in culture-right-nationalism
stresses that individualism rooted in groups. The most influential to
individual is national culture. The critical point here is, now that the
national culture is an important part to individual identity it deserves to be
respected. A national culture deserves more respect when it promotes the
individual freedom in free will, free choice and independent criticism. It
deserves more respect when it cultivates a social system in which individual
rights well protected. Individual determination is the most precious. National
self-determination is precious only if it promotes the individual
self-determination.
Essentially culture-right-nationalism stresses the
independent rationality, consciousness and criticism spirits of individuals in
a nation. While it cultivates national ideology it does not ignore other human
values. it emphasizes the harmony between national
collectivism and individualism. It links the national self-determination with
individual self-determination, the external self-determination and internal
self-determination. Thus culture-right-nationalism supports national
self-determination under certain preconditions. Firstly, any national
self-determination must be based on individual self-determination. Secondly,
one must use legal, peaceful and rational methods to realize national
self-determination. Under these two preconditions culture-right-nationalism
makes liberalism and nationalism coexists. While it upholds the idea of
preserving the uniqueness of nations it can also avoid the dangers of both the
extremist political nationalism that over-emphasizes the national
self-determination, and cultural nationalism that advocates cultural relativeness.
2.3 Political structure of culture-right-nationalism
The political idealism of
culture-right-nationalism is a society composed of free and equal individuals.
For majority this society is right their nation-state. The precious freedom and
equality shall be realized in their own national culture. The tragedy is, for
many nation-states, the freedom and belonging can not be combined together
because of the rigidity of their political institutions. The founding of
nation-state does not of itself bring about individual freedom and rights. And,
whether they agree or not, many nations have to coexist with other nations
within one political community for a long time esp. in context of the
accelerating globalization. Hence the culture-right-nationalism shall not take
nation-state as its exclusive way to realize national self-determination. It is
in vain to take national self-determination as a unique and almighty pattern to
achieve their idealism.
However the culturally homogeneous nation is closely
connected with independency. This serves as the theoretical base for national
self-determination. Whether the political institution is in accordance with the
cultural rights or not, it depends on if and how the political institutions
ensure the cultural independence and rights. This is critically important for
the minority nationality. Presently the influential multi-cultural ideology
based on liberalism might give more answers to this question. Is the federalism
a possible solution to the coexistence of nationalities21? The
culture-right-nationalism pursues such a state: state is a union of individuals;
rights and duties lie on individuals rather than collectives; the cultural
variety and diversity are conditional. It is separated in the process of
founding a state; it pursues the uniqueness within the context of universal
rights; while it emphasizes the protection of national culture it pushes harder
on cultural innovation; it is a synchronization of cultural reshape and
political development.
Cultural rights are associated with the national
political room based on struggling for universal rights. On one hand it demands
for a liberal democracy to make vast identification and state devotion. On the
other hand, it demands some mechanism to protect cultural diversity, political
freedom and coexistence between ethnic groups. Two values are crucial:
individual freedom and equality, and national belonging. Furthermore, this
political institution demands more than those universal, basic and core values.
It demands the shared procedures and game rules. It is not enforced; it is by
the agreement of the majority citizens.
One of the influential ideas to protect the national
cultural right is cultural autonomy suggested by earlier social democrats Otto
Bauer and Karl Renner. Cultural autonomy is not a narrow concept limited by
geography or language; it requires protection for freedom and, for individual
and collective ethnic cultural rights. An authorized national cultural
committee should be set up on the basis of individual choice in order to
administer coordinate cultural affairs. Beside of that, an ethnic culture
congress should also be set up to protect their ethnic and cultural
institutions. “The Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of
National Minorities in Public Life” was proclaimed in September 1999 by OSCE in
On the multi-nationality state, Felix Gross put forward
his citizen-state theory built on de-pliticalization
of nation and civil society. The ethnic identity and ethnic belonging
consciousness constitute the basic cultural sphere, which is the core of
society cohesion. They shall be protected internally and externally. In this
case the regional or local self-governance shall be adopted in terms of fully
respecting the diversity and variety. While protecting the whole national
cultural rights it also balances the unity and variety. Here it requires
another identity that closely connected with the common state, the citizenship.
