Ha, autonomy in Xinjiang, Tibet... what a load of bollocks! But, I take my hat of to the cunning CCP for their portrayal of an "autonomous region"

As Bovington pointed out the division of Xinjiang into a number os smaller autonomies was an administrative master-stroke. By parcelling out "sub autonomies," not only did the CCP satisfy the ideal that Xinjiang belonged to 13 minzu, but it counterbalanced the overwhelming political and demographic weight of the Uyghur.

What freaking Autonomy I ask anyone????

I once visited a mosque in Beijing with a Pakistani friend during ramadan, and they gave him a piece of paper with an arabic prayer on it. But the prayer was written in Chinese characters that were meant to sound like the arabic prayer. I'm wondering if the Mosques are required to use chinese characters, or if they do that just because the people don't know arabic anymore?

US Jewish leaders call for boycott of Beijing Olympics

By ERIC GORSKI
April 30, 2008

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iRnjEBdiEfe2kx_h7Af3poParyQgD90BPBFO1

A wide-ranging group of U.S. Jewish leaders plans to release a statement Wednesday urging Jews worldwide to boycott the Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing China's troubling record on human rights and Tibet.

The statement also notes China's close relationships with Iran, Syria and the militant group Hamas.

So far, 175 rabbis, seminary officials and other prominent Jews have signed the declaration, which comes shortly before Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, organizers said.

"We are deeply troubled by China's support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas," the statement reads.

"Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today."

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, past chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, said signers are not alleging that the Chinese government is the equivalent of the Nazi regime, but that China, like Germany in 1936, is trying to use the Olympics as a public relations tool to deflect attention from its record.

The declaration was organized by Greenberg and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of New York — both Orthodox Jews — and the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.

Several representatives of Judaism's major U.S. branches and large Jewish institutions signed on. They include Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Neil Goldstein and Richard Gordon of the American Jewish Congress; and Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, an association of Conservative rabbis.

The statement seizes on Olympic organizers' plans for a kosher kitchen at the Olympic Village, where athletes stay. Greenberg characterized the move as an attempt to lure Jewish tourists by presenting an image of sensitivity.

"I would say in principle, athletes and tourists and governments should all draw the same conclusion to this," Greenberg said. "Unless the Chinese make some significant corrections, they should not participate."

Meyers said he hopes the declaration is interpreted as a call for Israel and Jewish athletes worldwide to boycott the games, although he doubts such a boycott will come to pass.

"It would be good if that happened," Meyers said. "(But) I know Israel has political ties to China, and does business with China. It presents a somewhat awkward issue for Israel."

How do you find all of these fantastic articles?

This is my favorite:

"After 61 years of this system and 30 years of reform and opening-up, rapid economic and social progress have been made in these autonomous regions, accounting for 64 percent of the country's total area."

An unsupported claim and a totally irrelevant statistic.

Here's a good report on the current official campaigns to phase out the Uyghur language and usher in Mandarin in Xinjiang:
http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=102998.

Michael finally managed to get his blood boil as well. Bad for your blog i will say. Is this part of answer to rabbits' call?

white papers...bah. who cares. there is less than 1 in 1000 people read it in china. Want details and 'supposed statements'? try Saddam's 10000 page long "weapon of massive boredom" on WMD b4 the "Operation of Iraqi Liberation" (OIL). Is poor Michael stuck with an old CCTV-exclusive tv set in beijing with no means of accessing numerous other programs or xinjiang kebab turns one's stomach to political propaganda? rock on,

Blogmeister - excellent post, thanks.

@passerby.

you have a strange beef. This blog is about western China originally and I would say maintains that focus. It is also far from political propaganda. It just is what it is - a portrayal of current political propaganda...in a continuum of efforts to promote 'national unity' where there is none.

Jeff,

You were probably at a Hui mosque. Much as Buddhist texts are still written in Chinese meant to sound like Sanskrit, a lot of Hui use Chinese to sound out Arabic. I guess it helps people who haven't had the opportunity to attend a mosque school to participate. You'd be interested to know that, for quite some time, Chinese Muslims in southeastern China were using Arabic script to write Chinese. (It's fun to read.)

That isn't to say that there hasn't been some push for the over-use of Chinese in certain fields. A new textbook for studying Old Uyghur, I am told, uses Chinese characters to represent the sounds of the language, rather than the Old Uyghur script itself. (Of course, I haven't verified this myself... The one new Old Uyghur textbook I'm aware of uses a Latin transliteration.)

There's also an amusing new set of phrase books out there: "1001 Sentences of French", "1001 Sentences of German", "1001 Sentences of Uyghur"... They provide the original French text, a Chinese translation, and then the (highly inaccurate) pronunciation written out in Chinese characters! Imagine someone actually going to Paris and saying to a Parisian, "布恩主尔！靠马恩特阿雷兹乌斯？"

For those of you who can't read Chinese, like me, that's:

Bù ēn zhŭ ěr! Kào mǎ ēn tè ā lé zī wū sī?

What do you guys make out of the following stats?

"The sixth census in 2005 showed China had a population of more than 1.3 billion. Han people accounted for 90.56 percent and ethnic minorities 9.44 percent. Compared with the 2000 census, the population of ethnic minorities increased by 15.88 percent, much higher than the Han's 2.03 percent".

Some buffoons are trying to imply that Muslims can only communicate with their God via Arabic but not thru Chinese.

That's true, moron ~~~ Muslims can only say verses in Arabic while they pray.

强烈要求取消“新疆维吾尔自治区”中的“维吾尔自治区”字样，让这些东西真还以为自己是主人而其他人都是客人了。
Strongly urge the abolition of the text "Uyghur Autonomous Region" in the "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region". The words, let these things really thought they was the owner and other people are the guests.

