How can China deal with the anti-Covid protests? – Victor Shih

 

Victor Shih

China’s leaders face unprecedented protest against its rigid anti-covid policy after earlier this week ten deaths in Urumqi were to blame for that. Political analyst Victor Shih sees China’s Communist Party walking on a tight rope, he says in the Hindustan Times.

The Hindustan Times:

An expert on China said Beijing has missed maintaining a balance between Covid control and economic growth, leading to citizens’ anger.

“Basically, what the (Chinese) leadership wants, a fine balance between growth and Covid control, is beyond the capacity of grassroots level enforcers. Instead, they are using draconian measures which invite popular anger,” Victor Shih, Associate Professor, School of Global Policy and Strategy, UC San Diego, expert on Chinese elite politics, said.

There is apprehension that the ruling Communist Party of China could respond with hard measures against the protesters.

“In the short term, the government walks a tight rope between too little repression, which may lead to more protests, and too much, which triggers backlash protests. Unfortunately, with the pervasive surveillance in China, the government will be able to arrest and punish the ring leaders after things have cooled,” Shih added.

“However, with Covid policies still unclear, popular anger may persist for a long period of time, something the regime has not had to deal with for decades,” Shih said.

More at the Hindustan Times.

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What are the Germans thinking about China? – Mark Schaub

 

Mark Schaub

The German government has become much more assertive about the country’s wheeling and dealing with China. Veteran China lawyer Mark Schaub visited over the past few weeks Berlin and Munich and felt the pulse of the German business communities toward China, he reports in his China Chit-chat. “Politicians in Germany have limited ability to influence or pressure German business. Consumers can be upset … but will become upset about something else 5 minutes later,” he writes.

Mark Schaub:

Geo-political Situation is Much Worse – a common theme was that media coverage was much more negative about China than in the past. Most also felt that the reporting was not particularly well informed nor nuanced. Hot topics include Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Many felt that China was judged much more harshly and subject to greater scrutiny than the United States. One friend who runs a China group told us that he was holding closed sessions on these sensitive topics because his organization places great importance on transparency and openness. This was somewhat dampened by his closing the door as he discussed this, but his heart is in the right place.

But Geo-Politics Likely to have Limited Real Effect – most felt that consumers and government may be more negatively inclined towards China but that this was unlikely to translate to much in the way of real action. Politicians in Germany have limited ability to influence or pressure German business. Consumers can be upset … but will become upset about something else 5 minutes later.

De-Risk not De-Couple – one German consultant reacted negatively to the term de-coupling finding it both exceedingly negative but also unrealistic. He has German medium sized businesses looking to de-risk the Chinese business but not quit China. It is more likely that the next factory will be in a site outside of China. However, probably not Vietnam as that is seen to be too integrated in China anyway. There was widely held agreement that really excluding China from the global supply chain was wishful thinking or unthinking populism.

COVID is a real Management Problem – most of the Mittelstand companies really felt that they are lacking insight into their local operations. In the past there was at least a bit of pantomime that the local management was following HQ rules and directions. Few feel the compulsion to even engage in such a charade now. One GM commented that what made her feel most comforted was that the local management in her entity were likely too stupid to be stealing. Normally this would be a red flag but I have met the management in question and I think she may be on to something there. In any event, COVID was really the biggest practical problem.

There is Still Interest in China – one consultant had conducted a detailed survey of 30 Mittelstand companies and found there was still strong interest. The major issue holding them back was concerns re IP rights. Although IP rights are a legitimate concern the level of understanding seemed very immature. Have you protected your IP legally? Do you have a strategy in place to protect the IP rights? If your IP rights are really so great and of great interest to the Chinese market you can bet someone will have bought it and reverse engineered the buggery out of it. Hiding will not work. Personally, I think the much greater challenges are: how do you launch a business in China if you cannot visit China? How do you compete with Chinese competition? Deal with an uneven playing field? These are all complexities that few mentioned.

The Chinese are Coming – it was striking how many Chinese companies were based around Munich – car companies, battery companies – it is curious why they all plumped for the most expensive part of Germany (for people, offices and factories). One German tech investor mused that he thinks to combat China’s new lead in new energy vehicles Europe of the 2030s will likely adopt the Chinese playbook from the 1990s for the auto industry – require Chinese companies to enter into JVs and forced tech transfers against market access.

