World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - China

Last updated: October 2009

Environment

China is a vast country and the home of one of the world's most ancient civilizations. The world's most populous (almost 1.3 billion people in the 2000 Census) and fourth largest country, it encompasses a huge variety of climates and landscapes, as its borders extend all the way through Central, South and South-East Asia, from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the tropical jungles of Southeast Asia and the highest mountains of the globe with the Himalayas. It contains mostly plateaus and mountains in the east. The north near Mongolia and the north-west contain extensive grasslands and desert areas (Gobi Desert), while the south is dominated by hills and low mountain ranges and the west has among its features the Himalayas mountain range.

Much of its population is concentrated in the east, along the shores of the Yellow and East China Sea and the alluvial plains of the main rivers emptying into the Pacific, such as the Yangtze and the Huang He.

Because of its antiquity, vast size and geographic features, there is also a huge variety of climates and vegetation, and a corresponding diversity of human cultures and societies throughout China's long history.

History

China contains one of the world's oldest civilizations, with the earliest evidence of modern human presence in Guangxi dated to approximately 67,000 years ago.

While there were a number of Han cultures prior to it, the first reliable historical Chinese dynasty is that of the Shang (or Yin) from the eighteenth to the twelfth century bc, which settled the north-eastern region along the banks of the Yellow River valley. What is now known as China would gradually, from these modest origins, expand to form one of the world's greatest empires, as conquest, colonization and absorption would bring into its control huge tracts of territory and large numbers of peoples of different ethnicities. The Shang dynasty was to be replaced between the twelfth and fifth century bc by the Zhou, expanding the borders of what was to become China north of the Yangtze River. The authority of Zhou rulers eventually weakened, leading to a period of warfare between states that only occasionally or nominally recognized the sovereignty of the Zhou during what is known as the spring and autumn period.

It was after the Zhou dynasty that China began to take form as a unified state under the Qin Dynasty in 221 bc. More importantly, it was also during this period that the Chinese language was standardized and was to become one of the defining characteristics of Chinese culture. This was further strengthened during that Han Dynasty which ruled China between 206 bc and 220 ad. From this period onward the close identification between Han culture and China became firmly established, though at the same time China's territory was vastly expanded, reaching Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia during this period. It was also during this expansion that many of today's minority populations were incorporated into China.

After a period of disunity, China was reunited under the short-lived Sui Dynasty from ad 580. Chinese art, culture, economy and technology continued to expand during the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties. In 1271, the Mongols under Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, followed in 1368 by the Ming Dynasty until 1644. It was replaced in the seventeenth century by the Qing, who remained in power until the 1912 revolution. This was China's last dynasty and involved not the majority Han Chinese, but the Manchus, a nomadic people based in what is now north- eastern China.

The creation of the Republic of China on 1 January 1912 was followed by a period of instability and fragmentation. China had already started to lose its grip on some of its territories during the Qing Dynasty, losing Taiwan to Japan as a result of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5, as well as recognizing the independence of Korea.

The Kuomintang's Sun Yat-sen became the provisional president of the new republic, but he was forced to step aside by Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who took the presidency, dying shortly afterwards. The political fragmentation that followed also saw assertions of independence in some territories - including Tibet and Xinjiang - where Qing authority was weak or tenuous. Warlords in other parts of the country exercised real control rather than the still existing national government of the republic. The Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country in the 1920s, but China was to lose further territory after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and its establishment of the puppet state of Manchuko. The Chinese Civil War also began during this period, when the faction of the Kuomingtang led by Chiang Kai-shek purged the Communists in 1927 from an alliance then in place between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China. This was interrupted by the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45 (and the Second World War). After the war, the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communists resumed, ending in 1950 with the Communists controlling mainland China under the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. The central Kuomintang government of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan and several outlying islands.

Peoples

Main languages: Mandarin Chinese (putonghua), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien- Taiwanese), Qiang, Gan, Hakka, Uyghur, Tibetan, etc.