The correct and official appelation is "Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region" (XUAR). It was named as such in 1955 for good reason ~ to woo and seduce the Uyghur into acceptance and passivity toward the Communist Han vanguard on the belief they (Uyghur) would receive Autonomy and internal self-rule within the PRC. As we can see the reality of the XUAR and its proposed reality are two different things.

pps. @dyn

Communist Han vanguard = Guest

to add something to my last point,

although the reality may be two different things, i think its safe to conclude that most Uyghurs have a decent living, and the ones that complain, protest, and demand independence are the fundamentalists islamists terrorists that the whole world seems to hate now.

so i dont blame the ccp for using a heavy hand in this region, it will bring wonders to the Uyghurs in the long run.

The last 50 years have shown that XUAR (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) has been a great success. I've been there, i know first hand.

Whoever wrote that last post under my name has to be kidding. The majority of Uyghur in general wish to be free of the CCP thralldom or as they call it "zulmat". Just how many terrorists there are is also open to debate. More correct would be to ask how many Uyghur youth are imprisoned under the terrorist rubric? 20,000- 40,000 young men? These kind of policies breed discontent. Why more executions in Xinjiang than anywhere else in China? Even Tibet. Id say if a survey would be possible - a referendum - the Han would be voted out. The post 9/11 anti-terrorism crusade which followed unbroken the 4 year long "strike hard" campaign during which time I was living in Xinjiang and witnessed terror with my own eyes but from the direction of the state aimed against the Uyghur population in general - and the Ili massacre retribution period (like the present Lhasa retributions) is pretext for absolute Han control of Turkestan.

For the future any one using my name as in the above posts who distorts and tries to post positive brush-ups of the Uyghur situation is an imposter . My posts will all have the tone of this post tone which is more to the point
and differing from:

"The last 50 years have shown that XUAR (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) has been a great success. I've been there, i know first hand."

Ive been there too and know it hasnt... id say the above post is by "dyn" or one of his moronic buddies... the heavy hand they speak of as positive is genocidal in nature - get that right. this is one word that brings them out I know which is not what im trying to do becoz everyone knows the nature of their minds and their base arguments by now - but lets call a spade a spade...CCP policy in Xinjiang sucks...

James

Businessweek.com acknowledges how evil and wretched China is:

http://tinyurl.com/6k6ft4

i have been following the blog recently, and i suspect that James, is not who he says he is.

i suspect that James is the author of this blog, michael, he uses the James alter ego, to bring out his sino phobic side, instead of using the name michael, in order to not alienate his chinese viewers.

it seems too coincidental that James says he has lived in xinjiang for a few years, says hes been the the same places as michael, and now coincidentally lives in bejing just like michael.

anyone else have the same suspicions?

I believe that Michael is NOT James.
1. James is a French whose English has French characteristic, but Michael is a American.
2. I think Michael has a Han Chinese wife or girl friend.
3. James is VERY stupid like all supporters of splittists.

to True and truly Stupid James:

That false James is not me, as you have seen, my English is too poor to debunk your flam. haha.

If the Uighurs do not recognize that they Uighurs and Han are all Chinese, Ok, it's of no problem, just get out from XinJiang of China.

dyn, if I pull out the Chinese flag, believe everything your government tells me despite the rest of the world providing me evidence contrary to what the CCP say, if I hate all non-Han and think westerners as rather stupid... will I be a good Chinese?

@ponderer: I am not any of the people named James who are posting comments on this blog.

Of course, Michael and James the original are one and the same person. I have always known that. No two people can think or write exactly the same way, just like identical twins. Having said that, I must say that Michael/James is not a Chinese/China hater. Yes, He has a split personality. He does love China, otherwise he would not have lived in that desolate/arid land called Xinjiang for three and a half years. He also wants to change China, the way a Westerner and Chinese sympathiser would like to, the Western way. I also believe that Michael/James is funded by some secret agency, and once his stay in China (Xinjiang followed by Beijing) is finished, he will write a book and a report to his agency, in which I think he will try to strike a balanced view (Pro and Con). Anyone to comment on my thoughts?

to Jiba:
rest of the world??
haha, what does "rest of the world" mean?
USA and the minion USA?
Being a Chinese, you can freely choose to believe what CCP say or NOT.
Taiwanese are Han Chinese, if they split China and goverment can not stop them from doing so(because of intervene from USA), I think we Han Chinese in mainland will urge gov to nuke Taiwan and kill ALL Han Chinese splittists in Taiwan.
Because we recognize you Ugyhur Chinese in XinJiang and Han Chinese in Taiwan are all our brothers and sisters, so we will give you the same treatment. We never discriminate Ugyhur and Han.
You should know how strong Chinese anti-secession determination are.
Even weak and incompetent Qing Dynasty Government can safeguard China's sovereignty in Xinjiang, then you think of a rising China with a hope to strengthen influence in whole Central Asia, will allow the separation of Xinjiang???
Separatist, you have it painful, life-long suffering to it, because you born in the wrong era.

at Arjun

"He does love China, otherwise he would not have lived in that desolate/arid land called Xinjiang for three and a half years."

i seriously doubt this is true. he lived there bc i think he supports uighur separatists, thats the vibe i get from this blog, and it has a feeling of being anti chinese.

not as bad as other blogs, and the only reason being is bc the author is writing from inside china.

if you see the blog posts, you will see an attempt to make it sound like xinjiang should be separate from china. the auhtor loves to exaggerate and display how different uighurs are from the han.

this blog is trying to drive a wedge into the relationship between china's ehtnic minorities.

thats why i think on the whole, this blog attracts commenters who support separatists all over china, which in turn attracts overly nationalistic han to counter it.

