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

Isobel Yeung, journalist for VICE News (Click photo for bio)

The other day I read a couple reports about the situation in Xinjiang, both of which indicated that the government may be close to closing the concentration camps housing thousands and thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs. One of the articles seemed to indicate that this may come soon and may already be happening. The other had more of a "some day if everything works out" feel to it. I'm not holding my breath, but I am going to be watching this very closely. Today I read another report saying that families were demanding proof that their missing relatives were actually free. So I am getting mixed messages. It may be a little time before the dust settles and we find out what changes (if any) have actually taken place.

I have mentioned the Magna Carta before. This is the thirteenth century document that outlines the basic human rights standard re: deprivation of liberty. I previously referred to Article 38, but the English version linked from the Wikipedia article identifies the same paragraph as Article 39. To avoid any confusion I will quote it here:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.

So do the concentration camps in Xinjiang constitute a violation of this principle? I think there is no question about it. But is America right to criticize China for the construction of these camps? No. America is completely hypocritical. Yes, the camps in Xinjiang constitute a violation of this provision from the Magna Carta. But so did Guantanamo. Bush Jr. openly admitted that he had located the camp in Cuba to avoid having to be bound by American rules of due process (which, of course, were based on the Magna Carta). You see, this is what is to frustrating about this whole issue. Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone..."

The problem in today's world is that when countries like China, which do not operate according to accepted standards of human rights, commit massive human rights abuses such as the incarceration of thousands of innocent Chinese citizens in concentration camps, it is getting harder and harder to find a country or countries to confront China that are not in some way guilty themselves.

But there are bright spots. The video below shows the exploits of two young ladies who went to Xinjiang to document the problem with hidden cameras. They went in, got the information they needed and got out. And then, incredibly, they went back in. Watch this. It is as entertaining as it is informative. Pray for the people of Xinjiang. Let us all pray that these dreaded concentration camps will soon be closed down so that these innocent people, who have never been charged with a crime and are decent law-abiding citizens, can return to their homes and families.

This video is important for a couple reasons: First, it is very useful, because it features scenes that an official journalist guided by government "minders" would never see. But it is perhaps more important because it shows that sometimes when we see man's inhumanity to man, we tend to throw up our hands and say "There is nothing I can do." But these two young ladies did something. They did not have political power, but they had the power of information, and in sharing this dark story with the outside world, they have made it harder for the powers that be to continue the injustice.

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Labels: Detention, Magna Carta, Turkey, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

The video below is the third part of what appears to be a three-part treatment by The Pulse on the problem in Xinjiang, China's far western province, where at least hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and Kazakhs have been detained in re-education camps. The first segment talked about the way Muslims are being treated in China. The second segment pointed out that many Kazakhs are also being detained. This problem does not only affect Uyghurs. This final segment (below) focuses on the fact that many of those who are detained are not in need of vocational training, but are detained because of their relationship with those outside of China. In one case, a man was detained because his daughter, who was living in Kazahkstan applied for citizenship there. In another case, a woman was detained supposedly because she had WhatsApp on her phone. It is a big problem for citizens of China to have a non-Chinese commmunications app on their phones. The first part of this video is about a completely non-related Hong Kong issue, so I have configured this video to start at Part 2. So the segment takes up half of a twenty-minute program.

Every country has internal matters dealing with its people that outsiders don't necessarily need to be involved in. But as I have said before, cruelty to innocent people is always everybody's business.

Those of you who lived through the Vietnam period perhaps remember Bob Dylan's song "Blowin' in the Wind." It is often associated with the Vietnam War, but Bob Dylan actually wrote it in 1962, before the Americans really got involved (in 1964). So it is really an anthem for how we view any injustice. These lines from that that song come to mind when I consider the current problem in Xinjiang:

How many times can a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.

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Labels: Justice, Kazakhs, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

This guy who has been helping Kazakhs in Kazakhstan who have relatives in
Xinjiang who have been detained, has now been placed under house arrest.
Click the picture to see the story.

The video below follows up on one I featured in a previous blog post. That video addressed the condition of Muslims in China, while this one focuses particularly on Kazakhs. In China there are two main groups of Muslims. the Hui Muslims and the Uyghurs. Both are Sunni Muslims, but the Hui have been integrated much more thoroughly than the Uyghurs.

