Had there been any signs recently indicating that the situation in the Xinjiang province was about to explode?

The signs were there, but it was not predictable that it would happen just now. There was some violence in many parts of Xinjiang before, but it has been ten years since there have been demonstrations of violence of this scale. I believe many people in China thought that the problem had been solved. But in fact it was just being pushed down and suddenly it exploded.

Concretely, what are the most alarming policies implemented by Beijing to ensure control over Uyghur Muslims in that region? Are the Chinese authorities eliminating the Uyghur culture, as the Uyghur population accuses?

The most obvious aspect is that in most of Xinjiang there is a strong Chinese military presence. In terms of eroding culture, the spoken language is safe: a lot of people only speak Uyghur, they don’t speak Chinese. Nevertheless, there is a real problem with written Uyghur and Uyghur literature, it could have not developed freely for decades. There are books published in Uyghur, but they are subject to a very severe censorship and any author who publishes anything that suggests that there should be an independent East Turkestan is jailed. There is a very severe suppression of Uyghur culture, and the Muslim religion is part of that, though mosques in the region are not very active.

Chinese control over the autonomous region passes also through immigration policies. The Uyghurs feel besieged in their own land. How has demography changed since Xinjiang. was declared part of China?

The region has been part of China for over a hundred years; it became a Chinese province in 1884, so the immigration issue is not a recent problem. Han Chinese migration has been quite slow until the 1950-60. When Beijing started the economic reform program in the Eighties there was a lot more. People were going there thinking they would find jobs easily. In the Fifties and the Sixties the Uyghurs were about 70% of the Xinjiang population, now they are less than 50%.

Are Uyghurs excluded from economic development? Is there an economical apartheid?

Yes, partly because their level of education is not high enough. If they don’t speak and read Chinese correctly, then they do not get a job. But they are also excluded for ethnic reasons: Han Chinese prefer to work with Han. Simply, there is a strong anti-Uyghur racism there.

Everybody is drawing parallels with Tibet, because at the base of both issues there are religious and ethnic problems. The Uyghur issue however has been ignored by western countries more than the Tibetan one. Is this be because of a spreading prejudice against the religion they follow? What are the differences in these two situations?

The difference is certainly that the Uyghurs are Muslims and Muslims are not very popular in the West right now. Though the main difference is that with Tibet there is an alternative government in exile under the Dalai Lama, so the Chinese have always been able to point at the Dalai Lama and say that he is undermining their control over Tibet. And a lot of Tibetans as we know support the Dalai Lama. That is not the case for Xinjiang. The Uyghurs do look to Central Asian states, such as Kirghizstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, as a sort of a mother, but there is not an alternative government.

Nevertheless Beijing blames the Uyghurs diaspora for creating the violence. Are these allegations false?

I don’t find that credible, the diaspora Uyghurs are not in a position to create that level of demonstration because Xinjiang is very isolated and communications are not very good. My view is that the demonstrations are, if not spontaneous, organized internally. It is true that there are Diaspora organizations which support the idea of an independent Xinjiang and they may give moral support to the Uyghurs in China, but I don’t think they would be inciting this kind of violence.

But what do the majority of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang want: independence or just less oppression and more respect of their rights?

They surely want respect, to be able to practice their religion freely, equal access to jobs. They don’t want to be second-class citizens. But it is not possible to be certain whether the majority wants independence. When you talk to people they are not willing to say, because there is spies all around. We can guess that, like in Tibet, if they had a choice they would prefer to be governed by Uyghurs and not by Chinese, but it is very difficult to say.

Tibet is rich in uranium, XinJiang is rich in oil and gas. From a geo-strategic point of view what does the Xinjiang region represent for Beijing?

There is no doubt that Xinjiang natural gas is very important to Beijing. China needs to control the region not only because it is on its borders with the Central Asian countries, but also because there is this idea of a modern Silk Road, an Eurasian-China trade route.

In the past there have been some terrorists attacks in Xinjiang. Beijing accuses the Uyghurs of being terrorists and of having links with Al Qaeda. What is your opinion of these alleged links?

There are lots of allegations that the Uyghurs have links with Al Qaeda, but, personally, I have seen no evidence of that. It seems most unlikely because they are not really the same kind of Muslims. Most Uyghurs are Sufis, while Al Qaeda is very much Saudi Wahabi.

Resentment now seems to have reached a serious stage. Do you believe that that in the end the so called “terrorist threat” that China plays up, as many believe in an exaggerated way, may soon become reality? Could the coercive methods used by the Chinese authorities in the end become a double-edged weapon for Beijing?

I am afraid that might be possible. If it does happen, it will be partly because of Chinese policies. The real problem is that the only tactic Beijing knows how to use is suppression, military force, imprisoning. They are not able to negotiate also because all Uyghur organizations are illegal. There are no legal political parties or religious organizations that can represent Uyghurs within the government.

Does the fact that the authorities have the support of the Han population in Xianjing once again prove that the Chinese authoritarian political system is working?

Yes, the Han population gradually supports the political system because they benefit from it economically. There are critics, but when it comes to the situation in Xinjiang, the only information the Han Chinese have comes from government sources, so they don’t have any independent view of what is happening.

Do you think that a more widespread use of the internet may somehow change the situation?

It can, but not necessarily for the better. It looks as if the issue of the original trigger for these demonstration was an internet rumor about some harassment of Han women by Uyghur men. So the internet is going to play a growing role in China, but not necessarily for the better.

Translated by Francesca Simmons