Xinjiang eyes direct land trade with India, avoid Pakistan

[LETHALFORCE]

China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India


China's Muslim-dominated Xinjiang Uyghur province today made a strong pitch for opening up direct border trade with India, which is currently done through Pakistan's Rawalpindi city, citing improvement in the economic ties between the two countries.

Xinjiang province's trade with India is currently conducted through Pakistan as there are no border posts, Shu Dagang, Vice Chairman of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, told a media briefing here.

Every year, Indian traders and Xinjiang businessmen meet at Rawalpindi to discuss the trade volume and items, he said answering a question.

With the deepening of India-China ties, Xinjiang, which shares borders with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) besides a host of central Asian states and Russia looks towards developing direct trade links between New Delhi and Kashghar, a border town in Xinjiang.

It only takes about 50 minutes by air from New Delhi to Kashghar and the land distance between both is about 1200 km.

"With our trade relationship deepening, this link also will be developed and promoted," Shu said.

Relations between Xinjiang and India, which were badly hit after India-China hostilities in 1962, were looking up in recent times.

The province's Governor Nur Bekri visited India last November with a big trade delegation to explore possibilities of stepping up direct trade between the two sides.

Despite very close ties, the trade between Pakistan and Xinjiang is hardly $400 million, whereas the province had overall turnover of $22.8 billion with neighbouring countries last year.

Shu, however, played down Xinjiang's concerns over cross- border terrorism from Pakistan, saying that the problem is being effectively handled through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in which Pakistan and India are observers.

The 12th SCO summit will begin here tomorrow. Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian External Affairs Minister S M Krishana will be attending it.

Xinjiang is experiencing ethnic turbulence for the past several years with the Uyghurs agitating against the increasing settlements of Han Chinese.

 

[Ray]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Excellent idea.

But the Chinese would be dead scared of the idea!

 

[aeroblogger]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Both AI and SG have been considering flying Delhi-Kashgar over the last few months. I think the latter would be more successful, as their Bombardier Dash-8 Q400s are more suited to the route. However, the government is putting pressure on AI to serve Kashgar in an attempt to strengthen India-China relations.

One of the Chinese Majors (Air China I think...) was also considering this route.

 

[Yusuf]

East Turkestan trading with India. Via Indian territory of Gilgit Baltistan. Good!

 

[kickok1975]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

East Turkestan trading with India. Via Indian territory of Gilgit Baltistan. Good!

East Turkestan, what Turkestan? Can we find it in map?

 

[Ray]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

 

[Ray]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Eastern Turkistan


An introduction to Uyghurs and their motherland, East Turkistan.

Introduction to East Turkistan

East Turkistan, also known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, lies in the heart of Asia. The current territorial size of East Turkistan is 1,626,000 square kilometers (635,000 square miles), which is 4 times the size of California.

According to official records in 1949, East Turkistan's original territories contained 1,820,000 square kilometers of land. The Qinghai and Gansu provinces of China annexed part of the territory as a result of the Chinese communist invasion of 1949.

East Turkistan has a diverse geography. It has grand deserts, magnificent mountains, and beautiful rivers, lakes, grasslands and forests.

A brief history of East Turkistan and its people

East Turkistan is the homeland of the Turkic speaking Uyghurs and other central Asian peoples such as Kazaks, Kyrgyz, Tatars, Uzbeks, and Tajiks. According to the latest Chinese census, the present population of these Muslims is slightly over 11 million; among these, the 8.68 million Uyghurs constitute the majority. However, Uyghur sources indicate that Uyghur population in East Turkistan exceeds 15 million.

East Turkistan is located beyond a logical boundary of China, the Great Wall. Historically, East Turkistan is a part of Central Asia, not of China. East Turkistan's people are not Chinese; they are Turks of Central Asia.

Records show that the Uyghurs have a history of more than 4000 years in East Turkistan. Situated along a section of the legendary Silk Road, Uyghurs played an important role in cultural exchanges between the East and West and developed a unique culture and civilization of their own.