But there are also the Kazakhs. For the life of me, I cannot imagine why the Communist party boss of Xinjiang is going after the Kazakhs. They are the most peace-loving people you could hope to meet. But there is one problem. Some of the Kazakhs in this video seem to be part Chinese, but most Kazakhs I have met do not look Chinese at all. They have a much more European appearance. Han Chinese people in Xinjiang tend to be a little paranoid of non-Chinese looking people. This fear is not entirely unjustified, because there has been violence. I know that some people outside of China, particularly Americans, will say that the local Muslims became violent because they were provoked. To my way of thinking, that's not relevant. Violence is never justified unless it is done directly in self-defense. So I do recognize that there are jihad Muslims in Xinjiang who have caused trouble. But this is a tiny minority of the Uyghur people, and I don't recall hearing anything about violence in Kazakh communities. But they are Muslim and they look foreign, and those two things together mean they are fair game. It's unfortunate. They are not foreigners. They are Chinese citizens. I have had Kazakh students. You couldn't ask for better. They are really nice kids. What's even more puzzling is that, as you will hear in the beginning of this program, the human rights leader involved with this issue (helping folks in Kazakhstan who have relatives in Xinjiang) is now under house arrest himself in Kazakhstan. That makes me think the Kazakh government is on China's side. And as late as the end of May this year, the Chinese Ambassador was emphatically denying that Kazakhs were being detained in Xinjiang. Incredible.

I think we need to keep watching this. But it is of note that no Muslim nation (except Turkey) has spoken out against the incarceration of Muslims in Xinjiang.

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Labels: Kazakhs, Muslims, Xinjiang

A gold dome is seen on the ground after it was removed from a hotel
in Tongxin county. Photo: Nectar Gan

Much concern has been expressed about the detention of Muslims in Xinjiang. The video below is interesting, because it also addresses the treatment of other Muslim communities in China. As I have noted before, the exact number (or even a reliable approximate number) of people detained is not available. So be aware that when you see or hear numbers mentioned, these are guesses. I don't know it it is true that there are over a million people detained. But I would think that it is at least several hundred thousand. But again, nobody knows.

Of course, as I mentioned in a previous post, the number of people detained is secondary to the question of whether they have been detained against their will without due process. Deprivation of liberty without due process is a violation of human rights regardless of what you do to those people once you have them locked up.

Another issue that is of interest to me is the response of surrounding Muslim countries. To my knowledge, the only country that has publicly taken a stand against the mass detentions is Turkey. That's not surprising, because the Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province are a Turkic people. I am thinking we may hear more about the response of other nations in months to come, but for now, it is significant that most Muslim countries support China's actions, or at least do not feel compelled to challenge them. It is one of the things I am going to be watching. This video is interesting in that regard, because it begins to explore the effect of the detention on neighboring Kazakhstan. More about that in a later post.

One further note about the video: The narration is a bit spotty. For example, they interview a Uyghur guy talking about a camp in a place called, "Kuldzha," without giving you any idea where that is. The nearest I can tell, this is referring to what is now called Yining, in northwest Xinjiang Province.

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Labels: Human Rights, Individual Liberty, Justice, Kazakhs, Minorities, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

Detainees listening to speeches in a re-education camp.
Lop County, Xinjiang, April 2017.

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Labels: Human Rights, Kazakhs, Magna Carta, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

Largest statue of Mao in the world - Kashgar, Xinjiang

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Labels: Detention, Individual Liberty, Magna Carta, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

 

 

Interesting discussion on the Sinica Podcast about attitudes toward China. Listen to this in the background while you're doing something else. I listened to it twice that way, and I found it to be very informative.

This podcast features a book by Benjamin Shobert called Blaming China. I don't know anything about him. I had never heard of him before I listened to this podcast. But the other two guys have both spent a lot of time in China.

Basically, they juxtapose two attitudes reflecting two kinds of people: the "panda huggers" and the "dragon slayers." For those of you who are not familiar with the terms, they are pretty self-explanatory, I think. The panda huggers tend to see everything China does in a positive light. They make excuses for actions taken that others would be inclined to criticize, and they articulate a defense that puts the best light on the actions of the Chinese government. The dragon slayers, on the other hand, tend to view every action of China with suspicion. They are the pessimists in this game, and they are often holdovers from the Cold War. The person who immediately comes to mind when I think of the dragon slayers is Peter Navarro. In the introduction to his documentary "Death by China," he says "Don't buy 'made in china.'" That seems to me to be a ridiculous statement. The American middle class has lived on China-made products, because it makes their lives more affordable. Can anybody reasonably expect them to buy more expensive products and lower their own standard of living just so they can say that everything they own is made in America?