Rest of the world... maybe CCTV hasen't shown the Torch relay but I can assure you the rest of the world covers a larger area of land othe than the United States: Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia..Korea...Japan... or are all these countries wrong?

Regarding Taiwan... you're comments are what scares people. Your nationalism seems to be similar to that of the Nazi party or the Japanese before they invaded China. I openly critisize my government, but can you yours? This isn't about picking a team and supporting them through wins and losses, it is about looking at the world, the human rights your country has signed, and then applying those standards in face of current events.

I'm not American so I can't speak for them but I can tell you, before you give me the "look at black people in America..look at Iraq..blah blah" that two wrongs don't make a right! China has signed human rights treaties, if it was not read to sign it, if it didn't have the capacity or intention to implement human rights locally, then it should never have signed them in the first place. - Yup, China has improved the lives of millions of its citizens, good for your govenment, but in terms of human security, you know... "HUMAN RIGHTS"... you're government has a long way to go and is not upholding the spirit of the human rights treaties it has signed.

The Uighur people are discriminated against... just ask any Han what they think of Uighur and it becomes obvious. Or try to find Uighur prominant in their own recourse industry and you see the discrimination. Also, read up on what Autonomy actually is, "being masters in their own house," what you find in Xinjiang is an autonomous policy designed to only "keep them in the house," while the Han benifit at their expense.

Most people think separatists in Xinjiang are foolish, and no one here supports the separation of Xinjiang from China. I myself respect Chinese sovereignty, but I don't respect some of your governments practices, just like I don't respect the American's involvement in the Iraq War and just like I don't respect the Japanese governments support of Whaling.... It's not about choosing sides, its about making this world a batter place dude.

The defeat by Western powers make Chinese who has always considered itself excellence in all national into a position of inferiority.
They want to find the reason why China is backward.
They thought that it is due to the Han Chinese Characters used to write Han Chinese Language.
They thought they should Latinize Han Chinese, so they create PinYin which doomed to fail to replace Han Chinese Characters.
so, do not say and condemn that China force ethnic minorities to latinize their language, it is a try to strengthen all Chinese includeing Han and Ugyhur.

maybe CCTV hasen't shown the Torch relay
=========================
Do not always wrongly think that you Westerners can see more things than Chinese people.
China gov block website who think harmful, but that does not means that we Chinese can not see what we want to see. I can aceess every blocked website include politics and sex.
many Chinese learn English, but few Westerner learn Chinese, so Westerner media including CNN, washingtonpost and BBC are unresponsive to development of situation in China.

can assure you the rest of the world covers a larger area of land othe than the United States: Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia..Korea...Japan... or are all these countries wrong?
=============================
I just want to say : "so Strong USA, so many Minion States of USA".
world? maybe, world under USA supremacy.

Nazi
==================
funny, we give Ugyhur Chinese a higher status and treatment than Han Chinese.
by the way, it is this point that make me and most Han Chinese are dissatisfied with.
why we "discriminate" Ugyhurs Chinese? Because they tyrannize Han Chinese, they have the protection from our Gov.
they have no Human Right??? they have super Human Right.
f you are willing to listen, I should talk some story about Ugyhur Chinese Student who live near my dorm when I was a university freshman.

Dyn, CNN or BBC is not the only way people outside of China learn about China. We have academics, both Chinese and Waiguo ren, who present objective works where people like myself, who are becoming more and moree aware of China's situation, can access.

Being a state of the United States... isn't that a rather narrow way of looking at the world. You're saying you have access to information other than CCP owned media? Doubtful you're actually reading them.

I was not refering to you as a Nazi because of your countries treatment of the Uighur, I was refering to your blind nationalism. Your inability to listen to anything other than support of your glorious leadership reminds me of what went on in Japan and Germany before WW2.

Oh, you've also twisted my words. I never said Uighurs had "NO HUMAN RIGHTS", I said they are discriminated against and lack autonomy. Big difference there sport.

Sorry for the delay but It was Lydia who revealed I lived in Beijing and since shes found my place wont stop coming around. Other wise I would have responded earlier to the newest batches of humourous musings from the paranoid and suspicious net police:

@ponderer

"it seems too coincidental that James says he has lived in xinjiang for a few years, says hes been the the same places as michael, and now coincidentally lives in bejing just like michael.

I have never said that I HAVE BEEN TO THE SAME PLACES AS mICHAEL.

Many laowei have lived in Xinjiang. I have never met Michael. I am not American but of partly Central Asian Jewish descent and other...thats right Dyn my mother was a French prostitute...I cant help it if my English is so coloured by such a beutiful language...I try...

such is life. I have never met the blogmeister and probably never will. So leave him alone he is doing a good job for all types of eggs to expres themselves even you, even me.

Michael seems very balanced and obviously has a real understanding of China and has no sino-phobic side. On the contraray, posts to this blog have proven the innate racism of many Han; who cannot differentiate between criticism of an evil dictatorship - the CCP - and the Han ethnicity - that is how complete Communist propaganda has been; that is how deeply entrenched a dangerous ultranationalism has become in Chinese thinking

"[]uhtor loves to exaggerate and display how different uighurs are from the han."

Oh I always thought the HAN and the Uighur had so much in common, one could barely tell them apart Ponderer yure right - damn that Michael exagerrates those few differences. Dont worry ponderer one day there will be no difference all will be Han and Han monoculture: (read pseudo-western Culture- Han culture is also dying)

@dyn

yes you are right. Your English is not good enough to have posted that pseudo-James "pok" but forgive me for confusing you and others - you are all saying the same fascist shit all of the time. It was someone like you with better English.

@ dyn

the reason China is backward is because of people who think like you.

