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Explaining the Chinese framing of the “terrorist” violence in Xinjiang: insights from securitization theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Marie Trédaniel Open the ORCID record for Marie Trédaniel [Opens in a new window]  and
Pak K. Lee
Marie Trédaniel
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. Email: [email protected]
Pak K. Lee
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper critically examines the Chinese framing of the “terrorist” violence in Xinjiang. Drawing on the Copenhagen school of securitization theory, it examines how the historical perception of the region as a primary source of security threats to inner China has led today's China to continue with representing the Han Chinese–Uyghur discord as an existential threat. In framing the ethnic conflict as a security issue, China has capitalized on the global “war on terror” of the early 2000s to transform the unrest into acts of Islamist terrorism to legitimize its counter-insurgency policies in Xinjiang. However, both the 2009 Urumqi riots and the 2014 Kunming attack lead us to conclude that the securitization strategy fails to quell the unrest. Not only have the Strike-Hard campaigns served to radicalize Uyghur nationalists, but also Han Chinese are not convinced that the Chinese government can contain the “terrorist” threat. Yet securitization blinds the leadership to the dysfunctional ethnic policy.

Keywords

framingsecuritizationSinicizationUyghur terrorismXinjiang
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 177 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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