Government study recommends China build second capital in Xinjiang

A Chinese government-funded study has recommended a second capital in the country’s far western Xinjiang region to rebalance China’s economy, address ethnic tensions and strengthen ties with Eurasian nations.

Published in the Chinese-language journal “Social Sciences in Xinjiang” on April 21, the report proposes that the purpose-built capital be near Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or Kashgar, one of the westernmost cities. from China. near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.

The report, based on four years of research by Zhou Wen of Fudan University in Shanghai and Mi Jun of Sichuan University, assesses the risks and opportunities of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a development project for massive infrastructure that seeks to connect China with many other parts of China. the world.

But the study does not provide details on how the central government would distribute its functions between Beijing and the potential second capital, according to a report on it in the “South China Morning Post.”

With vast desert and mountainous areas, Xinjiang is home to more than 11 million predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities who have been repressed by the Chinese government in recent years through detention in “re-education” camps, torture and forced labor.

The study has raised questions among overseas experts and researchers focusing on the Xinjiang region about possible reasons for considering a second capital in the region, as well as its impact on the Uyghurs and other minorities living there.

pressure to sinicize

Erkin Ekrem, vice president of the World Uyghur Congress and an associate professor of history at Turkey’s Hacettepe University, believes that the proposal to establish a second capital in Xinjiang is related to making China a world power by 2049, the year in which the 100he anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“The Uyghur region is critical for China to achieve its dream,” he told RFA. “It is a gateway to Central Asia, West Asia, Turkey and Europe. Therefore, establishing a secondary capital in the Uyghur region is of strategic importance for China.”

At the same time, the plan would create unfavorable conditions for the Uyghur people, Erkin said.

“For China to establish a secondary capital in eastern Turkistan, it must first sinicize the region,” he said, using the preferred Uyghur name for Xinjiang.

The lack of arable land in the vast territory will require China to bring water to the region, which will require the resettlement of more Han Chinese, Erkin said.

“None of these issues are favorable to the Uyghurs, causing them to melt away,” he said.

Sean Roberts, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University who has written extensively on the Uyghurs of China and Central Asia, said the potential move would serve a dual purpose.

“On the one hand, it’s probably about integrating more of the northwest of the country into the government of China, which has been something China has been trying to do since the 1990s,” he said. “I would say that it is something that is one of the driving factors for the repression of the Uyghurs and related peoples in the region now.”

On the other hand, a potential second capital would also be a defensive move, Roberts said.

“For a long time, China has been concerned about further integrating the northwest into the country and under state control because it worried that it could be a source of instability, perhaps aggravated by external forces.”

“This does not mean that (the Chinese) are worried about the invasion of Central Asia or Russia, but they might be worried about further instability in Eurasia and want to have a second capital nearby to ensure that China’s borders are secure in the sense of that it does not spread to China,” he said.

In the end, the plan would not bode well for the Uyghurs, Roberts said.

“If implemented, this would put an end to the historical concept that this region is the homeland of the Uyghur people,” he said. “I think this would also speed up Sinification’s speed in the area. This plan would change the entire landscape of the Uyghur region and its relationship with the central government in Beijing.”

Other factors at play

Abdulhakim Idris, director of the Center for Uyghur Studies, a Washington DC-based think tank, has a different take on the possible motives for a second Chinese capital in Xinjiang.

If China and the United States clash militarily over Taiwan, Beijing will be vulnerable to a US naval attack due to its location.

“If you move your capital to our homeland, it will be safer because it will be further from the US Pacific Fleet,” he said.

China also hopes to wrest Central Asia out of Russia’s control and play a more dominant role in the region to promote Belt and Road projects and ensure its energy and trade security, Idris said.

Translated by the Uyghur Service. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.