What brilliant deduction form ponderer and arjun and others. michael is a racist and an agent, a this and that, a lover of china, a hater of China, a wannabe who will write a book etc, etc ad nauseum...he must be laughing in bed with his Chinese wife because of all of this. Your powers of perception are extraordinary boys

So all the ultra splittists attract all the ultra Han nationlists on this site. My observation is that the usual sequence is: a statement of accuracy is made about the western frontier of the imperialist Chinese state or a question is asked and opinions are given and the "Ultra Hans" just start bombing the place, posting posts in my name and attempting to censor anything I said or attacking others with similar views - so brittle, so shallow is their world and so deep is their guilt for the theft of land and destruction of culture. The gainsayers of the great Han lie are not splittists - they are just voicing maybe what the oppressed minorities in China cannot voice for fear of imprisonment, tortue, and death - great choices for disagreeing with the big Lie.

I write far more powerfully and ascerbically than Michael. Read his editorials - they are well balanced and offer speculation. I have no mercy on you bastards.

What really upsets the types I have mentioned above is usage and application of terms such as "true Autonomy" "cultural genocide" to Xinjiang and Tibet. What doubly upsets them is if someone uses those terms has actually been to those places and viewed the reality on the ground over time. This is enfuriating for them because their bluster and fairy tale excuses are threatened. "Ponderer" how do you know that I do not have relatives of Jewish ancestry living in Kashi? Do you know its history - perhaps its secret history; its language and blended ethnicities. Do you know what a "chala Musulman" is or a "chala Yehudi"? What do you know? You like most Han who get on here either have not been west of the eastern seaboard or the former Mongol capital - Beiping- or live in a western country as consumate hypocrites sniping at anyone who says anything incongruos with the great cultural script of the fucken mutherland! NOW ya got me bitter agin - Its the thought of all those tortured young men in the paradise that is Xinjiang. - Im going to schtoop Lydia again now for that...

Now that the net police have unravelled their mysteries. Whats new??

I said: "It's not about choosing sides, its about making this world a batter place dude."

Oh my, I wish I could say I didn't say that... but it appears I did. *steps away from the computer, slaps himself with a wet mullet.

James you are probably the same kind of dirty, arrogant western pervert michael is, who comes to china because in the west, hed just be another bald fat white guy, but in china, hes an exotic bald fat guy.

so many white people come to non white countries, and think they can save people.

i have been to the west, and i have lived there. so dont tell me how it is. i know what the west is like infinitly more than what you think you know about china.

just bc you slept with a few a sluts, can order chinese food at a restaurant, identify a few characters, and can point to a map and say, this is so and so, dont mean shit.

give me a break. arrogant westerenres like you and micahel, are the true inheritors of orientalism.

you see china through the eyes, and experience of a westerner. which isnt the truth, as you like to put it.

when chinese talk, its called brainwashed lies, but when arrogant white people talk, its the truth.

arrogance breeds ignorance, and right now, you got a shit loud of both.

its to bad my penis is so small, or else i will show you a real man.

and stop thinking the police are watching you. or that this blog is being attacked by so many han chauvanists. there are at most 2 or 3 angry chinese commenters on this whole blog, if you were two dumb to notice, they keep changing their name. just ask michael to compare the similarities in the email addresses they leave. he will tell you.

Ponderer said">>>arrogant westerenres like you and micahel, are the true inheritors of orientalism. "

what the hell does that mean?

That should be my new personal motto: "not just another bald fat white guy"!

@ Davey:

"Ponderer said">>>arrogant westerenres like you and micahel, are the true inheritors of orientalism. "

what the hell does that mean?"

That means he didn't understand what the "westerners" have been saying on this blog. If he says Michael, who has been fair and balanced, is so and so, then God know what he thinks of others ... It seems like CCP's brainwashing policy with nationalism has worked well for the new generation of Chinese ... Where is the legacy of the June 4th? I bet they (FQ, 愤青= 粪青）never heard of that ...

@Ponderer, James, Dyn, et al.

As they say in the South (US), there ain't no French-l***ing-man with a Welsh surname who writes American English! I'm talking about James Hughes, of course. First, he was a Frenchman. And now, he is of Central Asian Jewish descent, whose mother was a French pro*****te. He was in Xinjiang. And, now he has never been there. He knows michael very well, but has never met him, even though both are staying in Beijing now. Why can't you two meet and have dinner? May be you can't, i.e., if you are the same person? Yeah, is it all a figment of my imagination? It's brilliant deduction, baby!

Is Michael a descent guy? Of course, he is. Didn't he declare on more than one occasion that he is not a "splittist"? Or is it like the Dalai Lama, who has repeatedly said, he is not asking for independence? Michael's alter ego -- James, is another matter. But not to worry, Ponderer. A true Chinese-hater will never set foot on China, let alone live there. A true Chinese-hater will not be so well-informed about China as Michael or James are. They are just acting.

To Michael: Enjoy your stay in Beijing. But remember about the pollution. That dust from the Mongolian Gobi is more trecherous than those you experienced in Uighur Taklamakan. Get a tip from Michael Jackson: wear a mask when you venture out. Happy hunting!

Chinese Uighur exile urges Olympic boycott over 'genocide'

AFP
by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura
Fri May 2, 10:50 PM ET

A senior exiled leader of China's Muslim Uighur minority has urged a boycott of the Olympics, accusing Beijing of "cultural genocide" alongside its crackdown in Tibet.

"China has no right to host the Olympic Games because they represent peace, freedom and friendship," said Dolkun Isa, secretary general of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress.

Isa told AFP that China had failed to improve human rights in Tibet and China's western Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused by rights groups of cracking down on local ethnic groups.

Uighurs, whose Turkish roots make them culturally and ethnically closer to Central Asian nations than Han Chinese, are concentrated in Xinjiang.