All members of the ethnic groups are members of the state whose power is
limited and checked by law. A consolidated citizenship is the reflection of the
whole political culture, the reflection of the universal beliefs and values
resulting from the norms and customs in handling the ethnic affairs. The state
power stops at the religion and ethnic identity of citizens, as they are
regarded as the personal privacy that can not be violated. This citizen-state
is responsible to international organization and international law. At the same
time the self-determination right shall be limited, because the unlimited and
irresponsible appeal for national self-determination would surely disintegrate
the political community. Further, Gross said, the citizenship is a basic
institution for modern democracy, a fundamental political institution for
multi-nationality state. The citizen state creates a new identity, a political
identity separated from ethnic belonging consciousness and ethnicity. It is a
shell for cultural diversities. It is a new kind of political relation, much
more vast than ethnic relationship or regional relationship. The idea of
citizen-state supplies a new way to separate ethnic identity from political
identity, a new way to transfer kinship identity to political-regional
identity22.
3. Cultural Rights and Uyghur Nationalism movement
3.1 Xinjiang issue and Uyghur
national movement
Xinjiang, or Xinjiang
Autonomous Region of China, founded in 1955, has 1.6 million square kilometers
with majority population of Uyghur Muslims. According
to Chinese census among the whole population in Xinjiang
there are 8.34 million Uyghurs, 43.3% of the whole23.
Almost all of them are Sunnis. There are other Muslims as Kazaks, Kyrgyz,
Tatars, and Uzbeks, who are turkeys like the Uyghurs.
Tajik are white Muslims. There are Chinese Hui Muslim too. None-Muslims are the growing Hans and some
Mongolians and Tibetans.
In 1759 the Qianlong emperor of Qing dynasty conquered the whole Xinjiang
area and set up military reign. In 1863 the turkeys in Xinjiang
and Middle Asia overthrew the Qing reign in this area
and founded an independent Islamic state. In 1876 General Zuo
Zongtang re-conquered Xinjiang
with his brave army and forced Xinjiang to become a
Chinese province in 1884. In the early 20th century Xinjiang
became the core of Chinese Russian conspiracy. With the Japanese invasion the Uyghurs in Xinjiang claimed an
independent “East Turkistan” in 1944 under the full support of
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From early
1960s |
The appeals of Uyghur nationalist can be sorted
roughly into two parts. One demands true political autonomy and cultural
protection through true democracy. The other one is separatistism.
With the encouragement and help of oversea Uyghur
nationalists, they hold the same aim with the autonomists but insist on total
political separation with
To Uyghur nationalists, the
practical up-growing Uyghur separatist forces come
from the following two sources:
First, there are huge national cultural differences.
Among all the populous minorities the Uyghur is one
of the most different. Historically the Uyghur
identity has nothing to do with Chinese dynasties.
Second, Chinese rulers (
Thirdly, with the ambiguous definition of terrorism, the
Chinese government takes advantages to violate human rights in name of striking
“violent terrorism” , without distinguishing the
differences between peaceful demonstration and violent terrorism, nor between
the organized terrorism and the accidental violence that resulted from
religious, social or cultural issues.
There are following features of Uyghur
nationalist movement: a) that, the pro-separation forces grows so fast that the
worring
3.2 The national separation
The Chinese, the Uyghur
nationalists and the world community should be aware that, if the impending
threatens to Uyghur cultural survival does not move
away, the Xinjiang issue will continue exist. The
coexistence of political community and cultural nation depends on the accurate
contents of national cultural autonomy regulated by Chinese political
institutions. It depends also on what political resources the Uyghur has to ensure its cultural autonomy and cultural
independence.
For the Uyghur nationalists,
one of the choices is to break away from the current regime and found a
culturally homogeneous political unit. This would push the separatist movement
higher to split this multi-nationality
However, it seems that this choice is impractical and
too costly to bear. First, the creation of a new nation-state is a disavowal to
former regime and, unavoidably involved with violence and conflicts.
More importantly, national separation might not be the
best choice for Uyghur nation itself. There is born
defects in the self-determination theory. When the separation through
self-determination becomes the unique end of nationalists, they must make all
the members believe that the only way to end up the sorrows and injustice,
which derived form the oppressions by major nationality in a state, is to fight
for a new nation-state. Here, the nationalists must afford guidance to its
utopia, that is, a nation-state without oppression or torture through
separation. As we argued before, the cultural nation and political state can
not be identified each other. The former stresses culture while the later
emphasizes politics and law. If we identify nation to state, the nationalist
would certainly require all members of a state to bear the same language,
culture, religion and even the same ethnic, beside of the same political-legal
characteristics. This ideology will surely induce extremist nationalism and
even racial cleansing.
