Page 121 - Communist Chinas Policy of Oppression in East Turkestan

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in order to win control of the Silk Road. Yet these occupations were al-
ways short-lived, and China was never able to establish hegemony over
East Turkestan in the true sense of the word. In the 2,200-year history of
East Turkestan, (if we take into account the occupation that started in
1934 and which is still continuing today) a little more than 570 years
have been spent under Chinese occupation. 8
There are also geographic facts that disprove the claim that East
Turkestan is part of China. The make-up of the population of East
Turkestan (its language, religion, ethnic origins, plus its national
and spiritual heritage) all reveal a picture of
total independence from China. Panku, the
great historian of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. --
220 A.D.), expresses this fact:
As for clothing, costume, food and language, the
MONGOLIA
barbarians [Uighurs] are entirely different from
the Middle Kingdom… Mountains, valleys and
the great desert separate them from us. 9
That difference was preserved throughout
BEIJING
history. Neither was there any assimilation,
even during the periods under Chinese occu-
anchou pation. Today, 54 percent of East Turkestan's
SIAN
estimated population of 17 million are Mus-
lims, including 47 percent of the Uighurs and 7
percent of the Kazakhs. (This figure is from sta-
CHINA
tistics issued by China in 1997, and is not ac-
cepted as reliable by international
organizations because of China's biased atti-
tude toward this issue). The Uighurs, who
make up a large part of the Muslim population,
bear no ethnic, religious or linguistic similarity

Harun Yahya - Adnan Oktar