But I don't want to get sidetracked. Every time I read or listen to something by Navarro, I can't seem to get more than an inch into it without detecting language that is designed to sell books. Navarro is a sensationalist. I have no time for that kind of thing because it doesn't educate me.

But who would I list as a panda hugger? Here comes the problem. Nobody wants to be called a panda hugger. This is interesting to me. All three of these guys in this podcast criticize the dragon slayers, but they don't think of themselves as panda huggers. But can you really have it both ways?

The way I have it both ways is to define it in terms of the issues, rather than just signing on to one category or the other. If you ask me, "Which one are you?" I would not say, "I'm a panda hugger" or "I'm a dragon slayer." I would say, "It depends on the issue.

For example, I am a churchman. I go to church every Sunday in Beijing at a Chinese church. When it comes to Christianity in China, I tend to be a panda hugger. Christians have it pretty good in China. American Christians complain a lot about "persecution" in China, but I personally think Chinese Christians have a lot of freedom. Most Protestant Christians worship in "family" churches that are technically illegal. But they are largely left alone. The Three-Self churches are regulated by the government, but that does not mean that they are totally controlled by the government. The idea some foreigners (even Christian foreigners) have of Christian pastors standing up every Sunday and spouting Communist propaganda is nonsense. I read a report like that one time in the Wall Street Journal. It was nauseating. Basically, Christian pastors in Three-Self churches say what they think they can get by with, and most of the time, it's more than enough to get the job done.

Sure, there are problems. In the summer of 2014, the party boss of Zhejiang Province pulled the crosses off of more than a thousand churches in the city of Wenzhou (a Wenzhou family church pastor told me it was 1400). That was very rude. But it was as noteable for what they did not do as for what they did do. They did not arrest a bunch of pastors. They did not tear down the church buildings (except for the huge, five million dollar mega-church they demolished).

They just took the crosses off the buildings. Not very nice, but the effect was positive. Christians started asking themselves, "Why did God allow this to happen? Were we allowing the symbol of the cross to become more important than the cross itself?" So it had a purifying effect. Christianity in China is much more pure than Christianity in America.

Another area where I tend to be a panda hugger is when it comes to China's determined independence regarding the currency issue. Every four years American politicians talk about China being a "currency manipulator." But such talk is disingenuous. Hong Kong has had their currency pegged to the dollar for many years. Why don't the politicians ever complain about Hong Kong? And Ecuador doesn't even have their own currency. They use the US dollar. How can you have more of a peg than that? Yet, I have never heard a whisper about Ecuador's "currency manipulation" from American politicians. This is one area where I agree with the Wall Street Journal. They have said that countries like China and Hong Kong and Ecuador are merely outsourcing their currency to the US Federal Reserve. Simply true.

But when it comes to Human rights, I tend to be a dragon slayer.

So let's take a look at this. First of all, they all seem to be situated toward the left end of the political spectrum. I know that's true for Jeremy Goldkorn and Kaiser Kuo. And it seems to be true for the other guy too. So they start out talking about Trump as a dragon slayer. That's not true. If he was only hard on China, they would have an argument. But he is not. Trump has shown himself willing to ax America's closest allies if he thinks they are getting the better end of a trade arrangement. Trump is a deal maker. But if you remove trade issues from the equation, Trump is in some ways more pro-China than any president in my memory. He responded very favorably to the idea of Xi Jin-ping being president for life. I can't imagine Obama doing that. Or Clinton or either of the Bushes.

So I disagree with them on that issue. But I was very glad to hear them speak out about the detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. As I said before, I have had a "wait and see" attitude about this situation, because it is very hard to get accurate numbers, and I don't like to make cheap conclusions. But the information coming out is more and more concerning. So I was glad to hear them express that concern. Hopefully, that situation will move in a different direction very soon. I am going to be watching it closely.

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Labels: Christianity, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

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Labels: Human Rights, South China Sea, Tariffs, Trade, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

I have been having a tough time getting a handle on the situation in Xinjiang. I have only been to Xinjiang once, and that was back in 2005. The riots in Urumqi, the terrorist attack in Kunming, and the current repression by the government have all taken place since then, so apparently Xinjiang is becoming a very different place from when I visited.