Uyghurs embraced Islam in A.D. 934 during the Karahanid Kingdom. Kashgar, the capital of the Kingdom, quickly became one of the major learning centers of Islam. Art, the sciences, music and literature flourished as Islamic religious institutions nurtured the pursuit of an advanced culture. In this period, hundreds of world-renowned Uyghur scholars emerged. Thousands of valuable books were written. Among these works, the Uyghur scholar Yusuf Has Hajip's book, Kutatku Bilig (The Knowledge for Happiness, 1069-1070) and Mahmud Kashgari's Divan-i Lugat-it Turk (a dictionary of Turk languages) are most influential.

East Turkistan was invaded by the Manchu Empire of China

The Islamic Uyghur Kingdom of East Turkestan maintained its independence and prosperity until the Manchu Empire invaded the nation in 1876. After eight years of bloody war, the Manchu Empire formally annexed East Turkistan into its territories and renamed it "Xinjiang" (meaning "New Territory" or "New Frontier") on November 18, 1884. Uyghur power, stature and culture went into a steep decline after the Manchu invasion.

After Chinese Nationalists overthrew the Manchu Empire in 1911, East Turkistan fell under the rule of the nationalist Chinese government. The Uyghurs, who wanted to free themselves from foreign domination, staged numerous uprisings against Nationalist Chinese rule and twice (once in 1933 and again in 1944) succeeded in setting up an independent East Turkistan Republic.

Political Background

Heavy-handed state repression of all activities associated by the Chinese government with "Separatism" has created a dire human rights environment for the Uyghur Muslim minority population of northwest China. Beijing has for more than a decade claimed to be confronted with "religious extremist forces" and "violent terrorists" in Xinjiang Province, a vast region one-sixth of China's land area.

Xinjiang is in fact a large, sparsely populated area that has been a site of heavy army and police concentrations since 1949, and is used as a base for nuclear testing, miliatry training, and prison labor facilities. The population of 18 million includes several Turkic-speaking Muslim ethnic groups, of which the Uyghurs, numbering eight million, are the largest. The percentage of ethnic Han Chinese in Xinjiang has grown as a result of government policies from six percent in 1949 to 40 percent at present, and now numbers some 7.5 million people. Much like Tibetans, Uyghurs in Xinjiang have struggled for cultural survival in the face of a government-supported influx by Chinese migrants, as well as harsh repression of political dissent and any expression, however lawful or peaceful, of their distinct identity.

Reports from Xinjiang document a pattern of abuse, including political imprisonment, torture, and disappearance. Mosques are summarily closed and the Uyghur language is banned from use in universities. Uyghurs are subjected to compulsory unpaid labor in the construction of a pipeline planned to export local petroleum resources to other parts of China. Uyghurs also continue to be the only population in China consistently subjected to executions for political crimes, and these executions are often both summary and public.

A handful of small-scale explosions aimed at government targets over the past decade have been repeatedly invoked by the Chinese government, particularly since September 11, in support of its strike-hard campaign to crack down on separatism and terrorism. In policy pronouncements for both domestic and international audiences, the government has sought to establish that all separatism is tantamount to Islamic terrorism, and in fact uses the terms interchangeably. The state's efforts to extinguish the common desire among Uyghurs for autonomy or outright independence appear to have increased the alienation of the population and, some analysts speculation, the potential for future violent conflict.

Although human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International express concern over the deteriorating situation in Xinjiang, expertise on the region is so scarce that activists agree that without critical support from Uyghur-run human rights organizations, very little information from within Xinjiang will see the light of day. Some information collection and documentation has begun in a sporadic way in Uyghur communities across the diasporas, but the effect will be limited without the establishment the establishment of a human rights organization specifically focused on the Uyghur situation.

East Turkistan

The above is what the Uyghur Canadian Society has indicated as to what is East Turkestan.

 

[Yusuf]

East Turkestan, what Turkestan? Can we find it in map?

DFI is not Chinese mouthpiece. East Turkestan it is. Map and details as given by Ray.

 

[no smoking]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Excellent idea.