Uighur activists have been seeking independence or autonomy for the region, which they call East Turkestan.

Isa held talks in Japan with senior lawmakers, including former prime minister Shinzo Abe and former foreign minister Taro Aso, to seek pressure on China over its human rights record when President Hu Jintao visits next week.

"Japan has a responsibility to save the Uighur culture and people from China's cultural genocide," Isa said during his visit to Tokyo.

He said Japan should ask Hu for the release of prisoners including the two children of leading Uighur dissident Rebiya Kadeer, who lives in exile in the United States and is president of the World Uighur Congress.

Beijing has labelled Uighur activists as terrorists and said this year that it had foiled a planned attack by Uighurs on a Chinese plane as well as plans to kidnap foreigners during the Olympics.

But rights groups have alleged that China is trying to stoke fears about attacks as an excuse to silence dissent and justify tight control in Xinjiang ahead of the Games.

Isa said a "peaceful demonstration" on March 23 by Uighur women calling for religious freedom resulted in 700 arrests.

He added that more than 10,000 Uighurs have been arrested in the past four to five months on allegations that they pose a security threat. "They were told they'd be kept under arrest until after the Olympics," he said.

"Everywhere, homes, hotels are searched. People are arrested. Checkpoints are set up, and every passenger, every bus is checked. Even people with no past records have been arrested simply because they look suspicious," he added.

"Police are everywhere. If three, four Uighurs gather to talk in a street, police immediately arrive and force them to disperse."

The worldwide relay of Beijing's Olympic flame has been marred by protests, mostly calling for greater liberties in Tibet after Beijing's crackdown on major protests in March.

Bowing to international pressure, Beijing last month said it was willing to resume talks with the Dalai Lama's representatives, who are heading to the meeting this weekend.

But Isa was sceptical.

"It's not credible," he said. "This time it's because there was an international reaction and China has only three months left until the Olympics to improve its image after Tibet."

He expects Uighurs to demonstrate when the Olympic flame arrives in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, in June.

"Most Chinese demonstrators are pressured to support (the flame and the Games). Many are

@Arjun,

"Is Michael a descent guy? Of course, he is." Wow, that is quite a bit of change from your original attitude towards Michael (see your post abovet at May 4, 2008 09:35 PM). What happened?

@davey, Heverci

you are 2 obviously some uneducated trailer trash. if you are in china, thats a shame, the screening process has got to get better to prevent hicks like you from coming into china.

if you want to know what that sentence means, i suggest you read about Edward Said's magnam opus. but it doesnt have any pop up pictures, so it might be hard for you.

its not about being fair and balanced, i will agree with an commenter a while back. this blog treats uighurs like a freak show,
i.e. orienatlism.

if you guys think michael is righteous, he is not, he censors comments on this blog, and adds his own words to discredit dissent, read my comment from yesterday it has been changed.

looks like michael cant take a little criticism, i think hes learned something from being in china.

it is obvious that is an anti chinese blog.

@ Ponderer

Assuming you've been educated in the West and, like so many, become masters of copy n paste, doesn't excuse you for being stupid and having a narrow view on the world and a xenophobic, narcissist understanding of your own country.

Problem with people like yourself is that you've done a few years overseas and now your parents expect you to be the full bottle on all things western. But you and I both know that you didn’t make many western friends and most of the contact you had with westerners was your lecturers and tutors.

So your expectations weren’t met. Thus, you hung out with other Chinese students and in time you also had no desire to hang out with locals and infact tended to avoid them altogether. You then come home pretending to be a new and improved westenernised Ponderer able to dispute all criticisms leveled at China because of your new worldly understanding on all things Chinatown.

True, many westerners in China are fools and a lot of them know jackshit about China also. But the fact remains that people like yourself are damaging the reputation of China. People are beginning to read your rhetoric and this translates into a loss of face for your government: The Olympic games were supposed to be a “coming out” for China and its new status as a mature state, but what people like yourself and your ultra-nationalism are doing is sending a clear message to the international community that maybe China is not that ready after all?

Your expectations are irrational.

@ponderer

its "magnum opus" not magnam- the latter is an ice cream brand I believe.

read James Milward's article about Xiang Fei on the reverse Orientalism of the Han Chinese toward the Uighur before you start your invertred reasoning and attempt to accuse westerners of it toward the Minorities China treats as "children". Also can you please learn to spell properly.

@ ponderer

"...before you start your inverted reasoning and attempt to accuse westerners of it toward the Minorities China treats as 'children'. Also, can you please learn to spell properly."

@ Cherry

Can you provide us with the millward article link, pls :)

actually all your assumptions are wrong. im an ABC (american born and raised Chinese) who has come back to china for a extended vacation. so all your guesses of my being some isolated over seas student is wrong.

so dont tell me i dont know anything about the west. i grew up next you poeple like you all my life. i grew up in a small white bread town, where i was the only slope.

actaully i was a very westernized chinese person until i realized how rascist and baised westerners were toward china. so i embraced my roots.

damaging the reputation of china huh? so i guess only westerenrs are allowed to defend their culture against constant attacks and demonization we see in the media and the internet.

please stop trying to guess the intentions of chinese, and its impacts. you are in no position to make such claims. and stop trying to act like you understand chinese culture by bringing up terms like face. you dont understand it, so stop assuming you know. you embarass yourself.

i love how they bring up my spelling errors. dude, if you hav ethe time to review everything you write and correct the errors, thatz your business, but this is a blog, im not writing an article for new york times so who cares if there is a spelling error here or there. all you guys got in your arsenal is trivial attacks, wide eye assumptions about my background, thats ok.

Ponderer wrote: "damaging the reputation of china huh? So i guess only westerenrs are allowed to defend their culture against constant attacks and demonization we see in the media and the internet."