There have been several reports in recent years about repressive policies, such as cutting men's beards so that they don't become terrorists, and restricting access to the Qur'an or the practice of Ramadan (daytime fasting for one month a year). But what has disturbed many human rights groups recently has been the reports of thousands of Uyghurs being taken from their homes and placed in detention camps. It has not been easy to get accurate information about this, because China severely restricts media access to Xinjiang, at first did not acknowledge the camps. But for some reason, they have changed their approach and decided to acknowledge the camps and defend their existance.

There is another problem with news about things like this. In China, the media is strictly controlled/regulated by the government, so government papers are replete with scripted propaganda, or restricted from mentioning the subject at all. But in America, media is controlled by advertising. This means that headlines are structured to get you to click on them, and bad news than good news. So reporting about China tends to be negative. In addition to this, allowing media to be controlled by advertising means that subject matter is controlled by the prevailing appetites and fetishes of the masses rather than a sincere, dogged pursuit of the truth. So with American news outlets, especially online ones, the important stories of the day are often buried in mountains of trivia.

So what is the difference between click-bait and propaganda? Only the intent--they're both garbage, just with different purposes. So I tend to avoid media that is afflicted by either of these problems. Still, I would like to get a source from China, because they would much less likely (obviously) to tell a story that was totally negative. The problem is that news articles in the Global Times and the China Daily are extremely boring and poorly written, and there is little or no in depth discussion of issues, because it isn't politically safe. So, with modern smart phones, where I can sit on the bus or the tram and read the news from any number of international news outlets on my smart phone, I don't read Chinese news nearly as much as I ought to.

Last night one of my students informed me that there was widespread detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. She said she got the information from BBC. Interesting. So if local people are just finding out about this now, that must mean that the Chinese media has been pretty quiet about it.

Labels: Detention, Racism, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

Yesterday, I visited a home in rural Kashgar. I had arranged a tour guide to take me to have lunch with a local family. The countryside around Kashgar is very, very pretty, and the weather is perfect. You couldn't imagine a more pleasant summer climate. Kashgar is at about 5000 feet, which puts it at about the same elevation as Denver, Colorado. Warm and dry, but not hot. The country people around Kashgar are very open and friendly. We took a taxi to the rural area where the home was located. We were offered some snacks--Uygur bread and vegetables, and then went for a walk in the neighborhood before lunch. As we were walking, another family saw us and invited us in. Total strangers, but very outgoing. The Uyghur people in the countryside around Kashgar live a very simple life. They spend a lot of time making things with their hands.

When we were leaving, I was saying "good-bye," and I reached out to shake the hand of our hostess, and thank her. She smiled, kinda embarrassed, but didn't say anything. My young tour guide, Awanisa, quickly told me that Muslim women don't shake hands with another man. I said, "Do you ever shake hands?" She said, "Yes, but I'm not married." Oh. Guess I should have listened to Ann Landers.

Labels: Kashgar, Uyghurs, Xinjiang

Yesterday afternoon, I met with an official from the Islamic Association here in Kashgar. I had asked a tour guide to arrange a meeting with a Muslim cleric, to help me understand how Islam functions in China. Instead, he lined up a meeting for me with an official from the Islamic Association, which turned out to be a better choice, because the Islamic association is charged with the responsibility for coordinating between Islam and the Chinese Communist Party.

The tour guide asked me where I wanted to meet. Since I am not from this community, and am not familiar with various restaurants and tea houses, I really thought they should choose the place, but they wanted to be polite. I recommended John's Cafe, since it is the only place I really know about. The tour guide quickly told me that the official could not enter that place, because it was run by Chinese. This is unfortunate, because the folks who run that place are really very nice people. They're from Qingdao. But isn't a racial thing, really. It's the fact that the Chinese eat pork, which is detestable to the Uygurs. Anyway, they selected a local Uygur place with an outside veranda.

The official was warm and friendly, with a firm handshake. Definitely a politician at heart. But it was clear very early in our conversation, that he is also a devout Muslim. I asked him how Islam functioned in a society where religion is controlled by the party. He said that the association would facilitate negotiation between the party and the religious clerics regarding anything that could be politically sensitive. He seemed to downplay any problem, perhaps because he basically works for the government (probably through the Public Security Bureau), and, of course, would not want to be seen as objecting to the government's position.

