Eric's Beijing Diary

Technical Note: I have gotten feedback that this video may be blocked in some places in America due to copyright issues. I live in China, so it is very hard to verify that. Please let me know if there are any issues.

Very informative documentary on Xinjiang. Their estimate for the number of Uyghurs interned in concentration camps is two million. I think that number is high, but I think it is safe to say that there have been several hundred thousand. We have been hearing reports that the camps have now been closed (the documentary also mentions this), but I am skeptical, because many of those who had disappeared have still not been heard from. It could be that they have been sent to work camps. I have several times heard reports that some Uyghurs have been transfered to other provinces to be used for labor. Whatever the case may be, there is no question that a massive, horrifying abuse of human rights has gotten the world's attention. I don't think China expected this. I think they thought they were going to get away with it. The world largely ignored the removal of crosses in Wenzhou in the summer of 2014.

But this is very different. This involves locking up many, many innocent people because of their ethnicity. These people have committed no crimes, and most of them have no political involvement. But they either have relatives abroad, or have expressed too much interest in Islam or some such thing.

In my opinion, it was a colossal error in judgment on the part of the Communist Party. There is no question that has been a public relations disaster. When I first came to China, there was some kind of television program or movie where all the bad guys had Henan accents. Lots of people in Henan complained, but it brought up discussion about Henan's reputation. I was intrigued, because I had never heard about this before, and it turns out that I had quite number of friends from Henan province, perhaps mainly because the house church movement is especially strong there. So I asked one of my Henan friends, "What's this about Henan? Why do people think that people from Henan are bad?

She said, "Henan is to China what China is to the rest of the world." That was a signitficant statement about Henan (whether or not it's true), but an equally significant statement about China. There are times when it seems for all the world like the boys at Zhongnanhai want to make sure China doesn't lose that reputation as the "bad boy" of Asia. So China has come under significant criticism for this great injustice toward innocent people.

But I also see a problem with their critics. They often use the term "genocide" when referring to what China is doing to the Uyghur people. I don't like this, because it isn't honest. Words have meanings. Genocide means mass killing. The Communists are putting the Uyghurs in concentration camps. They are not putting them in gas chambers. The problem with using emotionally loaded terms like "genocide," is that you turn the perpetrators of the injustice you are fighting into victims, because you're saying something about them that is not true, so that creates an opportunity for them to deny everything you're saying about them. Then, suddenly, people are saying, "I guess it's not so bad for them to be putting people in concentration camps as long as they are not executing them," and this becomes the new normal.

No. As I have said previously, deprivation of liberty without due process is a violation of human rights. If you house me in a palatial mansion, give me servants who wait on me hand and foot, and server me sumptuous meals on solid gold dinner ware, you are still violating my human rights if you are keeping me there against my will. We must not back down from this. I suspect that the reason the "supporters" of the Uyghurs use emotionally loaded terms like genocide, is because in their heart of hearts they don't really believe that deprivation of liberty is that bad. So how, then, are they any better than the Communists, who are putting people in concentration camps labeled as training centers because they also do not believe deprivation of liberty is that bad as long as you can convince yourself that you are doing it in the best interest of the people?

What about cultural genocide? Yes, that is a legitimate issue, but a lot more research needs to be done about this. I have heard information in the years since the summer of 2005 when I was in Kashgar about destruction of traditional Uyghur communities. And there is some talk that traditional Uyghur activity is being replaced by fake displays. More recently, the government is scaling back the teaching of the Mongolian language in Inner Mongolia. Reports like this are deeply troubling, and if focus is placed on this issue and held there, I am all for that. But too often what happens is that they start out talking about cultural genocide, and then gradually, quietly drop the "cultural" off the term and we're back to genocide. That's wrong both because it takes the focus off cultural genocide, which is a real issue, and puts it on genocide (such as Hitler putting six million Jews in gas chambers) which is a phony issue with respect to Xinjiang, but also because, again, it puts deprivation of liberty on the back burner so to speak, with the implication that it is not really sufficiently unjust to stand alone as a singularly eggregious violation of human rights. We need to go back to the Magna Carta.