Main religions: Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Lamaism (Tibetan Buddhism), Protestantism, Shamanism, Animism, Taoism, Dongba.

Minority groups include Zhuang 16.2 million (1.3%), Manchu 10.7 million (0.86%), Hui 9.8 million (0.79%), Miao 8.9 million (0.72%), Uyghur 8.4 million (0.68%), Yi (Lolo) 7.7 million (0.62%), Tujia 8 million (0.65%), Mongol 5.8 million (0.47%), Tibetan 5.4 million (0.44%), etc. (Source: National Population Survey of China, 2000)

The definition of ethnic minorities/nationalities in the People's Republic of China has been conceived by the state and does not truly reflect the self-identification of such ethnic minorities or the reality of ethnic diversity within China's boundaries. Mínzú (the Chinese term that signifies non-Han 'undistinguished ethnic groups', numbering more than 730,000 people) have not been recognized among or classified within the state's official 56 ethnic minorities (these comprise the majority Han grouping and 55 minority nationalities).

The Minzú also do not include ethnicities that have been classified by the state authorities as belonging to existing minorities and hence denied their legal rights to public participation. For example, the Mosuo are officially classified as Naxi, and the Chuanqing are classified as Han Chinese, but they reject these classifications as they view themselves as separate ethnic minorities. The Gaoshan, categorized as a single nationality by the government of the People's Republic of China, are generally considered to include 12 distinct indigenous peoples living mainly in Taiwan. There are also a number of unrecognized ethnic minorities known as 'undistinguished nationalities' in official parlance, including small numbers of Sherpas, Mang and Khmu. While it is difficult to count precisely the number of minorities in the country given the fluidity of the concept, China probably has well over 100 distinct ethnic groups. The largest non-Han minorities are the Uyghurs, Mongols and Tibetans, and the territories inhabited by these three minorities occupy a huge proportion of China's land mass along its western and northern borders, territories which in recent times have become increasingly strategically important in terms of resources and location.

Some groups are still actively fighting for recognition as minorities. In the 1964 Census, there were 183 nationalities registered, of which the government recognized only 54. However, census numbers are somewhat suspect due to the re-registration of significant numbers of Han people (a majority of 91.6% in total, according to the 2000 National Population Survey of China) as members of minority nationalities in order to gain personal benefits, such as exemption from the family planning policy of 'one family one child' or the right to cremate their dead. Interestingly, the minority population is growing at a much faster rate that the Han population due to the strict implementation of this policy. Compared with the 1990 and 2000 population census figures, the population of the Han increased by 116.92 million persons, or 11.22 per cent; while the population of national minorities increased by 15.23 million persons, or 16.70 per cent.

Whether one focuses on language, religion or culture, China offers an overwhelming kaleidoscope. Most of the country's largest minorities are in fact included in the Han Chinese grouping. Their language is not Mandarin but one of many Chinese 'dialects' that are considered to be distinct languages by many linguists; for example, Yue speak Cantonese, Wu speak Shanghaiese, Minbei speak Fuzhou, Minnan speak Hokkien-Taiwanese and so on.

The recognized ethnic minorities have considerable autonomy with regard to their way of life and this has resulted in complicated forms of autonomy for six provinces (among them Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang), but also in the creation of autonomous cities, prefectures and municipalities where minority nationalities are territorially concentrated. In practice, the system remains subject to the political control of the Communist Party.

China's western regions are the most ethnically diverse, with 80 per cent of the country's minorities living in the area. However the Mínzú are mainly distributed in the border areas of the north-east, north, north-west and south-west of China. Many of these regions have significant natural resources, including oil, gas, minerals and precious metals, and new regional development strategies are being specifically targeted there. Nevertheless, without accompanying decentralization of political power, this strategy risks further exacerbating the already simmering ethno-regional tensions, as development rights for these groups are totally controlled by the central government.

