Xinjiang is a western province of China. It borders Pakistan and Afghanistan. The majority who live there are Uighurs, an ethnic majority. Their religion is Muslim. Recently there have been riots in the streets of the capital Urumqui. The Chinese armed force responded brutally. Hundreds have been killed.
The Chinese authorities make no apologies for this brutal response. They promise "severe punishment for culprits�. They blame the three evils of �extremism, terrorism and separatism�. Basically they have no answer apart from brute force. Naturally, they scapegoat overseas Uighurs who they claim to be responsible.
Actually the Uighur residents of Urumqui do not need agitators to respond angrily to the vicious, racist attacks on Uighur workers in Guangdong. It is these attacks which stimulated the violence. It is crystal clear that the Chinese bureaucracy has failed to resolve the national question.
We are not interested in intrigues about who the Uighur people are conspiring with. The major fact is that the Uighur people do not enjoy national equality. Yes, the bureaucrats can point out that they far better in the Peoples' China than elsewhere and in this we probably agree. However, they are not equal. Essentially the bureaucrats in Beijing have deprived them of their right to national self-determination. It is blowing up in their face.
As Trotsky has pointed out: �The national question does not exist for the benefit of communists, communists exist to resolve the national question�. Essentially Trotsky understood that unless the national question was resolved, the issue would blow up in their faces. It could well blow up in the faces of Chinese bureaucrats.
The way the national question is resolved is by allowing the self-determination of nationalities. Trotskyists want unity between ethnic minorities and Han Chinese. But this unity must be voluntary. It will only be voluntary if the Uighur people have the right to leave and form their own nation.
Self-determination to Uighur Xinjiang!
The Stalinists have tried to suppress the national question by military force. This is an essential part of why there is no Soviet Union today. The same applies to China.
The bureaucrats offer violence and state repression. This may work in the short term. Han chauvinism appears to be rampant and most Chinese will no doubt back the bureaucratic crack down. But if China doesn�t watch out more national conflagrations will occur.
There is a lot at stake in Xinjiang. For a start the state is mineral rich. The greedy bureaucrats want to get their hands on the spoils and assist western capitalists to do likewise. But also there is a security issue. The Muslim Uighurs no doubt have allies in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkey. The war on terror may spread to China.
El Quaida has already threatened Chinese workers in Algeria. There is a strong possibility of Uighurs getting backup from their Muslim neighbours. All this the Chinese bureaucrats fear.
What is clear is that the Stalinist bullies can only think in terms of force and repression. They are unable to think about how to resolve the situation politically.
What is required is political revolution. This means the revolutionary overthrow of the bureaucrats and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a revolutionary workers' and small farmers' government.
Such a government would offer self-determination to all minority nationalities. This will resolve the question politically. Its aim would be a united soviet socialist republic of China!
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