For Uyghur nationalists, the
internal self-determination should be assured the same time the external
self-determination achieved. However, separation from
3.3 The prospect of Uyghur nationalism—an answer of culture-right-nationalism
Hence the Xinjiang issue, with
the core of Uyghur nationalism, should be resolved
peacefully with the cooperation between
The essence of diversified democracy is to put the state
identity on the basis of universal cultural and political identity that
transcend beyond nation or group identity. There exist problems in current
Chinese political arrangement to win the general state identity. It is not only
reflected in the conflicts between nationalities but also in areas where the
Han nationality composes the majority, e.g.
Also, the sovereignty is not the safe shell for
The problem can not be resolved if these institutions
exist only literally. The measurement of progress lies not on the compulsory
political explanations rather, it lies on the individual destiny. The
relationship between state and individual is the touchstone for political
systems. If literally protecting the rights of language, customs of minorities,
at the same time denouncing free speech, free association, free publishing and
free express, there would not be true state identity form groups or
nationalities. Individual rights is an integrated whole including freedom of
thought, freedom of speech, freedom of language and freedom of religion, etc.
No freedom of speech or express, there would be no
ground for using mother language; it is impossible to endure minority folks and
arts without endurance to thought and religion29.
It is truly difficult for
First, adjust the state behavior to fit the requirements
from various nationalities and cultural groups. This is called by
The second one is to reform state system to synchronize
various cultures and promote the interests channels to assure identity. This is
what
Uyghur
For Uyghur nationalists, it is
important to be aware that national independence is, if not absolutely
impossible presently, too expensive to cost and harmful to the fundamental
interests of their nation. And, they also should be aware of the potential
danger. As a matter of fact the founding of a nation-state is not necessarily a
shortcut to ensure their rights and prosperity.
Compromise sounds unsatisfactory to many of the Uyghur nationalists to reach their idealized expectation.
However compromise is an important method to push democracy and peace. Usually
compromise is a rational result of forces and careful consideration that could
be accepted by both. Culture-right-nationalism requires that national
self-determination be based on the individual self-determination by legal,
peaceful and rational measures at its best. Thus it could be served as the
basis for Uyghur nation to get a deal with
In turn, on the basis of cultural rights the Uyghur nation should promote “cultural development” and
“political development” in order to realize a new nationality identity and
state identity.
Culture-right-nationalism is consisted of special
national rights and national cultural developing rights in terms of national
identity. This demands that the nationalism must take individual rights as its
core value, take individual liberation as its end. The collective rights shall
not displace individual rights. Hence the Uyghur
nationalists meet not only the task of protecting their traditional culture but
also to develop it, which is much more crucial. The specialty of Uyghur national culture should not only be dug out and
preserved, but also be promoted to a higher level of cultural identity and
refreshment.
Development itself leads a standard to measure the progress
and this standard can only grow from universal rights. In Europe and
Language and letter is the important carrier of culture.
It reflects the cultural contents of a given nation and it is also the symbol
of history continuity and cultural independence. Language is not the culture
itself however it can be used to convey values and thoughts. It should be noted
that over-emphasis on national education specialty would damage the modern
education30. The Uyghur nationalists should work to
expand Uyghur culture by absorbing the modern
civilization in order to educate modern Uyghur
elites. The modern history proves that the colonial education incited the
awakening of nationalism and intellectuals who had modern education are the pioneers
and nucleus of nationalist movement.
On the issue of state identity, the Uyghur
nation faces a transition from tradition to modernity. Modernity refers to
cultural phenomenon connected with modernization. It resembles the new
appearance of the former authoritarian structure and the birth of modern state.
In pre-modern countries religion assumes the function of morality, economy,
politics and education. The mysterious legitimacy supported the social morality
and political beliefs. Modern countries are totally different from the
pre-modern countries in social, cultural and legal terms. It destroys the
legitimacy of power and authority in traditional society and creates
diversities in religion, values, political parties and interests groups. Self-government
to limit the conflicts between social members displaced the former absolutism.
Rationality displaced the mythology; self-restraints replace the supernatural
constraints; history relativeness displaced the
absolute theology. The legitimacy of state comes from the permit of the people
instead of the gods. Individualism, natural rights, equality before the law,
power distribution between central and local governments under the direction of
federalism…
The Uyghur nationalism should
be aware that individual rights are more basic, absolute and none-volatile in
comparison with state power. The pursuit for independent state should promote
rather than violate individualism. In any case, there should be no illusion on
omnipotent state during their struggling for national independence. It is
dangerous to think that an independent state can resolve every problem. It is
imperative to keep an eye on the state power, not only to prevent it from doing
harm but also doing good as well31.
For the Uyghur nationalists,
another important and practical task is to cultivate an independent,
diversified, vivid and powerful civil society. If the misery comes only from
external oppression the extremist political might work. However, internal
elements such as cultural tradition, social structure and life style hamper the
development too.