Governance

Since its inception the People's Republic of China has remained a centralized state with ultimate and paramount power firmly with the Communist Party of China (CPC). Most top positions in the government and military are held by Communist Party members and the 24-member political bureau (Politburo) or the supreme political body. Overall, the country's human rights record is poor. While China has a well-developed legal system, poor training, increased corruption and overarching control of political authorities severely hamper the independence of the judiciary, despite significant attempts at legal reforms in recent years. Serious human rights abuses are persistent, especially involving those whose activities are perceived as threats to the authority of the government - including some of the larger minorities such as Mongols, Tibetans and Uyghurs.

According to basic minority policies, China practises a system whereby national minorities exercise regional autonomy and, in theory, the constitutional and legal position of minorities is far from negative: Article 114 of the Constitution, for example, stipulates that the chairman of an autonomous region, or the prefect of an autonomous prefecture or head of an autonomous county, must be a member of the minority 'exercising regional autonomy in the area concerned'. The government has also set up five autonomous regions (Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Tibet and Xinjiang), as well as smaller autonomous districts, generally in areas where the non-Han population predominates. In reality however, the real power and decision-making authority rests with the regional branches of the Communist Party - usually dominated by Han Chinese - and national unity considerations always take precedence over regional autonomy.

The CPC's minority policies have vacillated since the inception of the People's Republic of China. In the more idealistic and egalitarian phase (1949 to the late 1950s) soon after the establishment of the republic, the policies towards minorities could be described as both tolerant and supportive, with nationalities being recognized in the country's Interim Constitution (the 1949 Common Programme), and some recognition also for the use of their languages, though without any specifics. From the late 1950s to 1960s, nationalities were perceived by Chinese authorities as potential obstacles to the Revolution, and as holding on to 'backward' practices and attitudes. At this time the revolutionary authorities developed a more obvious identification with the Chinese Han majority. For example, the notion of the 'need' for a 'common language', literally putonghua, a standardized form of Mandarin Chinese emerged at this time. During the Cultural Revolution, minorities and their leadership were often the target of some of the worst excesses, and minority languages were practically banned during this period.

The excesses of the Cultural Revolution gave way to greater tolerance and accommodation of China's minorities from about the mid- 1980s to 1995 during a period of relative liberalization. Though negative attitudes towards minorities still exist, the Communist Party's approach is very different from the atrocities of the previous period. In theory, minorities gained substantial rights under 1984 legislation, such as the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law (REAL, revised in 2001), which increased autonomy in education and culture and other activities which, ipso facto, meant some degree of control for minorities over autonomous administrative authorities and the language used by officials.

More recently, since about the mid-1990s, the Chinese authorities have entered into a more repressive and less tolerant phase, especially with regard to the country's largest minority groups such as the Mongols, the Tibetans and the Uyghurs. This can be partially explained as a backlash on the part of the Beijing authorities against the perceived 'excesses' of previous policies, which are now seen as encouraging 'splittism' and as constituting failures in light of incidents involving minority opposition in Tibet and Xinjiang, but may also be linked to an increasing prominence and assertion of Han nationalism within the state structures and hierarchy of China.

For minorities, the current period is one of increasing limitations in the areas of official use of minority languages - and consequent loss of employment and educational opportunities for the largest minority groups. While legislation and rhetoric still acknowledge the rights of minorities in a way that shows there is at least officially an acceptance of such concepts, in practice there is increasing monolingualism and promotion of Mandarin to the exclusion of other languages, and increasing Han domination in the areas of politics, education and employment.