I also asked him about the nature of Islam as compared to Christianity. I told him that the Christian gospel teaches that God is a God of Love, but also a God of justice. God's standard is perfection, and He is not willing to compromise His standard, but since He is also a God of love, He sent His Son to fulfill the requirements of God's standard and live a perfect life, and then fulfill the requirements of God's justice by taking the punishment we deserve. The official's response was to talk about the prophets of Islam, of whom Jesus of Nazareth is one.

The official asked me about my family. I told him that I had three children, but that I was divorced. He was upset about this. He told me quickly that divorce was not a good thing. I agreed with him and explained to him that under American divorce law, one does not have a choice in such matters. He told me that if a man in their community was single, they would "force" him to find a wife. There is a very strong family orientation among the Uygur people. The Uygur are exempted from the one-child policy. I don't think they have large families, but I would expect to see very, very few one-child families among the Uygur people.

Labels: Islam, Kashgar, Xinjiang

The Great Game. The term Great Game describes the global contest between the British and Russian Empires for dominance in Central Asia during the 19th Century. The city of Kashgar played a central role in this contest because of it's strategic location as a trading post on the old Silk Road. Both the Russians and British maintained consulates in this area during that period.

The British consul was a man by the name of George Macartney, who arrived in Kashgar in 1890. Macartney was eventually joined by his wife, Catherine, who stayed with him in Kashgar until the end of World War I. She is known for bringing European civilization to the consulate, including cuttings from English gardens, exotic flowers, tennis courts, and Brahms records. She even managed to have a piano hauled over the mountains. She tells her story in a book called, An English Lady in Chinese Turkestan.

Kashgar is isolated, but very pretty. During the years of the Great Game, this isolation made the relationship between the Russian and British consuls very important, because both sides were keen on getting what information they could from the other. The relationship was sometimes testy, as exemplified by an incident described in the Lonely Planet where the Russian consul gave the British consul an expensive pane of glass, and subsquently demanded it back after a disagreement over a political cartoon.

Labels: Kashgar, Xinjiang

Every day, five times a day, comes the cry of the muezzin from the mineret tower, calling the faithful to prayer. And in that cry is the often repeated affirmation of Islam:

"There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet."
"There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet."
"There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is His prophet."

Over and over it is repeated. But times have changed. The muezzin doesn't climb to the minaret anymore. His voice is heard over the loudspeaker. I couldn't follow it myself, because the audio was a bit muffled, but mostly because I don't know Arabic. The mosque is open for prayer (and closed to tourists) five times a day. But it is on Friday that the crowds really come. The other days, most Muslims tend to go to a mosque in their own neighborhoods. Kashgar is a city with almost literally a mosque on every street corner.

It is hard for me to convey to you the importance of the mosque in a Muslim community such as this. Everything in "old town" Kashgar seems to be built around it. And even though some prefer to pray at home, a local Muslim told me that it is 27 times better to pray in the mosque than to pray at home.

The Id Kah mosque, built in the 15th Century, is the largest mosque in China. It is open to tourists, but the tourists are shut out during prayer times, which makes me wonder how this religion is propagated. This, of course, is one of the major differences between Islam in Christianity. A big part of Christianity consists of inviting others to worship services.

In some ways, I think the mosque is even more important than the religion itself, although that may be a contradictory statement, becuase the mosque is part of the religion. But I guess what I mean by that is that the mosque is a tangible representation of identity for both the "true believers," and those who really don't seem to be that religious, but still consider themselves Muslims.

Islam is definitely a man's religion. This is most noticeable on Friday, when you can see all the men streaming toward the Mosque for the mid day prayer time, and a group of women sitting outside the mosque. I have been told several times, in answer to my queries, that the women "pray at home." But I cannot help but wonder how many of them actually go through the process of bowing and praying at the same time as their men are praying at the mosque. I don't know.

Labels: Islam, Kashgar, Xinjiang

"In 1954 Simon Zhao and the other members arrested in Kashgar were transported to Urumqi where he met those arrested in Hami in 1952. The Public Security, People's Procuratorate and People's Court set up a special committee of investigation. Uncle Simon knew that as he and his co-workers were innocent the whole matter would soon be solved. But he was wrong.

"Not only was he not speedily released, but it was 36 years before he was able to meet up with those members of the Band who had survived prison. Some had died in prison or labor camps. For years he was separated from family and friends, and through the endless suffering he often called on the Lord's mercy in his utter loneliness.

