Olympics: 'Ethnic' children exposed as fakes in opening ceremony

Two kids studying english in the main square in front of the main square in Kashgar eager to practice their english struck up a conversatin, showed me around and for the next few days I taught several sessions of their English class in Kashgar as their impromptu guest host - they weren't skinning people alive or raiding and pillaging settlements that I could observe.

The trekking expeditions that I have been on on that side of the mountain have used exclusively Nepali Sherpa camp staff- as do most high altitude moutnaineering expeditions. How many have you been on and what was the nationality of your porter/sirdar?

 

busted:

Beijing busy welcoming the world as it turns away its ethnic minorities
Published 07/18/2008 | Featured Articles and Highlights


http://www.uhrp.org/articles/1207/1...-turns-away-its-ethnic-minorities-/index.html

With their infant daughter in their arms, Nuer and Guli visited a dozen hotels in Beijing in late May, searching desperately for a place to stay.
Most of the hotel clerks, mistaking them for foreigners, welcomed them and offered a room. But when the couple pulled out their identity cards, the clerks realized they were Muslim Uyghurs from China. And then the response was always the same: Sorry, no room at the inn.

Turned away by every hotel, the family rented an old car for $20 a day and slept in it for two nights. The conditions were so poor that their two-month-old baby became sick. Finally, they abandoned the car and begged to stay at a cousin's overcrowded apartment.

Today the couple have given up. They are packing their bags and getting ready to leave Beijing this month, joining the thousands of other Uyghurs, Tibetans and Mongolians who are fleeing under police pressure in the final weeks before the Olympics.

Ethnic minorities, migrant workers, petitioners and social activists are among the key targets of the Chinese security crackdown that has swept through Beijing in recent months. Now, with the Olympics just three weeks away, many of the targeted groups are making their final preparations to leave.

Some have little choice - they are being forcibly expelled by Chinese police. A British woman of Tibetan descent, Dechen Pemba, was deported from China last week. The 30-year-old teacher had lived in Beijing for two years and had a valid visa to work in China, but she was escorted to Beijing airport by a group of security agents who forced her onto an airplane with no explanation. The government later accused her of belonging to the Tibetan Youth Congress and engaging in "separatist activities" - charges that she strongly denied.

Tibetans and Mongolians are under pressure to leave Beijing because they are seen as potential Olympic troublemakers. Many people in Tibet and Inner Mongolia want greater autonomy and religious freedom for their regions of China. A wave of protests swept through the Tibetan regions this spring, sparking a harsh crackdown from Chinese authorities.

The Uyghurs are under greater pressure than any other ethnic minority because the government sees them not only as potential protesters but also as potential terrorists. The entire Uyghur population is often seen as a security threat, even though only a tiny fraction have been involved in radical or separatist activities.

Until recently, Beijing was home to dozens of Uyghur restaurants, specializing in the popular grilled food of their Muslim homeland, Xinjiang, in the remote northwest of China. But most have been forced to close over the past two years as the security clampdown has tightened.

Nuer, who has worked in restaurants in Beijing for most of the past 15 years, estimates that 4,000 to 5,000 Uyghurs have been detained or expelled from Beijing as the city prepares for the Olympics. His estimate is impossible to verify, but a recent survey confirmed that many Beijing hotels are refusing to rent rooms to Uyghurs.

Nuer started his own restaurant in 2005, employing a half-dozen Uyghurs to prepare Xinjiang-style food. But last year, he said, the police ordered him to shut down the restaurant and send all of his employees back to Xinjiang because of the approaching Olympics.

He worked for a few months at a friend's restaurant, grilling mutton on the sidewalk. But one day he arrived at the restaurant to find that his grill had disappeared in the night. Since then, he has been unable to find work in Beijing.

"Since 2006, there are fewer and fewer Xinjiang restaurants," he said. "The police come in and just take people away without any explanation, which frightens us very much."

Nuer himself has been detained five times by the police in the past two years. "They never explain why they are taking me to the police station. They search me and then they release me without filing any charges against me."

His wife, Guli, says she was one of 18 Uyghurs who were taken into police custody after gathering for a Muslim festival in Beijing last year. They were held at a police station for three days and then expelled from the city and forced to go back to Xinjiang, she said.

She returned to Beijing in May to be with her husband. But because of the impossibility of finding a hotel room or any other place to live, they are now packing for the long journey back to Xinjiang. They didn't want their surnames used for fear of getting into more trouble.

In the past, Nuer was often obliged to sleep on the floors of Internet cafés or saunas because he had nowhere else to stay. Now they are staying at their cousin's apartment, but the landlord has ordered them to leave.

"We feel very bad about this," Guli said. "We are Chinese, too, so why don't they allow us to stay in a hotel? When the Han Chinese people come to Xinjiang to work or travel, when do we ever refuse them?"