To sum up, the culture-nationalism pursues such a state
that it does not take the common ancestors or origins as its base, nor take the
national cultural tradition and inner resources as its legitimacy. It
discriminates the state identity from national identity. It upholds a new
identity, a new devotion to a integer that unifies
various races and cultures, a devotion to a integer that identified and loved
by all or majority, a devotion beyond races and ethnics. This common identity
will exceed the narrow racial identity or religious identity. It is independent
from the ethnic belongings, religion, culture and race. It is a concept, a sort
of systems in connection with every individual rights and freedom. This higher
identity is based on the universal and essential values shared by all nations.
It is these basic and essential values that consolidate the foundation of
liberal democratic states.
The international community
Minority political rights and cultural rights are basic
human rights that all states are legally obliged to protect. These rights are
listed in the United Nations Charter and other important international treaties
such as “The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights”
and “The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”. “Preamble of
the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National
or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities” adopted by UN Assembly in
December 12 1992 is one of the most popular documents currently protecting the
minority rights. The Declaration grants to persons belonging to minorities “the
right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise
their own religion and to use their own language in private and in public”;
“the right to establish and maintain their own associations”. States are to
protect and promote the rights of persons belonging to minorities “to exercise
their rights, individually as well as in community with other members of their
group, without discrimination”. This supplies the legal base for the
international community to survey human rights and civil rights issues in a
sovereign state.
The Xinjiang issue is closely
connected with the political freedom and civil rights through out the whole
country. Chinese government shall not justify its violation on human rights
with the excuse of fighting against terrorism, whose definition should be in
line with the international norms and standards. As a matter of fact, the
Chinese government is now prosecuting minority dissidents mercilessly in the
name of anti-terrorism. International community should condemn explicitly the
large quantities of penalty on the peaceful dissidents by
The international community should also monitor Chinese
government to realize the autonomous rights and other freedoms such as
religion, culture and languages listed on its constitution. The Chinese
government should adopt necessary policies to restrain the immigration in Xinjiang and protect the economic and resource interests of
local minorities.
Notes
* Dr. Robert Guang Tian
is a professor of business administration at
Congress (the umbrella body of the Uyghur groups
abroad) among many others for their critic reviews and constructive
suggestions.
1 Robert Tian, “The Implications of Rights to
Culture in Trans-national Marketing: An Anthropological Perspective”, in High
Plains Applied Anthropologist, No. 2, Vol. 20, Fall, 2000.
2 Benidict
3 Emest Gellner
1983?Anthony Giddens 1986,1990.
4 Anthony Smith 1986
5 L.H.Morgan, Ancient Society,
6 A. D. Smith, National Identity, London, Penguin Books, 1991, p.43; D.Beetham, The Future of the Nation State, in G. Mclennanetal, The Idea of the Modemstate,
Milton keyens, open University Press, 1984, p.217
7 Lord Acton, Essays on Freedom and Power, The World Publishing Co., New
York, 1955.
8 Biancamaria
9 Friedrech A. Hayek, The
Constitution of
10 M.Speering, National identity and European
unity, in Michael Wintle (ed.), Culture and identity
in
11 Sir I.
12 Sir I.
13 Y. Tamir, Liberal Nationalism,
14 Sir I.
15 C. J. Hayes, Essays on Nationalism,
16 Y. Tamir, Liberal Nationalism,
17 Hans Kohn, The Ideas of Nationalism,
18 L. L. Snyder, The Meaning of Nationalism,
19 Feliks Gross , The
Civic and the
20 The relevant issues can be referred to the following works: A. D. Smith,
Nations and Nationalism in Global Era,
21 Kymlicka, 1995
22 Feliks Gross, The
Civic and the
23 Lisheng, Chinese Xinjiang:
History and Actuality?Xinjiang
Renmin Publishing, 2003, p.5.
24. These data are from Uyghur American
Association (UAA) and Lisheng, op.cit.
p. 5.
25 Graham E Fuller, S. Frederick Starr, The Xinjiang Problem, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, The
26 K.J.Holsti, Peace and War: Armed Conflicts and
International Order, 1648-1989, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 324
27 Hans Kohn, The Ideas of Nationalism, New York: Macmillan Publishing
Company, 1946,pp 18-20, 329-331.
28 David
29 Feliks Gross , The
Civic and the
30 According to Porter, the immense catholic readings and French education
harms severely the economic position for the French descendants in
31 Robert Nozick, Anarchy,
State and Utopia, Blackwell Publishers, 1978.