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This paper examines the inter-group difference in social leverage ties between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in Ürümchi, China. Social leverage ties refer to high-status ties such as professionals and managers who can provide egos with information or access to education, training, employment, etc. Existing studies have suggested three hypotheses (i.e. retention of culture, homophily and neighbourhood poverty) for the mechanisms of ethnic differences in network composition. Based on the survey data the author collected in 2005, this paper suggests another main mechanism – state policies – in explaining the ethnic variations. State policies have led to in-group association and ethnic inequalities, which have limited Uyghur access to high-status individuals. Data analysis shows the Uyghur–Han difference in social leverage ties controlling for key background characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the topic of Xinjiang has received considerable attention from scholars in the recent years, there has been a lack of scholarship on policy proposals for what should be done there to improve the situation for the Uyghurs. Moreover, and even though the literature on democratization in China is plentiful, Xinjiang scholars have not fully engaged that literature in their writings. Likewise, scholars on the topic of democratization in China have not devoted adequate attention to Xinjiang, focusing instead on China overall. His paper argues that the best approach for the Chinese government in bringing about lasting and sustainable peace in Xinjiang is through adopting a combination of competitive democratic elections to be held throughout Xinjiang and fostering political openness through participatory democracy in Xinjiang, the People's Republic of China (PRC). However, with the massive influx of Han into Xinjiang following the founding of the PRC, tensions between the Uyghurs and the Han have exacerbated significantly. Denying Uyghurs basic freedoms such as speaking their own language and going to the mosque further adds to the tensions and is not a viable policy. Thus, in order to improve the situation in Xinjiang, it is essential that Uyghurs are engaged in the democratic process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has been quite successful in developing its relations with Central Asian states and expanding its influence in the region since the 1990s. Most analysts contribute the success to the strategy and policy of China’s national central government. This observation certainly has a lot of truth, but at the same time we should not neglect or downplay the role that the local government in Xinjiang has played in cementing China–Central Asian ties. Xinjiang has functioned as an indispensable actor in China’s look-west and act-west policies towards Central Asia and beyond. With Chinese foreign policy elites increasingly interested in using the act-west policy as part of their counter-hedging strategy in Asia, Xinjiang appears to enjoy many more opportunities and play an even more significant role in China’s relations with countries in its western flank. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (Xinjiang Shengchan Jianshe Bingtuan—shortened formBingtuan) is a distinctive military agricultural settlement and production institution in China’s western region, Xinjiang. It is also a modern form of China’s traditional ethnic frontier governing mechanism. This article discusses Bingtuan’s historical precedents, modern development and innovative change for Xinjiang governance. In an examination of Bingtuan’s main functions for China’s ethnic frontier governance, this article argues that in addition to economic sustainability and territorial security, Bingtuan played an important but multifaceted role in ethnic relations in Xinjiang, such as territorial fragmentation, ethnic separation and redefinition of regional identity; therefore Bingtuan not only makes its administrated area China’s ‘frontier of settlement’ but also acts as a key state agency for whatever future Xinjiang might have. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's counterinsurgency strategy in Tibet and Xinjiang relies heavily on hard power and imposition. Well-functioning vertical coordination in the security sector of China's political system and assimilationist nationality dynamics combine to favour the use of force against ethnic groups that do not accept the political legitimacy of China's Communist Party. Transnational links contribute to China's difficulties with implementing counterinsurgency in Tibet and help China implement its strategy in Xinjiang. Development strategies aimed at improving living standards are crowded out due to a lack of horizontal coordination between civilian and security agencies and a bias towards unitary nation-building in Chinese nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on representations of the Muslim dynasty that exercised power locally under the Qing dynasty until 1930 in the oasis of Qumul in eastern Xinjiang, this article challenges the binary notions of ‘official’ versus ‘unofficial’ discourse by looking at the production of historical knowledge on the ground. Versions of local histories are communicated both in censored publications and in informally transmitted oral narratives, which are not independent realms but in constant dialogue with each other. Produced at the interface of the oral and the written, these representations are laden with contradictions and ambiguities, portraying the Muslim dynasty sometimes as feudal exploiters, at other times as models of good governance. It will be shown how historical knowledge is produced at the junctures of the oral and the written, and of official and unofficial discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's war on terrorism is among its most prominent and least understood of campaigns. An indigenous insurgency with links to the global jihad has threatened the government's grip on a massive region of northwestern China known as Xinjiang. Riots, bombings, ambushes, and assassinations have rocked the region under separatist and Islamist banners. China acted early and forcefully, and, although initially brutal, their efforts represent one of the few successes in the global struggle against Islamist terrorism. China's campaign, which has reshaped local society and government institutions, has been so effective that scholars and statesmen now debate whether China genuinely confronts a terrorist threat from Xinjiang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on British resident Bertram William Sheldrake's claim to being the newly elected King of Chinese Turkestan, a region in China known as the Province of Xinjiang, which was engulfed in a civil war dominated by international tensions and intrigue. Description of the province's landscape; Background information about Sheldrake and his activities as leader of the Western Islamic Association.