Ryan Pyle Blog: Social Unrest & The 60th Anniversary of the PRC

Hello.

With four weeks to go until China’s 60th birthday party many of us Middle Kingdom watchers are wondering if China is splitting at its seams prior to its 60th anniversary party?

Looking back to last March when a group of Tibetans rose up and torched Lhasa, laying waste to shops and killing innocent Chinese migrants from eastern China. The government’s response was mass jailings, close the province to outside observers and deal with this “splitist’” problem under a veil of secrecy.

Just this past July a Uygur led protest in Urumqi saw over a thousand protesters ransack businesses and, yet again, kill innocent Chinese migrants from eastern China. The government’s response, although there were large numbers tossed in jails, was much more open as international observers rushed on to the scene authorities seemed to give them an unusually free hand to report. Had anything changed in the year between the protests to change the government’s response? No. In fact, change is the wrong vocabulary all together.

After two massive riots, in which majority Han Chinese migrants were killed, in regions that cover almost 1/3 of China’s physical territory, one might think that a change regarding race relations or minority rights would be in order for government officials in Beijing. But alas, all that seems to be on anyone’s mind is “social stability” ahead of the 60th Anniversary of the PRC.

While China rushes to short-term fixes: the virtual marshal law in Xinjiang and Tibet as well as blocking social networking sites, the government refuses to admit that they have a problem brewing. And with a deaf ear on problems “out west”, preparations are full steam ahead for a momentous military parade, a full-length feature film (on the founding of the PRC) and Olympic style security is already in full swing for the October 1st celebrations.

What might one expect in the run up to the October 1st anniversary? Forget about Facebook, Youtube and Twitter; they cease to exist. Visas will be near impossible to obtain in September and residents of Beijing will be subject to document checks, police registration and restrictions on movement that were synonymous with the Olympics last August. And it won’t stop there.

Xinjiang has seen a complete Internet blackout. Hotels, residences and even universities have had their access cut; mobile phone text messages have also been blocked in an effort to keep groups from organizing and causing any resemblance of social unrest. The region has been thrown back in to the dark ages in order to celebrate sixty years of progress; that just smacks of irony.

But it is important that you don’t walk away from this editorial thinking that China just has a problem with its minority peoples. In fact, problems run much deeper than that, and as China turns sixty it is not taking any chances with issues like freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of information. Human rights doesn’t seem to be an area of tolerance either as painfully indicated by the arrest of a human rights lawyer, Xu Zhiyong, on trumped up tax evasion charges for which he is likely to receive a seven year jail term.

Will there be an easing of government pressure after the October 1st holiday passes? Most likely yes. But after watching Iran implode after elections in summer, and more importantly how Iranians organized themselves online, the Chinese government is more fearful of technology now than it ever has been. The bottom line is that instead of much needed political and legal reforms, what we’ll see from the Chinese government after the anniversary is more of the same; which will in turn lead to more frustration and alienation. And so the vicious circle continues.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Tibet vs Xinjiang

Hello.

Well, i don't mind eating my words from time to time; and it looks like that is exactly what I'll be doing during this blog. Two days ago I blogged about the violence in Urumqi and how things seemed to be shaping up. I made a reference to Lhasa last March and how journalists watched from afar, and how chasing this kind of public rioting and conflict in China is akin to chasing ghosts.

It seems I have made a misjudgment; and for that I need to make a correction.

Urumqi is a large metropolis of about 2 million or so people, and Xinjiang is effectively "open", where as Tibet is "closed". This fact means that basically foreigners can travel freely to Xinjiang without having to apply for permits through travel agents. This fact is central to the quick response, and success, of the foreign media is reporting on the riots. There are also about 5 flights a day from Shanghai to Urumqi, equal to that of Beijing, and those flights are direct; unlike to Lhasa where you need to change plans in Chengdu. Beyond logistics I'm amazed, after reading the news and seeing the news clips, that there is some much coming out of Urumqi and how the major news sources are putting together strong stories. Whereas almost nothing came out of Lhasa in the first 72 hours.