"Day after day, year after year Simon toiled in the reform-through-labor camp, tilling the land and repairing dikes. He carried endless baskets of earth, dug up by hand, on shoulder poles for miles on foot. Often he was so exhausted his legs gave way and he could only crawl on the ground with his load. His body deteriorated, but his mind became sharper. He had not forgotten his commission and so secretly told the other prisoners about Christ."

It is all but impossible for me fully to appreciate the suffering that Simon Zhao and men and women like him endured for the sake of bringing God's love to people very different from themselves. And it is especially hard to comprehend the difference between then and now. China is still a controlled society. But today the government of areas like Xinjiang seems to be much more on the order "live and let live. If you keep your head down, and especially take pains not to create the impression that you have political ambitions, you are pretty much left alone in today's China. But while the treatment of people like Simon Zhao has changed somewhat, the government has never gone back and cleared the reputations of folks like Simon Zhao. Justice demands that this be done. I believe it is time, now, for China to set the record straight, and give such men as Simon Zhao the honor that is due them.

Sunday is Market Day in Kashgar. Lonely Planet estimates that upwards of 50 thousand people swarm in from all over the surrounding countryside. It is really something to see. Yesterday morning, we took the free bus from John's Cafe to the market, but three of us wanted to see the livestock market first. We happened to run in to a young Uygur man who spoke excellent English, and offered to show us how to get there. So we hired a motorcycle taxi, and he rode with us.

Lots and lots of sheep, donkeys, horses, and cattle. Donkeys are definitely the main beast of burden in Kashgar, so they were quite abundant. But there were lots of sheep, too. Mutton is a very big part of the Uygur quisine, and the wool is used for the strong and very traditional carpet industry.

But for me, the people are more interesting than the animals. With livestock sales, there always seems to be a middle man helping to negotiate the deal. Buyer will always check the teeth of the animal--the seller usually offers this service for the seller. There doesn't seem to be a lot of fighting or argument, but the process does take some time, so one can assume that there is quite a bit of discussion about the matter. And there always new animals being brought in. Constantly, you will hear the sound of someone calling "Bosh, Bosh" to tell you to get out of the way. If that doesn't work, there are other methods. At one point, I felt something on my behind. A farmer was tapping me on my butt end to get me out of the way. I moved, of course, as any good mule would.

Many different booths are set up to offer to food to those who are there. One of my favorites is a little hard shell dumpling filled with lamb. Really delicious.

I met a guy from Albania who lives in Italy and monitors elections for a living. He had just finished monitoring an election in Kyrgyzstan, and told me it was a very, very beautiful country. I don't know...I may go there some day, but not now.

Last night at John's Cafe, I ran into Michael, my neighbor from the foreign teachers' dormitory. He had been up to the Pakistan border, and tried to reach the pass in the "no man's land" between the checkpoints. But the Chinese would not let him past the check point without a visa. So he turned around an hitchhiked back to Kashgar. We were talking about this in John's Cafe, when he saw one of the other guys who had been with him. That guy mentioned something about hashish. Michael told me the truck driver had stopped to smoke some hashish. I told them about the time last summer, when a lady in Dali tried to sell me some hashish. The other guy laughed, "You don't need to buy hashish in Dali. You can pick it!" Well, I'm not into drugs, so I can't verify that, but it wouldn't surprise me. Dali has the perfect climate for that sort of thing. It's sorta the Greenwich Village or Haight-Ashbury of China.

I don't know why Michael decided to come to Xinjiang. I never really tried to talk him into it, but I have been telling him since last fall that I would be coming here. Actually, it probably doesn't have anything to do with me. Xinjiang has mountains, and Michael is definitely a mountain man.

Labels: Back to Jerusalem, Kashgar, Xinjiang

"Eager to plant the gospel on virgin soil, Zhao headed south with five fellow workers to Hetian, a remote oasis town in the far south of Xinjiang, in the winter of 1950. But two weeks after they arrived the Public Security Bureau ordered them to leave. So they were forced to move even further west to Kashgar, where in September 1949 the Band had set up a preaching station at Shule and where there were quite a few Han Chinese. (In those days the vast majority of the population of Xinjiang were Uygurs or other mainly Muslim minorities.)

"They arrived in January 1950 to a chaotic situation. The gospel compound had been taken over by armed soldiers who claimed there had been a ?counter-revolutionary incident.? Uncle Simon did not know what to make of it. But within a few days he was arrested and placed in prison. He had with him only a pocket Bible, a notebook and a pen, but even these were confiscated. Not until his release thirty years later in 1981 did he see a Bible again.