You'll find most of the "attacks" are leveled at your government; not your people, not your culture, nor are people really interested in demonizing China. I am not responsible for your experiences in America but I am not a racist because of them and to accuse all Westerners of being so is exactly what you accuse us of doing, and exactly the point I am making against. That most of the bite is against the CCP, not the Chinese people.

Ponderer wrote: "please stop trying to guess the intentions of chinese, and its impacts. you are in no position to make such claims. and stop trying to act like you understand chinese culture by bringing up terms like face. you dont understand it, so stop assuming you know. you embarass yourself."

Second guess? Dude, seriously, if you can read Mandarin… pick up a damned paper.

I spose I must clear things up for

@ponderer and
@dyn and
@Arjun, etc.,

as they are getting skitzy: their opinions are wavering and changing like the tides upon the troubled sea, and for even poor Michael, the victim of pernicious and untrue accusations.

If yu truly wish to trace the source of all confusion concerning myself and Michael, Lydia is to blame. I will save you the masochistic task of delving thru the 'bear baiting' archive and paste here her initial post which, the miscreant she is, started the rumor Michael and I were one and the same personae:

"James,

I have copied all your pictures and will post them on Tianya.cn. I will call for a nationwide campaign in China to catch you son of bit'ch as a splitist criminal.

Thank you for telling me you are in Beijing.

Posted by: Lydia at April 27, 2008 11:33 PM"

as yu can see it was she who assumed I was in Beijing even tho I didnt tell her. She thought I was Michael, daft little ex-hairdresser that she is. Just because she graduates from the party cadre school she all of a sudden thinks she is intelligent and a crime buster for the net police, who she does in fact work for. Anyway somehow, she does make her way to my hutong and on answering the door, she says to me in her cute and folksy yet strangely erudite way: 'oh sorry I thought yu'd be a little more rotund and skinny on top (bald).' Y'see she had Michael's pics (mine have never been posted. Im ah am ashamed of my looks). She was also shocked at my countenance and the fact I was early 40'ish. I had to explain to her that the pock marks were not the result of the pox but from my initial adventure into Mongolia at the tender age of 19 years when I was caught in an abominable blizzard sent upon me by angry tutelaries on the northern edge of the Gobi - being the daughter of Han colonists to Inner Mongolia she empathized. I invited her in for cocktails. Well thats how it started. She loved the Yarkandi nesha (hashish) and then we potted just a little Mekong "O" - pium, then washed it all down with several rumkas of my favorite 55% proof 'Yili Dajiu' - well as yu can imagine weve been very close ever since. She still calls me Michael but only in jest. I love it when she calls me Jamesy. Im lucky my african girlfriend is umm...broadminded...she doesnt mind Lydia coming around at all...

and thats another reason I never want to meet Michael coz I got Lydia now and she wanted him at first.

Some other reasons Why Michael and I cannot be the same person - this is for the moron brigade:

I have never met Michael.
Unlike myself @ ponderer, he was not living in Xinjiang (East Turkestan) during the Yanda - Strike Hard campaign of the mid to late 1990s. Nor was he incarcerated at that time...I never said I had been to the same places as him. So where'd yu get this stuff? So the brilliant and almost psychic ponderer writes after further misreading:

"it seems too coincidental that James says he has lived in xinjiang for a few years, says hes been the the same places as michael, and now coincidentally lives in bejing just like michael.

anyone else have the same suspicions?"

as well, its only Lydia who says I live in Beijing.

Lets tick that one off, next??

Yes I am far, far more arrogant than Michael. He seems like a humble guy - a true enquirer. Im a know it all but not a smart arse like many of the lil fascos out there.

so writes the illuminating Arjun:

"Of course, Michael and James the original are one and the same person. I have always known that. No two people can think or write exactly the same way, just like identical twins. Having said that, I must say that Michael/James is not a Chinese/China hater."

Incorrect beginning. Correct conclusion. Of course James is not a China hater - nor is Michael. He obviously adores the place. Like me he just hates injustice and falsehood, like a true Amnerican; and according to @ dyn, Michael has a Chinese girlfriend or wife - I do too now, and know how he feels. I like Lydia a lot.

It is also untrue we think the same. He is far too conservative for my liking. It is also untrue we write the same. Michael is balanced and to the point. I am crazed (but not deluded) and usually quite drunk and angry...Michael only drinks during Jewish holiday time I guess...as I said, check for yrself Arjun, yu bloody twit - and see if our syntax is really the same. That little genius @ dyn, picked it out straight away, despite my Welsh surname I write obviously as A Francophone in second languague mode. Are yu a total ignoramus? Yes, I am also far more abusive than Michael. The only time I read him angry was when he wanted to see western Christians jailed here in China for breaking the Chinese law..um..yeh..OK ...Michael..we know yu are tolerant and also an upholder of Chinese law... But Im sure he would castigate all of these, 2 or 3 angry Chinese commenters, who according to ponderer, keep changing their names or signing as me or Tialko, if he had the chance face to face. How do yu know this for sure ponderer. Do yu know Cao Ming, and "Jim" and Mainlander et al,?

Finally,

"and stop thinking the police are watching you."

of course guys like ponderer on here or the 2 to 3 angry name changers always laugh at this suggestion. Even tho it is they who bring it up. Hey dont think ya being watched. Coz ya are. Inverted reasoning symptomatic of the great Communist brainwashing technique that seems to have been succesful on at least 90% of the Chinese population. The CCP and China are not the one and same entity...

Michael has never censored any of my over the top statements ponderer. It must be your foul mouth. I think Jimba and Cheery have dealt with the rest of your phlegm nicely, so Ill leave yu to your spitoon.

yes Arjun, yu are correct in yr bi-polar way. I AM ANOTHER MATTER. Thanku fr editing out naughty words like prostiture and French ****whatever. We are so shocked here in Delhi by the wicked language of recalcicrants...etc.

