Word: hans
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Chinese government did not hesitate to send tanks against its own people in 1989, and we have seen what the government can do against the Tibetans and the Uighurs when they dare rise up against the discrimination they are subjected to and demand greater autonomy. Its policies of Han migration are effectively leading to cultural colonization and the suppression of other minorities. China has become an economic powerhouse, but one result is glaring inequalities between billionaires on one side and the millions of people below the poverty level. Maybe another revolution is brewing. Jean-Louis Desplat, Saint-Lo, France...
...cultural heritage that is markedly different from that of the rest of China. And while six decades of communist Chinese rule have brought tremendous prosperity to some, modernization has also raised a profound disconnect between the region's old inhabitants and newer arrivals. Encouraged by Beijing, millions of Han Chinese have migrated west, imbued with a state-sanctioned spirit of manifest destiny. As skyscrapers loom where bazaars once stood, many Uighurs see themselves crowded out of their own homeland. (See pictures of the unrest in Urumqi...
...after the worst bout of interethnic violence in years had rocked the regional capital of Urumqi. Sakamaki, a veteran of conflict zones from Liberia to Sri Lanka, was struck by the air of tension. In Xinjiang, he says, there is an almost irreconcilable divide between the Uighurs and the Han. "They don't live with each other, they don't communicate to each other and they don't understand each other...
...Journalists traveling in Xinjiang are dogged by government minders and face a suspicious and fearful populace. Local Han warned Sakamaki of straying into Uighur areas. But he was touched by the unflinching hospitality he received from Uighurs once he made the simple gesture of greeting them as a Muslim would: Salaam aleikum - "Peace be with you." "After that," Sakamaki says, "the barriers all came down...
...while the old Cold War allies may still want to counterbalance American influence, Moscow and Beijing are linked by 21st century economic concerns. "We cannot be as close as we were in the 1950s," says Han. The communist neighbors grew apart starting in 1956, and even after the fall of the Soviet Union, trade between Russia and China remained slow. In recent years it has expanded rapidly, from $10.7 billion in 2001 to $56.9 billion in 2008. "Half of that is energy," says Zweig. "Energy is a very important component of the bilateral trade relationship. In many ways...