This book which literally translates to “Xinjiang: 70 years under command of CCP” is a book written by Kamakura on the study of Xinjiang's ethnic groups. This is a book randomly picked by me on iLib Reader using Taiwan National Central Library membership just to keep it from being forgotten and inactive, but turns out some random book worth a nice read.
Before reading this book, my understanding about Xinjiang is about the vastness that online shopping seldom gives free delivery coupons. The people of Xinjiang consists of Muslim majority from Uyghur ethnicity. The Uyghur girls from TikTok and other short video platforms are very good looking, which has a blend of Asian and Middle Eastern look.
Xinjiang has been a place of diversified cultures since ancient times and has made many excellent cultural achievements. All ethnic groups in Xinjiang are economically interdependent and embrace each other's cultures.
China in the Cold War era, has tried to make Xinjiang an Autonomous Region, but the local people wanted more a Federated Republic those similar to Uni Soviet.
Zhou Enlai in one of his speech stated that the fled of the people of Xinjiang to Uni Soviet is somehow related to the carelessness of the ruling party that makes life quite difficult for the people in Xinjiang. And after certain period of time, cotton and one other commodity is excluded from the rationing.
China often emphasises that all ethnic cultures that originated in the fertile soil of Chinese civilization have not only promoted their own development but also enriched Chinese culture.
It is funny and stupid that the ruling party tried to enforce a system that the cultures of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are rooted in the fertile soil of the Chinese civilization and are closely related to Chinese culture. The party try to remove local people from the important decisions. It also only let the local people have a lower rank in the government.
Some research indicates that policies, such as mandatory Mandarin studies, have positively impacted Uyghurs economically but raised difficulties for them in inheriting their ethnic cultures. Students from Xinjiang Autonomous Region were given certain privilege to study in big cities of China, a very good political move from the ruling party.
But after several decades, the latest party leader took a different approach and enacted anti-terrorism policy, and said in the book that cultural genocide has happened in the region which made a lot of people went into rehabilitation camp without having any trial.
Overall, this book tells story from the very early era until the very modern one. It is one rather neutral book to read if you are trying tounderstand Xinjiang.
The last pages point out that “genocide” is not an all-encompassing term for the horrors of the modern surveillance state. Indeed, there are things worse than death.