More in the China Chit-chat.

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Why the West fails to get China – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein

China veteran Shaun Rein explains why the West does so poorly in understanding China, and why China’s government is doing such a bad job in explaining China to the rest of the world, in an interview with Cyrus Janssen.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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H&M tries to regain confidence of China consumers – Arnold Ma

 

Arnold Ma

H&M tries to retain market share in China after a consumer boycott of a range of Western fashion brands – including also Nike and Burberry – on its Xinjiang stance by launching two new brands. The results with the consumers in China have been mixed, says marketing expert Arnold Ma in Jing Daily.

The Jing Daily:

“There are reports saying some consumers still turned their back to the two brands having found their link to H&M, which shows the brand still hasn’t been fully forgiven by Chinese consumers,” said Arnold Ma, founder of China-focused digital marketing agency Qumin.

“On the other hand, the latter two have challenged the image of H&M as a ‘roughly-made’ fast fashion brand by providing better quality products at a higher price,” he continued. “So, the premiumization, to some extent, helps the two win over some Chinese consumers who pay more attention to quality and design.”…

While H&M, Nike, and Burberry have all pushed ahead in China, they have done so to varying degrees of success. Burberry, which has bounced back faster than the others, has partially benefited from being a luxury brand. As Yam, who has more than a decade of Chinese digital marketing experience, said, “It’s harder to replace — you don’t have another Burberry. For Nike, [consumers] can find the China version, Li-Ning, which is popular in China now. And for H&M, there’s so much fast fashion.”

None of this is surprising, as China accounts for less than 5 percent of H&M’s global revenue, while Burberry’s China revenue accounts for almost half of their global total, Ma noted. Indeed, China is just one — albeit very important — market for these global companies. Recovery, therefore, not only entails reevaluating China tactics but also ensuring a strong global network for when a crisis eventually hits.

The Jing Daily.

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Security in Xinjiang: key for China’s Taliban relations – Ian Johnson

 

Ian Johnson

A lot of speculations have marred the relations between Afghanistan’s Taliban and the outside world. For China for example the exploitation of rare earths shows up regularly, but China veteran Ian Johnson, a senior fellow at the CFR, explains why security in Xinjiang is key for China’s considerations, he tells in PRI.

PRI:

Some powers in the region are quickly making their calculations based on their own interests. Russia and Iran, for example, have kept their embassies open. Pakistan has long had close relations with the Taliban and the Chinese are taking stock of the situation.

“China’s primary interest in Afghanistan is security,” said Ian Johnson, senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It shares a small border with Afghanistan and is worried about the perceived threat of terrorism that could emanate from there.”

Johnson, who lived in China for 20 years, added that right now, Beijing is struggling to control a western part of China called Xinjiang. And it has implemented draconian policies on the population there, justifying it on the grounds of Islamist terrorism.

“They worry that this kind of extremism could come across the border from Afghanistan if the Taliban were to revert to its ways [of] the 1990s,” he said.

China also sees some potential economic benefits in Afghanistan — such as in mining and infrastructure. And Afghanistan could really use China’s help since aid from Western countries has dropped significantly, and Afghanistan is highly dependent on aid for its economy.

“So, if China can step in and, maybe not replace the West, but at least keep the coffers somewhat filled, then that would be really, really important,” Johnson said. “And I think among the countries that could do that, China is the main one. Russia would probably like to do something like that, but it lacks the financial, economic muscle to do that kind of thing.”

More in PRI.

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China’s tricky relationship with the Taliban – Ian Johnson

 

Ian Johnson

China has been talking informally to the Taliban, but now the Islamic group has taken over neighboring Afghanistan, the situation is more tricky, says CFR-scholar Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao to CNB

CNBC

The relationship between China and the Islamist militant group is “tricky” because Beijing targets what it calls religious extremism among ethnic minority Muslims in Xinjiang, said Ian Johnson of the Council on Foreign Relations…

Xinjiang is home to the minority Uyghur Muslims. The United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations have accused China of human rights abuses including forced labor and large-scale detentions in Xinjiang. Beijing denies those claims.