"Uncle Simon thought his arrest must be a mistake and that he would soon be released. But later, when let out of his cell briefly, he saw two of his co-workers had also been arrested and only then realized his situation was grave. Two years later he found out that members of the Band back at Hami had also been arrested. Clearly the arrests concerned the whole Band, not just him personally."

I'm sitting here at John's Cafe in Kashgar. Kashgar is a welcome oasis after spending the past 24 hours cruising across the most lifeless, mountainous desert you can imagine.

Joy's brother-in-law kindly brought me to the train station and put me on the train. He is a banker by profession, so I was interested to hear his thoughts on the news yesterday morning that China had moved off the dollar peg. The news is very significant, but it will take a while to determine just what it means.

Last night, I went to the dining car, to get something to eat. After I had finished, a PLA guy across from me invited me to sit with him. He was very friendly and conversational, but I was somewhat surprised that he didn't speak English.

This afternoon, when we pulled into the station, I got off the train, and started looking for a taxi. Usually, whenever I get off a train or plane, I wave off the people who offer a taxi to me, because they are invariably black-market taxi drivers who charge unbelievable rates, in addition to which they are not legal, so I always look for the regular taxi line. But I was in for a surprise. There is no regular taxi line. All the taxis look like legitimate taxis, but none of them have meters. I finally asked one of the drivers how much he would charge to take me to the Seman Hotel, and he quoted a rate of 10 yuan. He opened the trunk so I could put my backpack in, and then, to my immense consternation, he disappeared. I did not realize it then, but he was rounding up other customers. He did not manage to find any, so we got in the car to go. To make sure there was no misunderstanding, I asked him the rate again. It had doubled. I promptly ordered him to open the trunk so that I could get my backpack out. Well, another driver was glad to get my business. He quoted me a rate of 10 yuan, so I got in his cab. Sure enough, he started yelling out the window, to other people looking for a taxi, and managed to get some other customers. A couple of guys got in. I noticed that he made a point of dropping them off first...not sure if that was really in proper order. But I was not surprised when he dropped me off and asked for twice the original price he had quoted me. I suppose I should not complain about 20 kuai, but fraud is fraud. I gave him the price he had originally quoted.

So where, exactly, is Kashgar? Five thousand kilometers west of Beijing. Due north of India. Northwest of Nepal. Surrounded by Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan, and Kazakhstan. Mongolia to the north, the rest of East Turkestan (now Xinjiang Province) to the east, and Tibet, of course, to the southwest.

Labels: Back to Jerusalem, Kashgar, Xinjiang

I don't think anyone knows for sure when the "Back to Jerusalem" movement began, but it seems to have developed as an active movement by the 1940's. Phyllis Thompson, a CIM missionary stationed in Chongqing made the following observation in a prayer letter written in 1949:

"The thing that has impressed me most has been the strange, unaccountable urge of a number of different Chinese groups of Christians to press forward in faith, taking the gospel towards the west. I know of at least five different groups, quite unconnected with each other, who have left their homes in east China and gone forth, leaving practically everything behind them, to the west. Some are in Sikang [now western Sichuan], some in Kansu [Gansu Province], some right away in the great northwestern province of Sinkiang [now Xinjiang] or Chinese Turkestan. It seems like a movement of the Spirit which is irresistible. The striking thing is that they are disconnected, and in most cases seem to know nothing about each other. Yet all are convinced that the Lord is sending them to the western borders to preach the gospel, and they are going with a strong sense of urgency of the shortness of the time, and the imminence of the Lord's return."

As far as I can tell, the "Back to Jerusalem" movement seemed to have three characteristics:

1. It involved separate groups and individuals who, as Phyllis Thompson observed, did not know each other, but seemed to have gotten the same vision at the same time.
   

   
   

2. It was based on the belief that the development of what we often call the "Great Comission" has historically moved in a primarily westward direction, beginning with the missionary journeys of Paul, and moving into Europe, down into Africa and across to the Americas, and finally to Asia.
   

   
   

3. Last, and most important, is the belief that God has given to the Chinese people the responsibility to "complete the circle," bringing the gospel through the Moslem world on the way back to Jerusalem.
   

At any rate, during the forties, several different groups of missionaries began move toward the northwest. One of these missionaries was a man by the name of Simon Zhao.

