Guangzhou's Minorities: Uighurs and Others in a Sea of Han

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000498 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM, INR/EAP, DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV ELAB SOCI KJUS CH SUBJECT: Guangzhou's Minorities: Uighurs and Others in a Sea of Han ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Linguistic, cultural and religious differences often lead to "major communication difficulties" between Guangzhou officials and minority groups. The municipal government has mandated sensitivity training for police and other officials who deal frequently with minorities. Provincial Party Secretary Wang Yang warned foreign reporter of "problems" if China fails to adjust policies towards minorities. Academic experts on minority issues term the government's treatment of Uighurs in Guangzhou "lenient," and say that there is some public resentment of this. Local media has apparently received orders to treat issues of race and ethnicity with care. When African immigrants protested in front of a Guangzhou police station last month, local papers merely referred to the incident as a "foreigners' gathering." END SUMMARY Lost in Translation -------------- ¶2. (SBU) When local officials arrived at the site of the June 26 Shaoguan factory clash between Han and Uighur workers, their attempts to control and diffuse the situation were hindered by a lack of any Uighur interpreters, according to Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences (GZASS) researcher Liu Zhaohua. Liu said that different languages, customs and religious practices cause "major communication difficulties" between Guangzhou's Uighur and Han populations at the best of times, and remain a potential source of friction and misunderstanding. Though the estimated 500-2000 Uighurs in Guangzhou is a far smaller community than those in other Chinese cities, it does tend to cluster together and avoid mingling with other ethnic groups, said Liu. ¶3. (SBU) Local government has taken steps to avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings and to reduce the potential for violent incidents. Following the Shaoguan clash and Urumqi riots, the Guangzhou Government ordered research into the state of the local Uighur community, according to both Liu and her GZASS colleague, Yao Yi. Simultaneously, the Religious Affairs Bureau began providing to the police and other officials who deal frequently with the public updated training on customs and taboos of minority groups, said the scholars. ¶4. (SBU) Guangdong Party Secretary and Politburo Member Wang Yang told foreign reporters July 30 that China's policies for dealing with minority groups would "definitely need adjustments," which, if not made promptly, would lead to "problems," according to Reuters. Wang characterized the Shaoguan incident as "a conflict between workers that should be regarded as a criminal act," a view that was echoed by the GZASS academics, who said that minority matters in south China were generally a subset of the larger migrant labor issue. Huizhou Taking a Breather -------------- ¶5. (SBU) Several companies in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, recently told the South China Morning Post that they would not recruit Uighur laborers this year due to "cultural differences," an exceptionally high turnover rate and high administrative costs resulting from the need to supply interpreters and halal food. While the GZASS experts said Pearl River Delta factories recruit workers from minority groups, they denied these programs represented a formal government policy. (Note: According to a late July edition of Phoenix Weekly, governments in southern Xinjiang indeed have a policy of exporting surplus labor to China's coastal areas. Following the unrest in Urumqi, these governments reaffirmed that the policy would remain unchanged, according to the report. End note.) ¶6. (SBU) The GZASS researchers said that economics, not ethnicity, is the driving force behind the decision whether to hire minority groups, as well as the reason Uighur numbers in Guangzhou are expected to decline in the future. Since 2000, the total number of Uighurs has decreased as the city's economy has developed more high-technology industries, according to Liu, who added that Uighurs have tended to follow demand for unskilled labor to other parts of the Pearl River Delta. A "Lenient" Approach to Uighurs -------------- ¶7. (SBU) The Guangzhou Government has been "lenient" towards Uighurs with regard to the enforcement of laws and municipal regulations, GUANGZHOU 00000498 002.2 OF 002 according to Yao, who said that police tend to overlook small infringements by Uighurs. (Note: Uighur and other minority street vendors, nearly all of whom are unlicensed, operate relatively openly in Guangzhou. End note.) Though she assessed that the public generally supported preferential treatment for minorities to make up for fewer opportunities in less-developed parts of the country, Liu conceded that some Han Chinese complain about the government's favorable medical care, financial support and prioritized education and promotion opportunities provided to ethnic minorities. Parsing Ethnicity: The "Foreigners' Gathering" -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U) Media accounts of a mid-July incident in which members of Guangzhou's African community surrounded a police station following the serious injury of two Africans fleeing from a police document check conspicuously avoided making reference to the ethnicity of the participants. Instead, the event, which took place soon after the Urumqi riots, was quickly termed a "foreigners' gathering" by local media. ¶9. (SBU) Similarly, an August 11 press report did not indicate the African ethnicity of a "foreign" woman who had been arrested for smuggling illegal drugs into Shenzhen from Kuala Lumpur. (Comment: Though the paper did not mention the woman was African, a cartoon next to the report showed a woman of African ethnicity awkwardly attempting to smuggle items.) GOLDBECK