“If they have an Islamist political party that is … running a neighboring country, that could be, potentially, a problem for China,” said Johnson, who is the CFR’s Stephen A. Schwarzman senior fellow for China studies.

“At least optically, it seems kind of weird that, on the one hand, Beijing … would be willing to work with [the Taliban]. On the other hand, Islamist groups in Xinjiang are such a problem,” he told CNBC…

China has “laid the groundwork” and made preparations to work with the Taliban, but it’s difficult to predict whether Beijing will formally recognize them as Afghanistan’s government, said Johnson of the CFR, adding that Western countries may not want anyone to affirm the Taliban.

“It may take a little bit of time,” he said. Beijing “might want to see assurances that the Taliban is going to be ‘a normal government’ and not … have massacres and massive killings or something like that before they give them formal diplomatic recognition.”…

For now, unlike many other governments who have moved to evacuate embassy staff from Afghanistan, China’s ambassador remains in Kabul. A spokesman for the Taliban’s political office reportedly said the group would not target diplomatic missions in the country.

It’s smart of China to take this approach, which signals that Beijing is not scared, taking sides or running away from the Taliban, said Johnson.

More at CNBC.

Ian Johnson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Why the China internet went after H&M – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein

H&M got hit by an unprecedented boycott from Chinese consumers, as the China internet went after the company for its stance on labor in Xinjiang. Partly that vehement outpour of anger was caused because internet companies have been under government investigations, says veteran business analyst Shaun Rein, so they had to prove more than ever they were not a danger for that government, he says at AP.

AP:

“It’s a form of self-preservation,” said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.

Rein said the outpouring of anger at H&M is the harshest he has seen against a foreign brand. He said companies are especially sensitive because this comes at a time when Chinese anti-monopoly and other regulators are stepping up scrutiny of internet operators.

“If they don’t try to criticize, they’ll also get in trouble,” Rein said.

More at AP.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Why China hits back at H&M and other European companies – Shaun Rein

 

Shaun Rein at the BBC

European sanctions against China triggered off a backlash against fashion brand H&M and business analyst Shaun Rein explains at the BBC why China’s consumers are starting boycotts against European companies like H&M.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your (online) meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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China's internet regulations: keep it fuzzy - Kaiser Kuo

Kaiser Kuo

The successful social platform Tiktok got into hot water when it comes to its relation with China, now the company goes international. Former Baidu communication director Kaiser Kuo looks at The Ringer how Tiktok thrived, like others, in this climate of uncertainty, fuzziness and unpredictability that is key for China's internet.

The Ringer:

“I just remember it was like yesterday that we were all so disparaging of China’s ability to innovate,” Kaiser Kuo, a journalist who has worked in the Chinese tech industry and cohosts Sinica Podcast, told me. “Freedom was not only the necessary condition for being innovative, but it was also even, more hubristically, a sufficient condition.” But in recent years, China has gradually disproved that theory with its mastery of dockless bikes and mobile payments. The two countries are now competing to control the growing sectors of artificial intelligence and global telecommunications. And in May, the Trump administration moved to essentially ban the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from the U.S. market... 

From its launch, this lack of clarity has been apparent to TikTok users. Many teens have complained about being surreptitiously booted from the app. Others suspect their content has been intentionally kept away from the all-important “For You” feed. In late November, a 17-year-old Afghan American high-schooler named Feroza Aziz tucked a political message into a standard TikTok beauty tutorial. “Use the phone that you’re using right now to search up what’s happening in China,” she says in the clip, while curling her eyelashes. She then criticizes the Chinese government for keeping Muslim Uighurs in mass detention centers in the country’s far western region of Xinjiang. The video was briefly removed from TikTok, and Aziz was temporarily unable to access her account. But after the incident was picked up by news outlets, TikTok apologized, overrode her ban, and brought back the video, claiming these issues were due to a “human moderation error” and a separate, unrelated issue with Aziz’s account. Whatever happened, Kuo says this kind of lack of clarity keeps with standard Chinese censorship practices. When loading a forbidden website in China, users often encounter the same standard error page you might find with a weak Wi-Fi signal. “The line has always been sort of deliberately blurry,” Kuo said. “They deliberately keep it fuzzy so that the idea is if you’re not sure whether you’re going to step over it, you’re going to self-censor. You’re going to be more careful about what you say.”... 