I expected the riots to last only one day; followed by a brutal clamp down. But that hasn't really happened. The big round up of arrests has caused further sparks, including a group of elderly women and children acting out in front of foreign journalists. After that journalists seem to have open access to hospitals, where both Uygur and Chinese are recovering. I was really surprised when a group of Han Chinese, packing bats and knives, went out looking for trouble in Uygur neighborhoods. There will be more of this in the coming days I reckon. The feelings are boiling over from years of distrust and frustration between the two dominant ethnic groups in Xinjiang. And I am sure people will keep acting out in front of the foreign media.

It seems that there is a lot to report on and that, for now, the government is at least tolerating the media presence; and that might change at anytime. I'm very sad I'm not actually there at the moment. I'm stuck in Canada watching from the sidelines, but I've never been very good at being a breaking news photographer. I'll be visiting Xinjiang, and Urumqi specifically, in August and I'm sure there will be an opportunity to document, in some way, the clashes we've been witnessing.

I've lived in China for eight years now, and I've been documenting Xinjiang for about four years; making 4-5 trips a year to various parts of the province. It really pains me to see the fringes of the country tearing itself apart like this. First Tibet, now Xinjiang. Years and years of misrule and inequality have led to a boiling over of frustrations. I hope the loss of life ends quickly and the situation comes back under control, but not mass execution kind of control. Chinese leaders need to start thinking about long term solutions for both Tibet and Xinjiang; and there is no excuse for them to have not already figured out some sort of path. It's not like they need to worry about elections every four years.

More messiness to follow.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: New Complaint Policy

Hello,

It would appear, according to a domestic newspaper story, that senior party officials in provinces across China have been asked by the central government in Beijing to meet with petitioners about complains in an effort to help reduce social disputes and civil unrest, as well as help stem the flow of petitioners to Beijing from the provinces. See the Story Link Here.

Social unrest is, without a doubt, the number one concern in the eyes of government officials throughout the country. Some people out there might question my saying that, but every economic policy that comes out has the effect of quelling some possible protest somewhere.

Social unrest is common occurrence in China, even though protests or demonstrations are officially illegal. Therefore regular people have no outlet for their dissatisfaction of local government officials; close your eyes and image an old fashioned kettle boiling up and whistling away with steam pipping out. It is easy to see how people can see that aggressive, desperate action is the only action.

But in a year of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the government is trying to show the people that while the party is unelected, they are responsible and they care. It's far fetched, but even a bit of dialog is better than the thuggish bullying, ignoring and imprisonment that has been the unofficial policy for the last two decades. You see most government officials get a report card at the end of every year and social unrest in a region under your watch is highly frowned upon, so everything is done to avoid the people taking to the streets.

In several extreme cases it is reported that people traveling with petitions, or official complaints, to Beijing from their province are often caught and jailed without trial; in an effort to keep Beijing officials in the dark about what is actually happening in the countryside. A nasty side effect of virtual independence, by local officials, to run their fiefdom as they see fit. In one banner case last year the New York Times wrote of a local official who was arresting petitioners, who were trying to out government officials on illegal land seizures and pollution, and sending them in to psychiatric hospitals. A page straight out of Stalin's book, the only problem is that this is 2009 and that kind of behavior shouldn't be acceptable for leading government officials in an emerging super power, and owner of the world's third largest economy. But as long as China continues to buy US treasury bills, mum's the word.

So in an effort to calm the extremes the party leadership in Beijing is trying to create a communications bridge between upset folks and their government officials, essentially this is the only option in a country that has a one party system that also dominates the legal system. Will it work? My guess is no. I don't think government officials have the right set of morals or characteristics to be sensitive to these cases; in most cases they'll be brushed off as impediments to progress and GDP growth. A painful and short sighted view, but as someone on the ground I just can't see things changing much.

An old political philosophy professor at the University of Toronto used to always tell me that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely...", a line from Lord Acton in his open letter to Bishop Creighton in 1887. And in the case of China this phrase nails it. Chinese officials operate in a world with no political competition, no media freedom, as well as control of the banks, police and courts. If that is not absolute power what is?

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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