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Society for East Asian Anthropology
Oral Presentation Session
Timothy Grose
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Since the 2009 Ürümchi riots, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has imposed comprehensive measures intended to weaken the intense bonds between the Uyghurs and the sacred oases of present-day Xinjiang, to which this Turkic Muslim ethno-national group claims indigeneity. Recent public works projects, education reform, and restrictions on religious practice in the region seek to reorient the Uyghurs away from the Islamic umma and towards Beijing. However, this project begins with the construction and maintenance of a seemingly omnipresent high-tech security state that simultaneously disrupts and choreographs human movement. Drawing on extensive research conducted in Ürümqi between 2010 and 2017 and Xinjiang government documents, this talk describes the origins, evolution, and consequences of the CCP’s violent approach to attaining “social stability.”