Kuo, who worked at the Chinese search engine Baidu, says companies’ willingness to censor is often just a means to an end. “When the Cyberspace Administration of China sends somebody over, or when they’re having these conversations about what videos, or search terms, or topics need to be censored, it’s not like these companies are saying, ‘Oh, hey, let me suggest a few more to add to this blacklist,’” he said. “They’re trying to comply as minimally as possible. What goes on that list will be different every time and it will change day to day.”

More at the Ringer. Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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China can still step back from repressing religion - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

China's central government has been cracking down on both Protestantism and the Islam over the past year. The direct future looks grim, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao at Foreign Affairs in an addition to a piece he wrote two years ago. The government can still go back to its previously pragmatic take, but Johnson is not sure it will.

Ian Johnson

The government’s attitude toward Islam has been even more problematic. Ten of China’s 55 non-Chinese minority groups, primarily the Hui and Uighurs in the country’s northwest and far west, are Muslim. Here, the issue isn’t just control but the forced assimilation of these peoples. 

Officially, the state is pursuing a war on terrorism in its far western province of Xinjiang.  

Although the problem of violence there is real, all independent observers agree that the main cause of unrest is the heavy hand of the state, which for decades has pursued a policy of resource extraction and resettlement in order to increase the population of ethnic Chinese. 

The resulting downward spiral of repression and violence has culminated in a recent campaign of repression aimed at the very practice of Islam. State authorities have forced Xinjiang stores to sell alcohol and tobacco, for example, and forbidden students from fasting during Ramadan. The repression seems to be spreading beyond Xinjiang to Hui communities in other parts of China, where authorities are tearing down Islamic domes, removing Arabic-language signs, and silencing the outdoor call to prayer. 

Most shocking has been the return of something that indeed has echoes from the Mao era: reeducation camps. At first, the notion of such camps seemed like an unbelievable rumor, but the state has confirmed their existence, justifying them as needed to control extremism. In them, Muslims are essentially secularized by force, forbidden from anything seen as too religious. 

Until now, if one thought of large Asian countries where the mixing of religion and politics has caused strife and violence, India, Indonesia, or Pakistan might come to mind. In the future, this list could include China.

This need not happen. If the state steps back and takes a deep breath, it could avoid the conflicts that its current policies seem bound to create. One has only to think of the years of protest caused by the crackdown on Falun Gong to get an idea of how banning even one sect can become a messy, protracted affair. House churches have also been equally stubborn—just banning the Shouwang Church in Beijing in 2009 resulted in years of protests. And the inevitable backlash against such misguided policies as forcing Muslims to eat pork and drink alcohol is scarcely imaginable. 

Up until now, I’ve always believed in the pragmatism of China’s reform-era leadership, despite the brutality of many measures taken during that period. Yet China is no longer in the reform era. Instead, it is entering a new period, one that may make observers look back fondly on the relatively light touch of the country’s past leaders.

More at Foreign Affairs.

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How do you define religion, and other questions for Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Author Ian Johnson got quite some people thinking after his most recent book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao hit the bookshelves. Some of them got stuck with questions and for Oclarim Johnson answers some of them. How does he define religion, and why are the Tibetans and Uighurs not included.

Oclarim:

How did the book take form?

I tried to identify representative cases for the spiritual life of ethnic Chinese people. That meant making a tough decision to leave out minority groups, such as Tibetans and Uighurs, because I felt that their stories were very different from ethnic Chinese. Also, ethnic Chinese make up 91 percent of China’s population and so I felt it was enough to try to cover their faiths. The question was how: China is such a big country. So I read a lot, traveled a lot, and after many false starts began to find the five case studies that make up this book.

You talk about religions in China in your book. What is your definition of religion?

Good question! I try not to answer that. Sociologists debate this endlessly. I would say I have a broad definition. It is not just an organized faith like Catholicism or Islam, but can include rituals and beliefs that people practice on their own that give their life a deeper meaning. Today, in many parts of the world, this is how faith is expressed: personally and privately, as opposed to communally as in the past, especially when most of us lived in villages. So I tried to have an open definition.