But the Chinese would be dead scared of the idea!

You are wrong again.

It is actually Chinese's idea! There is nothing else than money can calm people.

Only poor people would like the idea of revolution because they got nothing to lose.

 

[latsar]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Yes ,yes we know China as lot of loose change now and we are also aware of Chinese Creative Map Drawings Skill

 

[kickok1975]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

DFI is not Chinese mouthpiece. East Turkestan it is. Map and details as given by Ray.

Can you help to find where East Turkestan is in any world map? If you can't, then please forget such wet dream

 

[kickok1975]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Sorry, this is called Xinjiang. There is no place in the world named East Turkestan.

Maybe you should educate us again since you always enjoy doing it.

 

[Yusuf]

Can you help to find where East Turkestan is in any world map? If you can't, then please forget such wet dream

Already explained by Ray. You know what it may well become an independent state thanks to your Pakistani brothers.

 

[Sridhar]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/uighur-map.gif

East Turkestan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Government - East Turkistan Government in Exile - EastTurkistan-Gov.org

http://www.unpo.org/images/member profile east turkestan, august 24 2009.pdf

 

[Yusuf]

Jai ho!!!

 

[kickok1975]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Already explained by Ray. You know what it may well become an independent state thanks to your Pakistani brothers.

Then you would feel very happy wouldn't you. But it is still a wet dream never going to happen. Instead, I may well see Xinjiang becomes a much prosperous part of China based on its unique location and its abundant resources.

Xinjiang is not what you think it is. Muslim Uygur is just one ethnic group among many of that vast territory. Majority of them are not violent people who would risk their peaceful life to seek independence for a so called "East Turkestan" that if there is one, will be no different than those states ruled by radical Islam.

This so called "East Turkestan", again if there is one, may not be friend with China, but thanks to your neighbor country of the west, it may treat India even worse. I find it's laughable some Indian members here is so keen of China's demise whereas they forget the consequence India may face should China's West part break out become another "stan".

 

[Ray]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

Sorry, this is called Xinjiang. There is no place in the world named East Turkestan.

Maybe you should educate us again since you always enjoy doing it.

Actually, if anyone went by the Chinese definitions of areas, then there is nothing called China either.

中國 (Traditional characters)
中国 (Simplified characters)

Preclassic Old Chinese: truŋ kʷǝ̄k
Classic Old Chinese: truŋ kwǝ̄k
Western Han Chinese: ṭǝuŋ kwǝ̄k
Eastern Han Chinese: ṭǝuŋ kwǝ̄k
Early Postclassic Chinese: ṭɨuŋ kwǝ̄k
Middle Postclassic Chinese: ṭuŋ kwǝ̄k
Late Postclassic Chinese: ṭuŋ kwǝ̄k
Middle Chinese: ṭüŋ kwʌk

Mandarin: zhōng guó
Cantonese: jūng kwok
Min Nan: diong1 gok7
Taiwanese: tiong kok

Tibet is also known so in Chinese, which calls it 西藏 Xī Zàng. Yet, the world calls it Tibet.

 

[Ray]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

 

[Ray]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

It is an incorrect belief that India would want China to split.

This would not serve any purpose.

Your point about it becoming another 'stan' is very valid.

China, as it is, with its contradictions, is ideal since it requires China to also pay heed to the internal dissent and therefore is kept busy.

An internally busy China is a safe China!

 

[kickok1975]

Re: China's Xinjiang keen to trade directly with India

It is an incorrect belief that India would want China to split.

This would not serve any purpose.

Your point about it becoming another 'stan' is very valid.

China, as it is, with its contradictions, is ideal since it requires China to also pay heed to the internal dissent and therefore is kept busy.

An internally busy China is a safe China!

China, like India, is a country composes many ethnic groups with many potential conflict interests. Compare to India, China is in fact more stable because vast majority of Chinese are "Han". India not only has huge population of different minorities, but also the country's population is divided by religions. In some degree, managing India is a more daunting task than managing China. Indian members should have a little more humble and cautious sense before advocating other countries divide