Minorities

• Mongols
• Tibetans
• Uyghurs

Resources

Minority based and advocacy organisations

General

ActionAid China
Email: public@actionaidchina.org
Website: http://www3.actionaid.org/china

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
Phone: +66 2391 8801
Email: info@forum-asia.org
Website: http://www.forum-asia.org

Asian Human Rights Commission
Phone: +852 2698 6339
Email: ahrchk@ahrchk.org
Website: http://www.ahrchk.net

Asia-Pacific Human Rights Information Center (HURIGHTS OSAKA)
Phone: +81 6 6577 3578
Email: webmail@hurights.or.jp
Website: http://www.hurights.or.jp

Hong Kong Human Rights Commission
Tel: +852 2713 9165
Email: hkhrc@pacific.net.hk
Website: http://www.hkhrc.org.hk

Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor
Tel: +852 2811 4488
Website: http://www.hkhrm.org.hk

Human Rights in China (USA)
Tel: +1 212 239 4495
Email: hrichina@hrichina.org
Website: http://www.hrichina.org

Human Rights Watch/Asia Division (USA)
Tel: +1 212 290 4700
Email: hrwnyc@hrw.org
Website: http://www.hrg.org

Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
Tel: +852 2365 2802
Email: okokok@netvigator.com
Website: http://www.hkhkhk.com/english/indexen

Laogai Research Foundation (USA)
Tel: +1 202 833 8770
Email: laogai@laogai.org
Website: http://www.laogai.org/news/index

Mongol

Inner Mongolian People's Party (USA)
Tel: +1 301 515 6364
Email: impp@innermongolia.org
Website: http://www.innermongolia.org

Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (USA)
Tel: +1 718 786 9236
Email: webmaster@smhric.org
Website: http://www.smhric.org

Swedish Mongolia Organization
Tel: +46 08 5684 8818
Email: Smk@mongol.org.uk
Website: http://www.mongol.org.uk/english

Tibetan

Free Tibet Campaign (UK)
Tel: +44 20 7324 4605
Email: mail@freetibet.org
Website: http://www.freetibet.org

International Campaign for Tibet (USA)
Tel: +1 202 785 1515
Email: info@savetibet.org
Website: http://www.savetibet.org

South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre
Tel: +91 11 619 1120, 619 2717, 619 2706
Email: hrdc_online@hotmail.com
Website: http://www.hri.ca/partners/sahrdc

Students for a Free Tibet (USA)
Tel: +1 212 358 0071
Email: info@studentsforafreetibet.org
Website: http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (India)
Tel: +91 1892 223363
Email: dsala@tchrd.org
Website: http://www.tchrd.org

Tibet Justice Center (USA)
Tel: +1 510 486 0588
Email: tibetjustice@tibetjustice.org
Website: http://www.tibetjustice.org

Uyghur

Eastern Turkestan Information Center
Tel: +49 179 966 21 45
Email: etic@uygur.com
Website: http://www.uygur.org

International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation (IUHRDF) (USA)
Tel: +1 202 349 1496
Email: info@uyghuramerican.org
Website: http://iuhrdf.org

Uyghur Human Rights Project (USA)
Tel: +1 202 349 1496
Email: info@uhrp.org
Website: http://www.uhrp.org

World Uyghur Congress
Tel: +49 89 5432 1999
Email: contact@uyghurcongress.org
Website: http://www.uyghurcongress.org

Sources and further reading

General

Angle, S.C., Human Rights and Chinese Thought: A Cross-cultural Inquiry, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Bauer, J.R. and Bell, D.A. (eds), The East Asian Challenge for Human Rights, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Castellino, J. and Domínguez Redondo, E., Minority Rights in Asia: A Legal Comparative Analysis, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006.

CERD, 'Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, China', UN Doc. A/56/18, 2001, URL: http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/country/china2001.html

China's Ethnic Groups: http://www.ceg.com.cn/

China's Ethnic Post: http://www.mzb.com.cn/index.asp

Chinese Human Rights Web: http://www.chinesehumanrightsreader.org/

de Varennes, F., 'Language rights of minorities and increasing tensions in the People's Republic of China', Asia-Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, no. 2, 2006.