 

I'm wondering Sammy, if you'd care to post a primary sourced article not based on the likes of uhrp.org, phayul, tibet.org et al.

But then again, we all know that those are the most objective sources don't we...

 

It's reprinted from Canada's Globe and Mail...one of their largest daily newspapers, and widely considered to be the "Paper of Record" - as in the most thorough and reliable daily there.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv...418562&brand=theglobeandmail&force_login=true

Nice detective work there Charlie Chan.

 

Sorry to go over your head Sammy (as usual), but I guess you are too dumb to know what primary source means.

 

"primary sourced article not based on the likes of uhrp.org, phayul, tibet.org et al."

I did not see a single reference to those sites in the text of the Globe and Mail article, did you?

Please find a single reference to those sites in the Globe and Mail article.

Maybe the "Edit-Find" command on my web browser is broken

Please direct me to the place in the Globe and Mail article that is "based on the likes of " those sites you mentioned.

Thanks. I'm going out for a bit so have a response to me by 10 pm eastern.

 

First of all, look, Sammy, as the Uighur interviewees in the article call themselves Chinese even when they were under harsh duress, doesn't it seem odd that you could only meet in Xinjiang Uighurs who don't see themselves Chinese? Busted?

Second, since the Uighur subjects fit perfectly the definition of migrant workers, I don't see how it can claim the forced leave in preparation for the Olympics is a race-specific governmental policy that targets Uighurs. I am sure the situation sucks for those who are affected, but I am afraid the alternatives are probably worse for the Olympic host, which includes, of course, those very Uighur-Chinese.

As for the hotels that rejected the Uighurs, you can't really blame them, either. Earlier this year, some foreign-trained Uighur female passenger attempted to blow up an airplane in the mid air on its way to Beijing from Urumqi, only to be foiled by vigilant flight attendants. As I learned from this post of yours, I have little doubt you would be cheering for the Uighur martyr, but you should realize 99.99*% of Chinese don't share your view and your affection for anti-China terrorists.

Regardless, Sammy, the sixty-four thousand dollar question remains, what is with the "no blacks are allowed in bars in Beijing during the Olympics" ban?

 

Oh Sammy the Lawyer all of a sudden became an English tutor to future freedom fighters? Do tell us how you polluted the minds of these Uighur kids in your impromptu class, to blow up a Han-Chinese target and have a chance to sex virgin western chicks in heaven?

Your inability to stay on topic typifies a lousy lawyer, as the above trivialities have nada to do with the hypothetical scenario in discussion.

Since Tibetan-Chinese members were prominently featured in every high-altitude mountain climbing expedition PRC has attempted, there is no reason to believe China would field a team of athletes devoid of Tibetan ethnicity to compete in the event of such nature in winter Olympics. Even if your claim that Nepalis are the best high-altitude mountain climbers in the world is true, they cannot possibly be on team China in Olympics. Simple as that.

 

Except that the article doesn't say that they were migrant workers and even says that hotels were willing to give them rooms until they found out they were ethnically Uighar. Now whether they identify their nationality with the PRC is another thing but the fact that their identity cards indicate they are Uighar and they were turned away on that basis shows that this is ethnically based.

Here you basically support Sam's position that there is discrimination based on ethnic profilling.

 

He says that they're barbarians - I will give him credit at least he does not hide it.

 

Umm, I think there is a name for this kind of journalistic trick -- cherry picking.

To give you an example, let's say your state government decides to cut budget and stop rewarding contracts to small business owners. You, a Chinese-American small business owner, is of course no exception from the budget deficit downfall. Somewhere a journalist with an ulterior motive, however, elects to make story out it. Instead of reporting the hardship suffered by small business owners in general, he chooses to opine that MN state government is out to screw Chinese Americans by focusing you as his poster boy.

Now back to the Uighur subjects in the article Samuel Fischer cited. Can anyone really dispute with a straight face they are not migrant workers in Beijing? The answer is unequivocally no, because they were not tourists, they went to Beijing looking to work. As it is also understood, the Uighur interviewee's cousin, who has a formal residence in Beijing, was not forced to leave.

It would be a travesty of justice if all ethnic minorities were "profiled", but it's not. You feel sympathetic towards the Uighurs' mishaps if they are truly peace-loving patriotic ones, but that's about all you can do for the time being. The violent, extreme and criminal elements of the Uighur have made a bad reputation for their race by intensifying a terrorist campaign including suicidal attempt at blowing up a commercial airplane, repeated threats to sabotage the Olympics in Beijing, and killing/bombing Han-Chinese targets in Xinjiang. Facing the harsh reality, the hotel clerks had no other choice but exercised their discretionary duties to refuse to serve the Uighurs for the safety of themselves and many others under their service. Not particularly PC by Western hippie standards, but highly understandable. Unless you are terrorist admirer who is also willing to contribute yourself to martyristic cause, you'd appreciate the extraordinary effort put together by the Chinese to ensure a safe Olympics.