The other problem I have with those who claim to be defending the Uyghurs is that they talk about Xinjiang being an independent country as the ideal. I do not agree. The country name that I see mentioned on Twitter is "East Turkestan." But I'm quite certain most of the people who support the idea of Xinjiang as an independent country do not know where that name came from. It was not a name created by Uyghurs to identify their own country. It was invented by the Russians as an attempt to replace the British name, which was "Chinese Turkestan." The British name was no doubt frustrating to the Russians, because in using that name, the Brits were giving it to China to keep it from Russia.

Back in 2005, I traveled to Xinjiang. I flew to Urumqi and took the train 24 hours across the burning hot Taklamakan Desert to Kashgar. In Kashgar, I stayed at a place called the "Seman Binguan." Behind the Seman Binguan was the old Russian Conuslate, looking exactly like it did in 1890. Across town, behind the Chinibagh hotel was the old British Consulate. The Brits and the Russians were in competition for India--what Rudyard Kipling called "The Great Game." It was the "Cold War" of the nineteenth century, and Kashgar was considered "neutral territory." It was clearly in the interest of the Brits for Xinjiang to belong to China. The Brits never had any designs on Xinjiang. Not so with Russia.

Here's the bottom line: Historically, Xinjiang was either going to be part of Cnina or part of Russia. Which would you prefer? Those who advocate independence for that area seem to believe that the world would be a safer place if we just had one more Islamic Repubic. I rather think not. So you see, the solution to the problem is not to make Xinjiang independent. Who's army would defend its independence?

But that having been said, it must be admitted that China's administration of Xinjiang has been clumsy at best. I have always felt that the people of Xinjiang would have been so much better served if the Chinese government had attempted to hear from the Uyghur people about what their concerns were. But the powers that be in China seemed to be determined to forget about the needs of the people and focus on controlling them. And in 2016 they began to move from control to abject cruelty.

The government policy toward Uyghurs is essentially racist. A couple years ago one of my students told me her family was going to take a trip to Xinjiang. I told her to be careful. She assured me that they had nothing to worry about because they were Han people. She said that without batting an eye. This is not to say that all Han people are hostile toward Uyghurs. Not at all. There are many Han people who are very friendly toward Uyghurs. But they don't seem to feel that Uyghurs should enjoy the same rights that they, as the majority people group in China, take for granted.

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Labels: Human Rights, Magna Carta, Minorities, Mongolians, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

I walked into a restaurant the other day, and sat down to order something. The waitress started speaking to me in Russian. I said to her (in Mandarin). "I'm sorry, I don't speak Russian." She panicked. She started looking around for someone to help her. Her response was a bit annoying, but it also struck me funny. She was obviously worried because, since I didn't speak Russian, I must be an English speaker, and she didn't speak English.

But there was no reason for her to worry. After all, when I told her I didn't speak Russian, I wasn't speaking English. I was speaking Chinese. In fact, I had not spoken a word of English. I said to her slowly in Mandarin, "Do you speak Chinese?" She breathed a sigh of relief. In fact, she was Mongolian. Chinese was not her first language. I heard her telling her coworkers, "He speaks Chinese better than I do." That, of course, was nonsense.

Mongolians go to school in Mongolian (unless they live in a totally Han community). The go to school in Mongolian throughout their elementary, middle school, and high school years, and if they want to, throughout their college years. But they all study Mandarin one hour a day. In today's Inner Mongolia, where many shopkeepers are Chinese, that is going to make you basically a native speaker. It depends on the individual, of course. I have met Mongolians who seemed much more attached to English than Mandarin, but they are the exception. Most Mongolians speak Mongolian and Mandarin. Their level of Mandarin proficiency really depends on the extent to which they themselves want to be integrated into Chinese society. If they prefer to study in a Mongolian university and live a Mongolian life, they can do that. But if they are good students, and they want to go to a top university in Beijing, they will obviously become quite good at Mandarin. But it struck me that this young lady, whose Chinese is obviously very good, has grown up in an environment where her Mandarin is always seen as "substandard," since it is not as native as that of her Han neighbors. So she thinks her Chinese is not very good, when in fact, she is basically a native speaker.

Labels: Mongolians

Echo and Rex were both students of mine in the Software College, and Echo worked for me as a very efficient TA.