Dede, K., 'Ethnic minorities in China: the Mongols, Tibetans, Manchus, and Naxi', Asia Society, 2000, URL: http://www.askasia.org/teachers/essays/essay.php?no=18

Dessaint, A.Y., Minorities of Southwest China: An Introduction to the Yi (Lolo) and Related Peoples, New Haven, CT, HRAF Press, 1980.

Dillon, M., Religious Minorities and China, London, MRG, 2001.

Dreyer, J., China's Forty Million: Minority Nationalities and National Integration in the People's Republic of China, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1976.

Ethnic Minorities in China: http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/EthnicGroups/126822.htm

Heberer, T., China and Its National Minorities: Autonomy or Assimilation?, trans. M. Vale, Armonk, NY, M.E. Sharpe, c. 1989.

Human Rights in China/MRG, China: Minority Exclusion, Marginalization and Rising Tensions, London, MRG, 2007.

Human Rights Watch/Asia, Detained in China and Tibet: A Directory of Political and Religious Prisoners, New York, HRW, 1994.

Iredale, R., Bilik, N. and Fei Guo (eds), China's Minorities on the Move: Selected Case Studies, Armonk, NY, M.E. Sharpe, 2003.

Keith, R., New Crime in China: Public Order and Human Rights, London, Routledge, 2006.

Kent, A., Between Freedom and Subsistence: China and Human Rights, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993.

Kerr, B., Sky Burial: An Eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibet, Chicago, IL, Noble Press, 1993.

Lemoine, J. and Chien, C. (eds), The Yao of Southern China, Paris, Editions de l'AFEY, 1991.

Longworth, J. and Williamson, G.J., China's Pastoral Region: Sheep and Wool, Minority Nationalities, Rangeland Degradation and Sustainable Development, Wallingford, CAB International, 1993.

Mackerras, C., China's Ethnic Minorities and Globalisation, London, RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.

Minglang, Z. and Fishman, J.A. (eds), Multilingualism in China: The Politics of Writing Reforms for Minority Languages, 1949- 2002, Berlin, Mouton de Gruyter, 2003.

Peace Books, Lifestyles of China's Ethnic Minorities, Hong Kong, 1991.

People's Republic of China, National Minorities Policy and its Practice in China, Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Beijing, 2000, URL: http://news.xinhuanet.com/employment/2002-11/18/content_633175.htm

People's Republic of China, Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China, Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Beijing, 2005, URL: http://english.gov.cn/official/2005-07/28/content_18127.htm

People's Republic of China, Government White Paper on Regional Autonomy for Ethnic Minorities in China, State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, 2005, URL: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/28/content_420337.htm

Schwarz, H.G., The Minorities of Northern China, Washington, DC, Western Washington, 1984.

Svensson, M., Debating Human Rights in China: A Conceptual and Political History, Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

Weatherley, R., The Discourse of Human Rights in China: Historical and Ideological Perspectives, New York, St Martin's Press, 1999.

Xinhua Ethnic Minority: http://news.xinhuanet.com/ziliao/2003-01/21/content_700050.htm

Zhang, W. and Qingman, Z., In Search of China's Minorities, Beijing, New World Press, 1993.

Mongol

Asia Watch, Crackdown in Inner Mongolia, New York, HRW, July 1991, URL: http://www.smhric.org/Hada/Alban_5.htm

Asia Watch, Continuing Crackdown in Inner Mongolia, New York, HRW, March 1992, URL: http://www.smhric.org/Hada/Alban_6.htm

Brown, K., 'Language politics in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution', URL: http://www.innermongolia.co.uk

Bulag, U., 'Mongolian ethnicity and linguistic anxiety in China', American Anthropologist, vol. 105, December 2003.

Bulag, U., Mongols at China's Edge: History and the Politics of National Unity, Lanham, MD, Rowman and Littlefield, 2002.