Not if they forsake some of their rituals. Probably you can tell me other than hunting and butchering animals, what do they need to carry knives for in everyday life?

 

First off the article states that they have been in Beijing before and was even running a successful restaurant. It doesn't state that they were back in Beijing looking for work, it doesn't state what they were doing back in Beijing. So you seem to be enganging in another Op-ed practice of making an assumption. Have you considered that Uighars might actually want to visit for a reason besides work? Shopping, visiting friends and relatives or maybe they even wanted to see the spectacle of the Olympics. Your post betrays a bias that you only figure that Uighars would be there as workers.

Even if they were there though for work though your argument that the crackdown is general and not ethnically based is countered by where the article states that hotels where willing to rent rooms until they found out they were Uighars.

This is a slightly tangential topic but in regard to ethnic profiling I am opposed to it not for purely PC reasons but that it also causes other problems. For one as the article notes only a very small percentage of Uighars actually are terrorists but to treat them as a whole as being potential terrorists only ends up embittering them further towards the PRC making them more likely to be sympathetic to the radicals. The second problem is that it creates a blind spot in your defense as if the terrorists know that you are profiling they adjust their strategy. You are left with then spending focussing heavily on one profile, and in the case of ethnicity or race one very broad profile, while making it easier for the terrorists to slip through by defying the profile. For instance from seized Al Qaeda documents its known that Al Qaeda has been recruiting non-Arabs to be terrorists since they feel that the West is primarily focussed on Arabs. Also it is known that the 9/11 terrorists went to great lengths to blend in and unlike the case of the Imams who were caused a stir at the Minneapolis airport last year the 9/11 terrorists were very careful about revealing they were Muslims. So in general I think racial or ethnic profiling is a bad idea whether it is done by the PRC or USA.

Bringing it back though to though to the main point of you and Sam's discussion is that Sam was arguing that the PRC is engaged in ethnic discrimination which rather than countering you are basically agreeing with.

 

Even if there is some speculation on my part, it's well-founded. The article doesn't say the Uighur couple went to Beijing for a kick-ass vacation, either. It is pretty obvious to me they were tight in cash, which casts serious doubt on your claim that they had run a "successful" restaurant business. They needed money, and for that, they were looking for work. So this puts them in the potential migrant worker category. I am not disputing that life is hard for migrant workers in Beijing without formal residences during the Olympics. However, there is no distinction between a Han migrant worker and a Uighur as far as their inconveniences/mishaps are concerned. The ethnic identity is a convenient tool used by the author to stir up controversy. Sammy Fisher's bogus assertion that you cannot find any Uighur in Beijing during the Olympics, the BS that even he himself doesn't believe, is not supported by any news media's finding.

With limited resources and tight time constraint, specificity and efficiency take highest priorities in counter terrorism. Your idealistic hippie approach never works in real world. Besides, thus far, there is no evidence that hard-core ETIM terrorists have recruited non-Turkic criminals to excute the separatist agenda within the PRC territory. Your worry is thus rightfully unheeded.

 

It's tradition among nomads in central asia to carry a knife for cutting meat. The way it works is that in the desert or in the steppes, basically if you see a settlement you're entitled to go right in and they're obliged to feed you, so it's considered a courtesy/tradition to cut your own meat off the bone, usually goat or sheep's meat, using your own knife. It's like carrying your own chopsticks around.

 

Gee Sammy, if I recall correctly from English 101, a primary source is first hand information from an authoritative source. Now tell me, since when did the Globe and Mail become such experts on Han/Uyghur relations or history of the region for that matter.

What the G&M is quite authoritative on though, is the routine anti-China bashing and regular citing of unverified rumours when it comes to the aforementioned nation. Goes with the whole territory of being a conservative paper and all.

Now of course, if you actually regularly read your sources instead of googling them or link them from the likes of uhrp.org, you'd know of such tendencies...

No offense or anything Sishir, wnes may be guilty of assumptions, but you are equally so.

As the article claimed that 4,000 to 5,000 Uyghurs had been booted out of Beijing and they are refused hotels. Even assuming plight of Nuer and Guli is true (which we have yet to see proof, hence a big IF), that at best proves ONE HOTEL's bias, instead of public policy of discrimination against Uyghurs.

Hence, wnes is absolutely right, the article is cherrypicking at best.

Although a small percentage of Uyghurs are terrorists, it doesn't help their cause that >99% of terrorists in China are Uyghur and Tibetans, along with their backers.

You may not remember security in Xinjiang in the 80's and early 90's. It stunk. It is a helluva better today.

Western media spins Xinjiang as very safe and China merely impose curfews and restrictions to limit "ethnical and religious freedom." They got the chicken and egg problem wrong. Xinjiang is safe today BECAUSE of the central government curfews and restrictions.

Yes, as we all know it is impossible to find knives in Chinese restaurants...