Xinjiang in the Twenty-first Century ― Islam, Ethnicity and Resistance

There has been a significant increase in the twenty-first century in the frequency and intensity of violent incidents in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the far northwest province of China, where the Uyghurs, the Turkic-speaking Muslim people who historically constituted the majority population, feel themselves displaced and discriminated against by the growing in-migration of Han Chinese. The book explores the continuing unrest in Xinjiang. It focuses in particular on the major violence of July 2009 in the city of Urumqi, on repression and the practice of Islam in southern Xinjiang, and on the policy of the Chinese Communist Party which has used the rhetoric of the "War on Terror" to justify its repression in terms which it hopes will gain sympathy from the international community. The book relates these particular points to the development of China-Uyghur relations more broadly in the longer historical perspective, and concludes by discussing how the situation is likely to unfold in future.

Michael Dillon is a frequent commentator on Chinese affairs for the BBC and other broadcasters. He was formerly Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Durham, UK, where he taught Chinese and Chinese history. His previous publications include China: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary, Encyclopedia of Chinese History, Contemporary China – An Introduction, China’s Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlement and Sect, Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Far North-West and Xinjiang and the Expansion of Chinese Communist Power, (all published by Routledge and RoutledgeCurzon).