Human Rights and Soft Power in China

China’s Great Failure in its Minority Policy and Human Rights Violation in Xinjiang: Why China Should Improve its Political Soft Power and Human Rights

The Chinese minority policy in Xinjiang has been a great failure. The minority policy not only failed, but at the same time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has blatantly violated fundamental human rights by attempting to assimilate, and repress the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. As a consequence, China’s lack of political soft power and human rights impedes China from becoming a trusted ‘super power’ in the 21st Century. In this paper, I will first argue that China has greatly failed in its minority policy and has violated human rights in Xinjiang. In the second part of the paper, I will argue it is absolutely necessary for China to improve its political and foreign policy soft power, and human rights if China wants to become a trusted ‘super power’ that rivals the US in the 21st century.

Introduction

Xinjiang is a territory that used to belong to the Uyghurs and even had an independent state called ‘Eastern Turkestan’; however, after the Chinese Communists won the Chinese civil war, the People’s Liberation Army came in, and declared Xinjiang to be a part of China from 1949. The Chinese designated Xinjiang as ‘Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomy Region’ (XUAR). However, the China’s system of “minzu regional autonomy” in fact provides little political autonomy. According to a Chinese Communist Party member, Zhao Suisheng:

“Regional autonomy…by no means meant that the communist state would let minorities govern themselves”

Massive Han Immigration into Xinjiang

The government’s policy to encourage Han Chinese migration into minority areas significantly increased the population of Han in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Between 1945 and 2008, the proportion of Han in Xinjiang rose dramatically, from 6.2 percent to 39 percent. In the present, the native Uyghur population and Han population are about the...