Corff, O., 'Mongolia FAQ', URL: http://userpage.fu- berlin.de/corff/mfaq.html#toc3

Hao, T., 'Land and legitimization in the grasslands', China Rights Forum, no. 4, 2006, pp. 31-7, URL: http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.4.2006/CRF-2006- 4_Legitimization.pdf

International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Internationally Recognised Core Labour Standards in the People's Republic of China, Report for the WTO General Council Review of the Trade Policies of the People's Republic of China, Geneva, 4 and 6 April 2006.

Khan, A., 'Who are the Mongols? State, ethnicity, and the politics of representation in the PRC', in M.J. Brown (ed.), Negotiating Ethnicities in China and Taiwan, Berkeley, CA, Institute of East Asian Studies, 1995.

Kormondy, E., 'Minority education in Inner Mongolia and Tibet', International Review of Education, vol. 48, no. 5, September 2002.

Liu Bing, The State, Ethnic Identity, and Education: A Study of Primary Schooling for Minorities in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia in China, Stockholm, Institute of International Education, 1998.

Longworth, J. and Williamson, G.J., China's Pastoral Region: Sheep and Wool, Minority Nationalities, Rangeland Degradation and Sustainable Development, Wallingford, CAB International, 1993.

Schwartz, H., The Minorities of Northern China, Bellingham, WA, Center for East Asian Studies, West Washington University, 1984.

SMHRIC (Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center) 'Inner Mongolian grasslands: Mongols out and Chinese in', New York, 2 April 2006, URL: http://www.smhric.org/news_121.htm

SMHRIC (Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center) 'Cultural and religious state of the Mongols in China', Statement of the SMHRIC at 'Human Rights in China', an MRG Workshop, New York, 27-28 July 2006, URL: http://www.smhric.org/news_131.htm

Sneath, D., Changing Inner Mongolia: Pastoral Mongolian Society and the Chinese State, Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.

Tsengelt, G., 'The nationality question in Inner Mongolia and the ethnic opposition', 1992, URL: http://www.radicalparty.org/humanrights/mon_doc2.htm

US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Annual Report 2005, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, 11 October 2005, URL: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/annualRpt/annualRpt05/index.php

Williams, L.M., Beyond Great Walls. Environment, Identity, and Development on the Chinese Grasslands of Inner Mongolia, Stanford, CA, Stanford University Press, 2002.

Yuan, Q., 'Population changes in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (1949-84)', Central Asian Survey vol. 9, no. 1, 1990, 49-73.

Tibetan

Bstan-dzin-rgya-mtsho, Dalai Lama XIV, Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1990.

Butt, M., 'Muslims of Tibet', Tibetan Bulletin, January-February 1994, URL: http://www.tibet.com/Muslim/tibetan-muslim.html

Carlson, A., Beijing's Tibet Policy: Securing Sovereignty and Legitimacy, Washington, East-West Center, 2004, URL: http://www.eastwestcenterwashington.org/Publications/psseriespdf4.htm

Ciolek, T.M., 'Tibetan studies - Tibetan human rights issues', online resources for Tibetan politics, URL: http://www.ciolek.com/WWWVLPages/TibPages/tib-hrights.html

Government of Tibet in Exile, 'Population transfer and control', in Tibet: Proving Truth from Facts, URL: http://www.tibet.com/WhitePaper/white8.html

Human Rights Watch/Asia, Detained in China and Tibet: A Directory of Political and Religious Prisoners, New York, HRW, 1994.

International Commission of Jurists, Tibet: Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Geneva, 1997.

Kerr, B., Sky Burial: An Eyewitness Account of China's Brutal Crackdown in Tibet, Chicago, IL, Noble Press, 1993.

Kormondy, E., 'Minority education in Inner Mongolia and Tibet', International Review of Education, vol. 48, no. 5, September 2002.

Kumar, A., Tibet: A Sourcebook, New Delhi, All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet, 1994.