You mention the destruction of religious buildings in China in the last century. Can you expand on that?

China began to attack religion in the late 19th century as part of a general self-doubt about its traditions and culture. Faith practices began to be defined as illegitimate or legitimate based on the imported western paradigm of “superstition” versus “religion,” terms that originated in the Reformation as a way initially to discredit Catholicism and later used in other parts of the world to attack indigenous faiths. Chinese elites began to define most of their practices as superstitious. A huge wave of auto-cultural genocide ensued. By 1950 half the temples in China had been destroyed. The Cultural Revolution from 1966-1976 was the culmination, when all places of worship were closed.

You have said that there is a religious awakening in China after the Mao era. Don’t you feel that Maoism was a sort of religion?

Maoism was an ersatz religion for a government that had destroyed its cultural heritage and was looking for new ways to satisfy people’s hunger for belief. Of course, it died when he died…..

What, in your opinion, is the most significant story in your book?

My preference is for the Beijing pilgrimage associations, which are working-class people who organize one of the most boisterous, hard-drinking, hard-smoking pilgrimages I’ve ever attended – to Mt. Miaofeng in Beijing’s western suburbs. It’s certainly the most fun story in the book.

You also visited underground churches. What you can say about this experience?

Most underground churches are underground in name only. They are often big with hundreds of members and I guess about 99 percent are well-known to authorities. So essentially they are not underground but are simply not registered with the government because they reject government control over religion. But for various reasons the government tolerates them, largely because most are apolitical.

More questions and answers in Oclarim.

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China long-standing trouble with Islam - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

China's recent troubles with Islam and unruly provinces like Xinjiang are not new, nor typically for communist rule, writes journalist Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao, for the New York Review of books. "It would be tempting to say that all of this is just typical Communist excess, something in the party’s DNA that forces it to turn to repression and violence to solve problems. But the long history of Islam’s persecution points to older, deeper problems in the Chinese worldview."

Ian Johnson:

Today, though the state no longer adopts the utopianism of a Buddhist religious state, it does have a similarly coercive, assimilationist policy toward its ethnic minorities. When the ethnic Chinese Communist Party took over in 1949, it copied the Stalinist policy of creating nationalities. Fifty-six were identified, including Chinese, Mongolians, and Uighurs, each officially celebrated as comprising a mosaic of groups that formed the People’s Republic. 

As in imperial times, this policy was less tolerant than it seemed. In the Mao era, all minorities were supposed to meld into a great Communist brotherhood. In the reform era from the late 1970s to about 2010, development was meant to eradicate all differences, with ethnic groups pursuing money instead of their own cultures. 

More recently, the state has taken a more overt policy of Han Chinese chauvinism. Thus the state produces strange statements, such as celebrating Chinese myths, such as declaring the Yellow Emperor the “founder of the Chinese nation,” when, in fact, the nation of China is made up of multiple ethnicities, most of which have no link to the Yellow Emperor. It has also taken steps to reduce Islam’s (and Christianity’s) visibility in China by tearing down churches and mosques—while promoting what it sees as indigenous religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and folk religion. 

This prejudicial policy is a leading reason for Xinjiang’s suffering. While cloaked in the war on terrorism, many of the state’s actions are aimed at Islam itself. Shops in Xinjiang have been forced to sell alcohol and tobacco, while university students have been forbidden to fast during Ramadan. Women with veils and men with beards have been systematically barred from some local public transportation. 

This has culminated in the reintroduction of a Mao-era measure: re-education camps. Then, the idea was to punish people who had the wrong class background; now, it is Muslims who have not assimilated enough. At first, reports of this seemed like a rumor, perhaps an exaggeration—something that seemed an impossibility in the twenty-first century. Recently, though, the state has admitted they exist, saying they are needed to control extremism. 

Over the past four years, the Communist Party has also sent one million ethnic Chinese members to live among Uighurs to teach them the joys of secular life. As the anthropologist Darren Byler described in an extensive exposé on the Asia Society’s ChinaFile website, this involves keeping an eye out for what the state sees as extremist behavior, such as Uighurs’ not watching state-run television or having religious devotional materials hanging from their walls. At first, this seemed to many like another can’t-be-true moment, but Chinese state media has since confirmed it. 

