Xinjiang is one of the regions or states that were attached to China in the 20th century. This means that it was not initially part of the economic, political nor cultural level of the old Chinese nation. Geographically, China is located in the Central Asia. This meant that if china had any intention to harmonize the economy of the whole nation at large in conjunction with the new Xinjiang, which was referred to as Uighur kingdom (Chaudhuri 55). Besides the economic level differing, there were also some differences in the cultural as well as religious practices. These were important in the manner by which the eastern china would have embraced the rest of the western part of china including the new Xinjiang state. In the 20th century, there was the issue of differentiated provision of policies. It was clear that there was a complication in harmonizing the two regions economically as well as socially.
Initially, the relationship between the Chinese communist and the Xinjiang state was not as expected. There was a paradigm shift of the policies of delivering to the state administrative powers but withdrew the intended policy to give them the right to communication, worship, as well as customs. Ideally, these among other factors are thought to bring about poor economic condition. That is, these results caused some complications to the failure of economic policies. Pluralism tended to take control in the initial times when the two cultures were trying to harmonize (Chaudhuri 56). Dating back in the times when the Uyghur state was independent of china, then there was some level of economic independence. However, there arose some historical as well as economic disparities after the Chinese adopted it. This is one of the most challenging issues to the named adopted state.
Ideally, the economic stability of any economy is determined by the status of political as well as cultural status. About the ethnic Uyghur’s empire, the management of this area seemed to take a different dimension with respect to the entire china. Looking at the level of racial prejudice, the native Chinese referred to the residents of this empire as Muslims. They tended to be under oppression in terms of the control of their social and economic dimension. For instance, the area was called an oasis- dwelling of the Muslims of Xinjiangs Tarim Basin. In the time, there were some signs of development in the region as they attempted to adopt the economic strategies of china form the western side. Some of these states included Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
The new status that Xinjiang status gained showed that there was hope for better economic status. The first effort that this region made was building a network with the international world. This alone encouraged its abilities to make internal developments to be easier to manipulate and utilize. For instance, the level through which the integration happened was encouraging. This was against the wish of the Chinese communists’ leadership (Chaudhuri 58). Some of the aspects that encouraged the development of the state included the emergence of developed transport and communication methods. In addition to that, there were more agreements that were made between the Soviet Union and the warlords that were in Xinjiang. These efforts to make external agreements were incorporated to exploit the rich resources that existed in the region. Despite the fact that the Chinese communists had made it their decision to underestimate and ignore the western region, they begun making peculiar efforts in order to acquire some favors from the regions (Demurger 76). Ideally, this was entirely not because they wanted to set some assistance to the people as well as the administration that lived in the state. It is clear that they tried to manipulate the hereditary governance in Xinjiang. They intended to gain favor over the resources. This was the actual beginning of the struggle for independence by the residents of Xinjiang.
For Chinese to win the favor of the Xinjiang leadership, they tried to manipulate the situation of government in their own interests. The very first effort was to displace the soviet from the emerging agreements. Instead, they promised to give better offers. The first thing that they did was to take away the trade routes from the Soviet Union. Instead, they set the city of Urumqi and made it a prominent transportation hub. In addition to that they made Han one of the most reliable centres for agricultural as well as economic opportunities. This did not maneuver as it was expected. As a result of deficiency of best faith, there were ethnic frictions which became more and more intense.
Despite the fact that china was not a well wisher for the western region, the availability or resources was attractive such that there arose intensive need to invest. Among the natural resources that would have been assumed key in the development of the industrialization and development of the region included the energy resources that mainly incorporate oil, natural gas and coal to some extent. China had made a very major launch that was closely related to the development of the western region. The launching was called the Go-west policy (Demurger 47). It intended to show that there was more than just developing the western region of china. However, it had a myriad reason china was involved in such an n effective mission. One was the natural resources. Besides that, they intended to take away the livelihoods of the people who lived in Uyghur. This was done by intensive control of the mining activity leaving the region in absolute poverty. The residents were left to follow from behind economically. This was total isolation from the rest of the world. It, therefore, proved hard for them to retrieve their land back as well as other economic factors. In addition to that, the people were marginalized .the continued discontent lead to the effect of an increase in the number of extremist mentalities that is in other words referred to as separatism. The whole idea was designed to favor the economic status of the Chinese nation.