Ling, N., Tibetan Sourcebook, Hong Kong, Union Research Institute, 1964.

McCorquodale, R. and Orosz, N. (eds), Tibet: The Position in International Law, Report of the Conference of International Lawyers on Issues Relating to Self-Determination and Independence for Tibet, London 6-10 January 1993, Stuttgart, Hansjörg Mayer, 1994.

Norbu, T.J. and Turnbull, C., Tibet: Its History, Religion and People, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1987.

People's Republic of China, 'Government White Paper on Tibet, Its Ownership and Human Rights Situation', State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, 1992, URL: http://www.china.org.cn/e- white/tibet/index.htm

People's Republic of China, 'Government White Paper on New Progress in Human Rights in the Tibet Autonomous Region', State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, 1998, URL: http://www.china.org.cn/e- white/last/index.htm

People's Republic of China, 'Government White Paper on the Development of Tibetan Culture', State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China, 2000, URL: http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/2/index.htm

Shakya, T., The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947, Harmondsworth, Penguin, 2000.

Sperling, E., The Tibet-China Conflict: History and Polemics, Washington, East-West Center, 2004, URL: http://www.eastwestcenterwashington.org/Publications/psseriespdf7.htm

Tibet Online: http://www.tibet.org

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Impoverishing Tibetans, 2000, URL: http://www.tchrd.org/publications/topical_reports/impoverishing_tibetans-2000/

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Racial Discrimination in Tibet, 2000, URL: http://www.tchrd.org/publications/topical_reports/racial_discrimination-2000/

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Dispossessed: Land and Housing Rights in Tibet, TCHRD, 2002, URL: http://www.tchrd.org/publications/topical_reports/dispossessed-land_and_housing_rights-2002/

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, State of Education in Tibet: A Human Rights Perspective, 2004, URL: http://www.tchrd.org/publications/topical_reports/education_in_tibet-2004/education_in_tibet-2004.pdf

Tibetan Information Network (TIN), 'Tibetans lose ground in public sector employment in the TAR', 22 January 2005.

Tibetan Young Buddhist Association, Tibet: The Facts, report prepared by the Scientific Buddhist Association for the UN Commission on Human Rights, Dharamsala, India, 1990.

US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Tibet Resources, Virtual Academy, URL: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/tibet/index.php

US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, VI. Tibet, Annual Report 2005, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, 11 October 2005, URL: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/annualRpt/annualRpt05/2005_6_tibet.php

Walt van Praag, M., The Status of Tibet: History, Rights and Prospects in International Law, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1987.

Uyghur

Becquelin, N., 'Criminalizing ethnicity: political repression in Xinjiang', Human Rights in China, no. 1, 2004.

Bellér-Hann, I., 'Law and custom among the Uyghur in Xinjiang', in W. Johnson and I.F. Popova (eds), Central Asian Law: An Historical Overview, Society for Asian Legal History, 2004.

Bovingdon, G., Autonomy in Xinjiang: Han Nationalist Imperatives and Uyghur Discontent, Washington, East-West Center, 2004, URL: http://www.eastwestcenterwashington.org/Publications/psseriespdf11.htm< /a>

Cookman, C., 'Uyghur separatism and the politics of Islam in China's western frontier', 2004, URL: http://cheznadezhda.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2004/12/6/197546.htm l

Dwyer, A., The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and Political Discourse, Policy Studies 15, Washington, East-West Center, 2005.

Fuller, G.E. and Lipman, J., 'Islam in Xinjiang', in S. Frederick Starr (ed.) Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland, New York: Central Asia Caucasus Institute, 2004.

Human Rights in China, Devastating Blows: Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, New York, HRW, 2005, URL: http://hrw.org/reports/2005/china0405/

Liu Bing, The State, Ethnic Identity, and Education: A Study of Primary Schooling for Minorities in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia in China, Stockholm, Institute of International Education, 1998.

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