In modern China, a Mongolian wedding is actually a Chinese wedding with Mongolian costumes. It pretty much follows the pattern of Chinese weddings I have been to throughout China. If you only attended a wedding, you might be inclined to think that Mongolian culture had pretty much been absorbed by Chinese culture. This is, after all, the history of the Han people. They have always defeated their enemies by absorbing them.

But a closer look gives a more complete picture. In fact, Mongolians growing up in Inner Mongolia go to Mongolian schools where they are taught entirely in Mongolian, except for one hour a day, when they study the Mandarin language. Mongolians in Mongolia (which Chinese Mongolians call "Outer Mongolia") use the Russian script to for their own language, but Chinese Mongolians still use the ancient Mongolian script, sometimes called the "Uyghur Script," because they originally got it from a Uyghur scribe eight hundred years ago at the beginning of the 13th Century.

So there is an entire educational system—elementary school through college—built around the Mongolian language, both spoken and written. And, of course, this necessitates a publishing system also built entirely around the old Mongolian script. Echo's father is a professor, and he gave me a couple books he had written, both using the vertical Mongolian writing system that has been place for almost a millennium.

The result of the government policy is that the Mongolians are native speakers of Mongolian, but also, basically, native speakers of Mandarin. But with two languages to think about, very few of them speak English, unless they (like Echo) have been sent out to study. But another result of this policy is that most Mongolians do not express the same animosity toward the Chinese that you sometimes hear from other minorities. There are exceptions, of course. Last fall I traveled to Inner Mongolia, and met a guy who grew up in a town that did not have very many Mongolians, so he had to go to a Chinese school. He really felt that he had been robbed of his language, and was rather bitter toward the Chinese.

Labels: Mongolians

Took the light rail to Xizhimen last night, and caught the train from Beijing Bei (North Railway Station) to Chifeng in the northeastern part of Inner Mongolia. I stood looking out the window as we passed Wudaokou, and saw the crowd of cars, pedestrians and bicyclists waiting for me this time. Had a hard sleeper, but it was a bottom bed, so quite comfortable. But the cabin was not heated very well. No worries, they give you a heavy quilt, and I came prepared.

I am here for the wedding of one of my former students. This morning, we went to Echo's house and had a Mongolian breakfast. Millet and cream, roast lamb, and really tasty fried bread. But if you ever come to Inner Mongolia, don't eat too much for breakfast, because lunch will follow shortly.

Echo had lined up a place for me to stay in a quaint little Chinese bath house. Believe it or not, this little place actually has a computer in each room with a high speed internet connection.

Labels: Mongolians

I found out that the bus from Hohhot to Beijing is only a 6 hour run. Lonely Planet says 8-11 hours. Guess I need to break down and buy the latest edition, because train tickets can be really tough to get, but bus tickets and plane tickets are usually easy to get. But bus tickets are about a third the cost of plane tickets. There is a new highway now between Hohhot and Beijing, so you don't really save that much time by flying, if you figure the time spent getting to and from the airport on both ends.

The trip leaves me with some questions, and a few insights. First of all, there is the question of the relationship between Inner Mongolia and the country of Mongolia. The people are ethnically related. But so much time has passed since they were politically separated. They are just so different now. The Mongolians became quite Russian. They don't use the Mongolian script; they use the Russian Cyrillic. And contrary to what you might think, they are more likely to resent the Chinese than to resent the Russians, in spite of everything the Russians took from them. This may be partly because they did get their independence from Russia, so they don't seem to have the need to indulge resentment for stuff most of them don't remember. But I am going to stop there, because I have never been to Mongolia, so much of what I'm saying is surmised from what I hear.

Inner Mongolia is becoming a very Chinese place. Hohhot, for example, is a Chinese city, not a Mongolian city. Some would argue with that, because there are certainly many Mongolian cultural elements throughout the city. Tuesday evening we went to a bar to hear the famed Mongolian "throat singing." I've never heard anything like that in Beijing, except on TV. But those remaining cultural elements do not subtract significantly from the fact that Hohhot has become a Chinese city. It's similar to what you see in Xinjiang, actually. Kashgar is Uighur, not Chinese. But Urumqi, the capital city, is Chinese. It is like Hohhot in that respect. It has become very Chinese, because young professionals from Beijing and Shanghai find that they can buy a nice apartment in Urumqi for a fraction of what it would cost them in the East.