Economically, the resident from the Uyghur are characterized by strong character in the trade as well as perfect communication skills. This means that if given a quality chance that they run their own economy, they are good at agriculture and trade. Statistically, the minority cover a 70% of the population. Among other economic activities, the key economic activities involve agriculture and trade. However, there are very many barriers that hinder them from good performance (Demurger 78). One of the barriers that the minority face is that they are mainly engaged in the low status jobs and fueling problems. This means that the general livelihood sis simply complicated. Though they possess the larger population, the government still does not dedicate to a sufficient social network. This means that they can only have access to low paying jobs. This is unlike the people from Han region.
In conjunction to other economic hardships, the Chinese government is responsible for the repressive and separatism environment. This means that they suffer economic prejudice. For instance, there is a presiding situation where most of the employers are from the Han people. Besides the fact that Uyghur’s face poor network, the minority face the same problem when it comes to the hiring practice. Due ethnic differences, the Hans hire more of their people. In that connection, therefore, the minority relentlessly continue to suffer under non-poverty conditions. These conditions as well as low wage conditions, lead to intensified religion and hence the focus on economic growth fluctuates in a great way. Another very effective situation that leads to the high levels of economic status includes low education levels. This means that there exists a big gap between the rich and the minority who represent the poor in this case.
The level of investments in the western part of China was encouraged by several incentives. For instance, availability of the natural resources has made it easy for many investors to capitalize on the area for investment (Mosk 70). In addition, the increased interest of the government of china to invest in the region means that the level of appreciation for all the projects that are initiated is substantially significantly. Among the projects that have actualized in china were mainly skewed towards the western zone. Statistically, china invested 577.8 billion Yuan, which is closely converted to 91.91 million dollars. This amount was to develop the infrastructure in the underdeveloped countries. That was the initial year of investment. Statistics of concurrent years show that the investment amount has been multiplied by three.
With reference to the National Development and Reforms Commission (NDRC), there have been 22 projects that were launched in the current year. However, the level of development in terms of percentage is relatively huge. There have been rapid developments in the province of Xinjiang. In sectors like agriculture, industry development and service provision, there have been major developments still exist. For instance, level of industrialization has replaced agriculture. In addition, this has been the source of the overall economic stability in the entire Chinese territory (Mosk 68). Besides the industrialization as a general, there is the emergence of wholesale and retail businesses that have expanded to a large extent. This has led to a different structure of the finance and real estate structure. Statistically, in the year 2008, the different levels of industries are rated to range from 16.4% to 49.7% of the GDP. Different projects like irrigation, as well as water reservoirs, are a clear indication of food security and hygiene as well as health to the entire nation. The completion of such large projects has lead to the creation of employment. For instance, the expansion of the industries has led to the development of infrastructure. The construction exercise is identified to adapt to the local employment. The advancement of sectors like trade, communication and agriculture, has led to the projection of a better future in the economy of the province of Xinjiang and china at large.
Works Cited
Chaudhuri, Debasish. "Minority Economy in Xinjiang—A Source of Uyghur Resentment."China Report (2010): n. pag. Print.
Demurger, Sylvie, Jeffrey D. Sachs, Wing T. Woo, Shuming B. Chang, and Andrew Mellinger. "Geography, Economic Policy, and Regional Development in China." Asian Economic Papers (2002): n. pag. Print.
"Investment in western China tripled in 2012 - Globaltimes.cn." Global Times - Website, Mobile, epaper and apps. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Mosk, Carl. Traps Embraced or Escaped: Elites in the Economic Development of Modern Japan and China. Singapore: World Scientific, 2011. Print.
Wood, Donald C. Economic Action in Theory and Practice: Anthropological Investigations. Bingley, UK: Emerald, 2010. Print.
