THERE IS NO CHINA:

China steps up pre-anniversary crackdown on Xinjiang separatists (AFX, 8/25/05)

China has stepped up a crackdown on pro-independence and separatist activities in its Muslim-majority Xinjiang region ahead of the 50th anniversary of its takeover of the area, the country's top official in Xinjiang said. [...]

Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, said he was outraged at the crackdown, saying China has no legitimate right to rule the region.

'This is a political joke, to forcibly impose this so-called autonomous ruling on an ethnic group which has never recognized China,' Raxit told Agence France-Presse.

Uighur separatists, who maintain a distinct ethnic identity from the Chinese, have been fighting to re-establish an independent state of East Turkestan in Xinjiang since it became an autonomous region of China in 1955.

A people who don't think of themselves as Chinese aren't going to be.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 25, 2005 11:02 PM