"... First, he was a Frenchman. And now, he is of Central Asian Jewish descent, whose mother was a French pro*****te. He was in Xinjiang. And, now he has never been there. He knows michael very well, but has never met him, even though both are staying in Beijing now. Why can't you two meet and have dinner? May be you can't, i.e., if you are the same person? Yeah, is it all a figment of my imagination? It's brilliant deduction, baby!"

I never said I hadnt been to Xinjiang. I was not born there in this lifetime but three previous. Yes I know all the souls there Arjun.

All the rest yu write above is true.

"Yes, He has a split personality."

as far as skitzo goes. Arjun and ponderer - are changing their opinions from day to day about whether we are one person or two? Is that a reflection fellas of, dare I say it, your psychiatric state? Does manic depression mean anything to yu guys? I mean the Hendrix song of course? (Hendrix= western folk idol).

I need not comment on Arjun's beleiefs that Michael is an agent etc wants to write a book and change Chin a la western. How droll of yu Arjun? Heres here for the sex and the sex only. As ponderer outlines:

"James you are probably the same kind of dirty, arrogant western pervert michael is, who comes to china because in the west, hed just be another bald fat white guy, but in china, hes an exotic bald fat guy."

"just bc you slept with a few a sluts, can order chinese food at a restaurant, identify a few characters, and can point to a map and say, this is so and so, dont mean shit.

so true ponderer, Michael and I couldnt get laid in a brothel, and as for your self-cofessed tiny penis syndrome, well that was an unsolicited comment, and well aint that tell-tale in a Freudian manner Ponderer. My advice is to leave it alone (it wont grow) and seek advice. Try tiger penis pills and the blood of male elk horn. Only on full moons.

Il forget the painful "Orientalist" jibes. Ohhh so nasty. Ohh so true and accurate. Oh how funky and cute are those little Uyghurs and their watermelons...and the girls ..ah.ah...ah the most beautiful in all of China....ahhhhhhhhhh! I want to collect Uyghur for my minorities' specimen box and put them in a big museum in Beijing, the happy capital, for all the Chinese to see and poke sticks at, see theyre reeeeel little Uighur zu.....ahahahahah, happpy, happy, we all happy in China.....one big happy family

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/T...how/3013071.cms

Tibet group in India has Qaida links: China
6 May 2008, 0001 hrs IST,Saibal Dasgupta,TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES

BEIJING: Beijing came out with a fresh assessment of the Tibet situation on Monday, one in which it accused the Tibetan Young Congress (TYC) of links with the al-Qaida and terrorist organisations involved in the East Turkmenistan movement in west China's Xinjiang province. The analysis, released by the official Xinhua news agency, said that Dalai Lama's government-in-exile in India consists of several TYC leaders and cadre.

"The TYC has become a terrorist organization as concepts of violence have taken root within it," Xinhua quoted official Tibetologist Liu Hongji as saying in an interview. "The group's shadow was evident when the police confiscated a large number of guns and ammunition in some monasteries in China's Tibetan-inhabited regions after the March 14 riot," Liu said.

The charges about TYC's terrorist's activities and its links with the Tibetan government-in-exile may become a strong argument among Communist Party leaders, who are opposed to any reconciliation with the Dalai Lama.

Chinese officials have demanded an assurance from Dalai Lama's representatives that there will be no attempts by monks and their supporters to disrupt the Olympic torch relay as well as law and order in Tibet in the coming weeks, sources said.

The talks got deadlocked on Sunday as both sides refused to budge from their known stand over the March 14 riots in Lhasa. The Chinese side rejected accusations about bad handling of the riots, saying that the Lhasa authorities had responded to violence in the most appropriate manner.

Chinese officials maintained that Dalai Lama's supporters were responsible for instigating the riots and they must now ensure that there is no more disruption of law and order in Tibet, sources said. This plea was rejected by the envoys from Dharamsala, who denied having a hand in the Lhasa riots.

Chinese president Hu Jintao on Sunday tried to give a push to the process of negotiations with Dalai Lama's envoys, saying he expected it would yield "positive results". The main purpose behind China's efforts to hold talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys is to ensure the success of the Olympic torch relay as it passes through Tibet to reach Mount Everest and to make sure that western leaders, including US president George Bush, attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games.

But there are sections in the ruling Communist Party, which are staunchly opposed to any talks with the Dalai Lama.

Despite Chinese officials agreeing to maintain dialogue with Dalai Lama, China's state press on Monday accused the spiritual leader of "monstrous crimes", keeping up its fiery rhetoric.

"Following the March 14 incident in Lhasa, the Dalai has not only refused to admit his monstrous crimes, but he has continued to perpetuate fraud," an article in Monday's state Tibet Daily said.

The article, which did not refer to the talks, described the Dalai Lama's demands for "genuine autonomy" in Tibet and the "greater Tibetan region" as fraudulent.

@Jimba

on the reverse Orientalism of the Han toward her minorities,especially the Uyghur, see:

Millward, James A. "A Uyghur Muslim in Qianlong's Court: The Meaning of the Fragant Concubine." The Journal of Asian Studies 53, no. 2 (1994): 427-58.

Try JSTOR for an online version if you can. Cheers.

Torch relay worsens China crackdown: Rebiya Kadeer

Article Link
AFP
Posted Mon May 5, 2008 3:19pm AEST

The planned route of the Olympic torch through China's restive Xinjiang region is worsening Chinese repression there and should be cancelled, a leader of the area's ethnic Uighur population has said.

Rebiya Kadeer, head of the Uighur American Association, said that security forces were rounding up many people ahead of the flame's circuit of the western region late next month.