Simon Zhao's involvement with the "Back to Jerusalem" movement began one winter day as he entered the prayer tower of the old American Presbyterian Church in Mukden (now Shenyang), the capital of Manchuria. Tony Lambert, writing in China Insight, tells the story,

"One day when it was his turn to pray in the tower, he was still wrestling with this question, so he brought a large map with him. It had been snowing hard so he opened the door of the prayer-tower with some difficulty. Alone in the vast silence, he laid out the map and prayed.

"He was drawn to Xinjiang with its strange-sounding place-names. Was this the place the Lord had for him? The more he prayed, the more Xinjiang imprinted itself in his mind. But Xinjiang was far away, plagued with many political, religious and racial problems, so he could not help feeling afraid. But had he not placed himself on the altar? Had not Christ given up his life for him? He ceased to resist any longer.

"He married Wen Muling, a fourth generation descendent of a Qing dynasty first-rank imperial councilor. They both went to study at the Taidong Seminary in Nanjing. There they met two women from Jinan who shared their vision to preach the gospel in Xinjiang. Zhao was very moved and determined to go there. In 1949 he, his wife and the two sisters set sail up the Yangtze from Nanjing. They were seen off personally by Rev. Yang Shaotang, one of China's leading preachers. This raises the fascinating question as to how much Rev. Yang may have had a burden for the evangelization of the far Northwest and "Back to Jerusalem."

"China was torn apart by the civil war between Nationalists and Communists. Everywhere there were refugees. Uncle Simon had already prepared himself for suffering, even prison, so did not complain about the hardships of the journey. Eventually they reached Hami on the eastern edge of Xinjiang and joined members of the North West Evangelization Band who had arrived there a year or two previously..."

I began my own "Back to Jerusalem" journey yesterday morning when I boarded a plane for Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province. I had bought a backpack for this trip. I am not a backpacker in the classic sense of the term, but I have found that a backpack is much less troublesome than a suitcase when traveling alone. Michael, my neighbor in the foreign teachers' dormitory, helped me adjust the thing so that the weight rests on my hips, and not on my back. I don't think it's a major issue, becuase I am not planning to walk from Mexico to Canada as he did, but he is right that one should keep weight off the back as much as possible. This is especially true in my case, because I do carry a few books with me, which tends to make my backpack a bit heavy.

The four hour flight to Urumqi was uneventful. I spent most of the time watching a movie about this guy who is trapped in the New York airport due to lack of proper documentation. When it got to the part where he was describing his mission to a seemingly missionless airline stewardess, I found myself struck by the futility of his mission, which was to obtain the autograph of a famous band leader for his father, who was not able to obtain it before he died.

But while his mission may seem futile, I guess you would have to say that it was at least noble, because it was done to honor someone who had passed on. And I couldn't help being impressed by his commitment to his mission, and by how clearly he saw and understood exactly what he wanted to accomplish. I hate to use a secular film to illustrate a spiritual truth, but I think we can see from this movie, that a missionary is defined by the clarity of his vision, the quality of his mission, and the depth of his commitment to it.

Joy (one of the translators at the Haidian church) had arranged for me to stay with her sister. Her sister had told me which bus to catch from the airport in order to get to her neighborhood. For some reason, that bus was not immediately accessible from the airport, so I took another one that was going to that particular part of the city. When I got off, I was still some distance from where I needed to be. Fortunately for me, a kind passerby asked me where I was going, so I called the number Joy's sister had given me, and the friend who was at her home told the guy where I needed to go. He found the bus for me, and insisted on riding with me to the right place, not leaving until he was sure I had met my party. I have always been impressed by the kindness of ordinary Chinese people, who go out of their way to help a complete stranger.

Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang Province, has the distinction of being the farthest from any ocean of all the cities in the world. Pick any direction, and it is a very, very long drive to the beach. It is the quintessential inland city. And it was a welcome relief from the humidity of a Beijing summer. Everyone has their preferences, but I definitely prefer a dry climate, which is what Beijing is, most of the time. Fall, Winter and Spring, Beijing is very dry. But there is that one period during the summer, when the climate seems to reverse, and Beijing becomes a steam bath.

Xinjiang Province is the home of the Uygur minority, but Han Chinese are moving in fast, and Urumqi, as the capital city, is definitely dominated by the Chinese. It has become a popular choice for modern Chinese yuppies (Young Urban Professionals), because they can enjoy the "good life" of the city, at a cost which is quite a bit less than what it would cost them in Beijing or Shanghai.

Labels: Back to Jerusalem, Kindness, Xinjiang