Is China's grand ethnic experiment working?
In a gleaming classroom at Chong Hua High School in the
northern Chinese city of Tianjin, students peer at
onion slices under microscopes. Their biology teacher
calls on Abdurrahman Mamat to explain what he sees.
northern Chinese city of Tianjin, students peer at
onion slices under microscopes. Their biology teacher
calls on Abdurrahman Mamat to explain what he sees.
"Plasmolysis," he replies in perfect
Mandarin.
Mamat is Uyghur, a mostly Muslim minority from
China's far-west Xinjiang region, and he is thousands of
miles from home.
China's far-west Xinjiang region, and he is thousands of
miles from home.
How he ended up in this mostly Han Chinese school is
the largely untold story of a grand Communist Party experiment.
the largely untold story of a grand Communist Party experiment.
For more than a decade, the Chinese government
has selected tens of thousands of top minority students
from Xinjiang and placed them in high schools in
eastern China -- the heartland of the Han, the country's
biggest ethnic group. They call it the "Xinjiang Class."
has selected tens of thousands of top minority students
from Xinjiang and placed them in high schools in
eastern China -- the heartland of the Han, the country's
biggest ethnic group. They call it the "Xinjiang Class."
"Eastern China is more developed than Xinjiang and
we
get to enjoy better educational resources here," says
Mamat, closely watched by government minders.
get to enjoy better educational resources here," says
Mamat, closely watched by government minders.
He was born in the ancient city of Kashgar in southern
Xinjiang. Mamat showed academic promise and was
shipped to Xinjiang's capital Urumqi for middle school.
After passing a strict entrance exam Mamat joined the
Xinjiang class.Mamat's journey to Chong Hua High took a
well-traveled route.
Xinjiang. Mamat showed academic promise and was
shipped to Xinjiang's capital Urumqi for middle school.
After passing a strict entrance exam Mamat joined the
Xinjiang class.Mamat's journey to Chong Hua High took a
well-traveled route.
First time away from home
But he had to look up Tianjin on the Internet to find
out where he was going. It was his first time out of Xinjiang.
"At first I wasn't used to the weather, the
schedule and eating habits, but the teachers helped us adapt," he says.
Uyghurs' religion, culture and Turkic language separate
them from the millions of Han Chinese who have been encouraged by the state to
migrate to Xinjiang, helping to exacerbate ethnic tensions in this restive
region.
In 2009, that tension boiled over with deadly ethnic
riots between Han Chinese and Uyghurs that spilled out onto the streets of
Urumqi.
And in recent months, China has been rocked by a series
of attacksthat the government in Beijing blames on Uyghur separatists. For a
Party touting a "harmonious society," this is deeply embarrassing.
The dean of Chong Hua's minority students claims that
their program has nothing to do with those "thugs."
"We are just building future talent," says Li
Zhenchong.
But from its inception, the Xinjiang class had an
overtly political purpose. Education Ministry documents repeatedly call on the
program to educate minority students to "defend the unity of China"
and "safeguard national security."Political purpose?
"We are not just educating them, we are
cultivating their love for the country," Li admits.
The same could be said for any classroom in Communist
China, but for the Xinjiang class, the political indoctrination appears to take
on a special urgency.
"The political goal is to try and create a
patriotic ethnic minority cadre pool that will hopefully go back to Xinjiang
and serve the Party state," says Professor James Leibold, a political
scientist at Australia's Latrobe University.
He says the Party could be failing.
"On the ideological front it hasn't succeeded.
What we've seen is actually students who participate and graduate at these
programs tend to feel more Uyghur than they do Chinese when they come
out."
Long-term studies, like those conducted by Timothy
Grose, a specialist in Uyghur studies at the Indiana-based Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology seem to back that up.
Grose followed graduates from the Xinjiang class for
years and found that they didn't internalize Communist Party ideals. In
particular, they appeared to become more religious, not less, despite or
perhaps because of the ban on prayer in the program.
At Chong Hua, minority students live together in dorm
rooms, they eat in separate Halal cafeterias and often end up forming their own
soccer teams.
The school insists there is no division amongst the
students.
For Mamat, the Xinjiang Class is the only opportunity
to get a strong education and he says he wants to go to college and then back
to his home to develop the region.
"This is a really good policy provided by the
Party, I am honored to be a part of it," he says.
See full story:CNN
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