"The Chinese authorities have been heavily cracking down on the Uighurs in order to bring the torch through East Turkestan," she said, using the Uighur term for the region.

"We have learned that many Uighurs are being detained and arrested by the Chinese authorities to prevent their peaceful protests in relation to the torch."

Leaders of Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Muslim central Asian people who have long chafed under Beijing's control, accuse China of harsh oppression and policies that they say are aimed at extinguishing their culture.

"I am opposed to the torch passage because it comes with severe repression of the Uighur people," she said.

Ms Kadeer's comments follow allegations Saturday by another overseas Uighur leader that more than 10,000 people were believed to have been rounded up in Xinjiang over the past four to five months.

"Everywhere, homes, hotels are searched. People are arrested," Dolkun Isa, secretary-general of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress, said.

"Even people with no past records have been arrested simply because they look suspicious."

Ms Kadeer, who spent six years in a Chinese jail from 1999 to 2005 and now lives in exile in the United States, also repeated her charge that China fabricated recent claims that it broke up Xinjiang-based terror cells targeting the Olympics.

"China is using the occasion to host the 2008 Olympics as an opportunity to further demonise the Uighur people's legitimate and peaceful struggle and justify its heavy-handed repression in East Turkestan," she said.

China plans to bring the torch to Xinjiang on June 25-27 as part of a relay through the mainland that began on Sunday in the lead up to the August Olympics.

Vague terror warning issued before the Olympic Games

Appeal to Interpol: Do not allow yourselves to be misused for China’s anti-terror war! Terror charges against Uighurs are exaggerated

http://www.gfbv.de/pressemit.php?id=1315&PHPSESSID=c9bcd21b52a18e978475c9eb791b17ec

@James

self confessed tiny penis huh?
obviously that was an add in by michael, i think i hit a nerve with him by pointing out his baldness or obseity, or maybe both.

i'm not embarassed that my penis is small, because i bet your supposed "black girlfriend" feels short changed too when you put yours in her, huh?

and dont talk like a blackman there "Big James" jews have a small didi.

your comments are long boring drabs of wishful assumptions that are hard to finish.

@ Ponderer,

Allow me to make another assumption, although this time I say this from a bit of a character make-up of you: When you see a white dude with a moderately goodlooking Chinese girl you get pissed off, don't you?

@ Cherry.

Thanx Champ!

not anymore than you get pissed off when you see a black guy with a white girl.

i dont care about inter racial couples actually, i grew up in the west so i've seen it all my life, and i have been with different races too.

you are trying to pull my wires, wont work.

btw the 90% of asian girl/white guy reltionships are whore meets pervert.

@Heverci:

Where did you see the change? I thought I was pretty consistent. Yes, I would change my opinion if evidence warrants it. I'm quite open-minded about that. But I maintain that Michael and James are like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Michael being the doctor, of course. James is the flip-side of his personality.

@James:

To your statement "opinions are wavering and changing like tides ... Poor Michael a victim of untrue accusations." First, there is no change in opinion, unless there is evidence. All that self-proclaimed evidence from you is not backed up by any other source, and must be discarded. Unless, of course, you provide a picture of yourself (I will bet you look just like Michael), or of the two of you together, you and Michael are the same person. Secondly, I haven't accused Michael of anything. On the contrary, I have said that according to him, he does not want to split China. In one of his blogs, you will recall, he stated that he loves China "as my own baby". Thirdly, if you, James, have never met Michael, how do you know about his love life? "He is here for sex and sex only". Well, what a place to find sex. A dry desolate desert area farthest from the ocean than any other place on Earth. His chances of getting it is as remote as it is from the sea. Besides, there is an element of danger, if you try that in conservative Muslim society. You will have a far better chance in Brazil, say, or even Iraq or Afghanistan. Fourthly, I maintain that Michael must be on some kind of assignment or Project. There is nothing wrong in that statement. He can be a modern-day Sven Hedin. Do you consider that a personal attack? There is freedom of speech, you should know, because you use it so vigorously.

@Arjun

what do yu know about sex in Xinjiang?

6 May 2008

radio national australia

China: Handling the Angry Panda

A conversation with former US Ambassador, Chas Freeman, about the backlash in China to the recent Olympic torch protests, and the extent to which a range of interest/lobby groups are determining Western foreign policy towards China.

Guests
Chas Freeman
Author and retired diplomat; co-chairman of the U.S.-China Policy Foundation; former US Assistant Secretary of Defense; former Director for Chinese Affairs at the U.S. Department of State; former Chargé d'Affaires in the American Embassy in Beijing.

Presenter
Phillip Adams

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2008/2236784.htm

Ponderer wrote: "btw the 90% of asian girl/white guy reltionships are whore meets pervert."

No Ponderer, I am not interested in making you angry. I just anticipated a reply somewhere along the lines of what you posted above. It proves a few suspiscions I have about you: (1) You're a hypocrite. You cry "racism," whilst being a true xenaphobe yourself; (2) You lack cultural sensitivity and are therefore the least qualified here to even begin to comment on Sino-World relations, despite your claim to being "Chinese", &; (3) simply put, you're one small-minded fool.

Fly away troublesome bird.

@ ponderer

I never said I had a "black girlfriend". I said I had an African girlfriend. She and I have been intimate for years. Has the syphillis finally gone to your screwed up little brain as well ponderer?

Id bet a small fortune you are not an ABC. Your language sucks. Its second language unless yu were kept at home all your life by your immigrant parents which is unlikely.

Yure a sick little boy who needs help. and quite a dangerous lil racist. Even China would disown yu - yu are a nothing person. Rubbish in any languague. Now dont go letting this get to your many complexes. There is help. But see a doctor quick.