Labels: Mongolians

Yesterday evening they fired up the kang in the yurt where the Swiss guy and I were sleeping. I'm glad, because Jane told me this morning that she had been cold last night. I was warm and toasty. They didn't keep the fire going all night, but the bricks were hot when we went to bed--that's the main thing. It was a little hard, though. A true North China kang is a brick bed covered with a layer of clay. It is firm (to say the least), but still quite comfortable. These guys forgot the clay and used mats instead. Didn't quite do it for me. But this is a quiet, secluded place. Don't know how long it will stay that way, and it's a little depressing to see these folks, who, on one hand, complain about the growing Sinification of their "country," but who, on the other hand, are so heavily dependent on Chinese tourists for their livelihood. I hasten to add, though, that the feelings of the Mongolians in Inner Mongolia toward the Chinese do not seem to be as strong as those of the Tibetans. I guess they have been culturally integrated for quite a bit longer.

Labels: Mongolians

There was a British guy who was at the guest house when I got there yesterday, but he decided not to come. So Jane, the owner of the guest house, a Swiss guy who came in last night, and I all got in the owner's car this morning about nine and drove up here to the grassland.

I have always shied away from "sleep in a yurt" tours. What's the point? Mongolians don't live in yurts anymore; they are no longer nomadic. Can't blame them, can you? Anyway, I just could not get excited about some place where they have a gazillion yurts crammed together filled with tourists who came there just to have the beer party and say they slept in one.

Jane and the Swiss guy.
But the place we came to today is different. This place is a private farm. It is quiet and secluded. I have always said that the grassland of Inner Mongolia is like the prairies of the Great Plains. I guess that's another reason I have not been excited about the grassland. I lived in North Dakota for lots of years, and have seen plenty of prairie. But after seeing the place, I would say that it is probably more accurate to compare the grassland to the way North Dakota was a hundred years ago. There are very few fences here. And the few they have seem quite meaningless. I haven't seen one that didn't have significant gaps, or sections where the fence was lying on its side. Only the politest of animals could be restrained by the fences I have seen.

I'll tell you one thing for sure. Mongolian horses are rough riding! They have a short gait, so the ride does not even out as you pick up speed. I don't know, maybe I'm just not used to them, but it seemed to me that anything faster than walking was pretty rough. I remember riding Queen bareback when I was kid. Trotting was a bit rough, but as soon as she broke into a gallop, the ride actually got quite smooth. Not so with the Mongolian horse.

Labels: Mongolians

Went with Phoenix and May to a Mongolian restaurant this evening. I was introduced to Mongolian cuisine several years ago by a Mongolian princess, but I had never been to this particular place. I was confident, though, because I really like Mongolian food. The Mongolians are very carnivorous, and so am I, so I adapt well to the Great Khan's diet. Big on meat and potatoes. Beef and mutton, accompanied by more beef and mutton.

Labels: Mongolians

Echo took me to a Mongolian restaurant this morning. Echo is from Inner Mongolia, and I had expressed to her that I was interested in trying the Mongolian cuisine, especially breakfast. I needed to talk with Echo anyway, because I need a lab assistant for my PL/SQL class next semester, and Echo is only the second student I have met at Beihang who knows PL/SQL.

Somehow, Ghengis Khan's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grand-daughter does not remind me of her fierce and ferocious forbearer. She is bright, friendly, and cheerful. And the Mongolian breakfast is much to my liking. Inner Mongolia is the dairy of China, and not surprisingly, the breakfast cuisine reflects this. Milk tea, several varieties of cheeses, and tasty stir-fried millet. And a Mongolian breakfast is meaty--boiled mutton, which tastes really good dipped in milk tea with a touch of Mongolian butter.

I told Echo that I was hoping to visit Inner Mongolia next summer. Mongolians are one of the most prominent of China's fifty-five minorities. Echo studied Mandarin as a required course in school, but she was educated largely in Mongolian. She speaks and writes Mongolian, in addition to Mandarin, English, and Japanese, since she is in the "Japanese Software" program at Beihang.

Labels: Mongolians