In recent months, there are signs that the campaign has moved beyond Xinjiang to the Hui Muslims, the descendants of the first Muslims, who are centered in Ningxia province but also live scattered across China. In Ningxia, Islamic domes and signs in Arabic are being pulled down, while the call to prayer has been banned. 

It would be tempting to say that all of this is just typical Communist excess, something in the party’s DNA that forces it to turn to repression and violence to solve problems. But the long history of Islam’s persecution points to older, deeper problems in the Chinese worldview. 

Most worrisome, it is these very traditions that the state is promoting as a way to bolster its legitimacy, instead of building a pluralistic society open to different faiths, beliefs, and convictions.

More at the New York Reviews of books.

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What Xinjiang needs is de-escalation - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

While religion is getting more leeway in China, the opposite is happening for the Tibetans and Uighur, says journalist Ian Johnson, author of the upcoming book The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao in the Globe&Mail. Just last week Xinjiang, home to the Uyghur, saw a strong increase in security forces.

The Globe&Mail:

The treatment of Tibetans and Uighurs offers a glimpse of the downward spirals that can emerge under harsh policies. 

In Xinjiang, what’s needed is de-escalation, “some kind of a peace process like the British had in Northern Ireland,” said Ian Johnson, a Pulitzer-winning journalist and author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao. But that’s difficult to do when strict government policies have largely eliminated moderate voices and civil society. 

“It’s a tough hole for them to climb out of there,” he said. “And this is going to be the largest conflict area for religion and state in China going forward.” 

Elsewhere, China has so far been more lenient. Though hundreds of crosses were removed from churches in Zhejiang province, such action has barely been seen elsewhere – and virtually all Zhejiang churches remain open. 

There are signs, however, that China is preparing for stronger action. Draft rules released last fall threaten fines for those who rent space to unregistered religious organizations, and new restrictions on contact and financial transactions between Chinese believers and foreign groups Mr. Johnson warned that such a strategy could “create a lot more problems for them than they think. They’re essentially picking a fight with people who are not likely to back down.” Under Mao, he noted, the Christian church roughly quadrupled in size despite the imprisonment and death of pastors and priests.

More in the Globe&Mail.

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"China´s forgotten people" in Xinjiang, interview - Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson

Journalist and author Ian Johnson interviews Nick Holdstock, who recently published his book China's Forgotten People: Xinjiang, Terror and the Chinese State for the New York Times. Terror attacks, and the government heavy-handed response have often blurred the image of Xinjiang´s natives. A snippet.

Ian Johnson:

Q. How is Xinjiang portrayed inside China?

A. Until fairly recently, the government’s media narrative was that everything was fine. All most people knew about Xinjiang was the ethnic minority singing and dancing shows they saw on state TV. It was only after 9/11 that the government put forth a different narrative. And after the Urumqi riots in 2009, a lot of people throughout China really had a shift in perception. Xinjiang went from being a place of benevolent minstrels and fruit to a place of violence and danger.

Q. One point you make is that violence isn’t confined to Xinjiang. There have been violent clashes across China over land and resources.

A. Yes, I wanted to put events in Xinjiang within the framework of national policy. We see a rural-urban divide across China, as well as pressures for water and other resources. In the book, I argue that the impoverishment of rural parts of Xinjiang, especially in the predominantly Uighur south of the region, isn’t the result of purely ethnic discrimination. But given all the other cultural, linguistic and religious restrictions imposed on Uighur communities, it’s unsurprising that many Uighurs perceive it that way.

Q. What do we know about reports about limits on so-called Islamic dress, or forced alcohol sales?

A. There are definitely local officials who are enforcing policies like selling alcohol in predominantly Uighur areas or trying to ban women from wearing veils. The problem is we don’t have good information. We don’t have reporters going to these places very much and we don’t have much contact with daily life in these places either.

Q. One point you make is that popular culture is a force for change in Xinjiang. You discussed one song about a guest who comes to a house and never leaves — obviously a symbol for Han Chinese moving to Xinjiang.

A.Yes, that tells you more about how people are feeling than an explosion somewhere. These songs  and poems aren’t expressing grievances inspired by jihadist ideology. They instead reflect the concerns of many ordinary people in these communities.

More in the New York Times.

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