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From: TudiH@aol.com
To the Leaders of China Democracy Party:
We are writing this letter in response to the following portion of a
declaration by your party posted at :
http://www.newstrolls.com/news/dev/guest/010200.htmissued
by your party.
The New Century Declaration
By The China Democracy Party
ON MINORITIES:
The Chinese people are an amalgamation of many races. During its thousands of
years history, there were times the Han Chinese ruled over the minorities. As
well, there were times the minorities invaded and ruled over the Hans. Over
thousands of years, amalgamation took place of both race and culture and we have
accumulated a wealth of knowledge in dealing with issues between races. Based on
all the UN human rights covenants, we strongly advocate the equality
between all races and the equality and freedom of religion of all races
within China. We believe a varying degree of self-rule is a way to harmonize
race relationships and is the base for a united and prosperous China for
all. The dictatorship of the Communists is indiscriminate. The Han
Chinese, being the majority, bears the brunt of its cruelty. Without overcoming
the tyranny in its bulk, the rights of minorities will have even less of a
chance. The urgent task at hand is to unite all races in the fight for
democracy. Only when democracy is established, can the rights of minorities be
protected and race relationships become harmonious. Self-determination was
successfully used during the time the colonized people fought for their
independence. We need to point out that the
self-determination mentioned in all the UN documents are related to
conquered people by another country. When colonization is not involved, UN
deems it incompatible with its charter for there to be any attempt to split a
member country. China is a huge land mass where different races have come
together in the long years of history. It is not the result of
colonization. We therefore
oppose the misuse of self-determination in the context of China. It can only
lead to discontent and even disaster.
OUR RESPONSE:
It should be pointed out that Uyghur and other indigenous peoples of East
Turkistan are not part of the amalgamation that forged the Chinese
identity. The modern day Uyghur ethnic identity has developed
separately than that of Chinese. Uyghurs have nothing in common with
Chinese. We have different
language, different religion, different food, different clothing, different
music and dance, different art, different literature, different farming
tools, different traditions and customs. Even though we are neighbors, the
differences between Uyghurs and Chinese is as great as it can be between any two
peoples on the planet. These huge differences lead to only one
conclusion: Uyghurs and Chinese lived in different societies on different
lands, they do not share the same history. Uyghurs have never invaded Chinese
land nor have they ruled over Chinese either. Our only crime is being a
small neighbor to China.
Chinese authorities refer to Han dynasty occupation of East Turkistan as an
evidence to Chinese territorial claim on our country, but East Turkistan
belongs to China no more than Hong Kong does to Great Britain. First, there
is no enough historical evidence to conclude that China ruled East Turkistan in
ancient times. Second, even if the ancient Chinese Dynasties ruled East
Turkistan for a period of time, it does not justify China’s territorial claim
today. Because, in those ancient times those people lived in East
Turkistan were not Chinese, those Chinese Dynasties invaded their land.
Evidently, they defeated the invading Chinese rulers and reclaimed their land,
and shaped their own ethnic identity and culture. Therefore, the brief Chinese
rule, if it ever happened, did not contribute to the shaping of the Modern
Uyghur identity. When the Manchu Qing Army invaded East Turkistan, there
was no Chinese settlements there. Of course, we were not alive to witness
that history, but there are plenty of evidence to prove that if we look
around today. For example, more than 90% of the Uyghurs today know
about Chinese
food less than an average Westerner does. But, the less than 10% Uyghurs
who live in the recently built big cities such as Urumchi, Karamay and
Shihanzi adopted some Chinese dishes. This adaptation happened
recently a result of living with the Chinese side by side. If Uyghurs and
Chinese had lived side by side from the ancient times as the Chinese government
routinely claims,
every Uyghur would be eating Chinese food today. After all the Chinese
food
is quite tempting. Nobody can resist it for thousands of years. Alexander
the Great also came to Central Asia, but, Greece has never laid claim on
Central Asia. What does China have in extra if it uses ancient
history as evidence?
If you disagree, you may point out a single Chinese town or village
existed
when the Manchus came. Or you can point out a single heritage shared by
Uyghurs and Chinese other than the same government we have been forced to
share after the Manchus occupied China and East Turkistan.
Therefore, we believe that Uyghur is not a part of the amalgamation that
forged the Chinese identity. Uyghur is Uyghur, Chinese is Chinese. They
have very different identity. East Turkistan is East Turkistan,
China is China. They are hundreds of miles apart. But, now, East Turkistan
is occupied and colonized by China. The local people have never accepted the
Chinese rule regardless it was Qing, the Nationalist Kuomintang or the
Communist. Because, it was all colonial governments and all acted as one.
We do not know what will be the next government in China, but we do know
that it will still be a colonial government for Uyghurs, because nothing
can change the fact that East Turkistan and China are separate lands,
Uyghurs and Chinese are separate people with separate histories. Any
attempt to distort this fact will hurt the feelings of Uyghurs and the
other indigenous East Turkistan peoples who share the same homeland, same
history and cultural heritages with Uyghurs. Any party who wants
address this issue first have to show their honesty by acknowledging this
fact. Only then all the concerned parties can come together and
search for a viable solution for the problems in East Turkistan
today. At the end, we would like to point out that even the communists did
not claim East Turkistan was part of China before they came into power.
In fact, they had said we would have the freedom to choose between joining China
and self determination. Of course, things changed, for worse for us,
after they came into power. This China Democracy Party declaration
claims we have been part of China for thousands years, it also says:
“The Han Chinese, being the majority, bears the brunt of its cruelty”.
In fact, for the Uyghurs, Tibetans, Mongolians and other minorities, the
Chinese nationalism is as much a problem as the communist rule.
The declaration did not only fail to address these problems, but it called
the minorities to fight for the rights of majority Hans who will then
distribute the “varying degree of self-rule” for minorities at their
discretion. Honestly, these statements sound more nationalist than
democrat. I am sorry to say that the communist declaration before
the 1949 sounded a lot more nicer than this (I do not have the reference
at hand, but I am willing to find it and send it to you if you are
interested). With this start, what
should we expect from China Democracy Party if it one day comes into
power?
Turdi Ghoja & Enver Can
Turdi Ghoja, President, Uyghur American Association
Email: Turdi@Uyghuramerican.org
Enver Can, President Eastern Turkestan "Uyghuristan"
National Congress. Munich, Germany Email: e.can@onlinehome.de Jan 6, 2001
emmameMAIL JJAMAMAMAjama jMAM DC Office of Free China Movement
Tel: 9202) 256-2925 Fax: (707) 922-7001 Email: dcofficefcm@yahoo.com
For inquiries please contact: Mr. He Depu China Democracy Party
Beijing Headquarters Phone:86-10-64880305 Edited and
translated by Michael To-
Michael To - is a political commentator on China He can be reached at: michaelto@hotmail.com
Additional editing by diva Table of Contents
