Ethnic Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang

Despite more than a decade of rapid economic development, rising living standards, and large-scale improvements in infrastructure and services, China's western borderlands are awash in a wave of ethnic unrest not seen since the 1950s. Through on-the-ground interviews and firsthand observations, the international experts in this volume create an invaluable record of the conflicts and protests as they have unfolded—the most extensive chronicle of events to date. The authors examine the factors driving the unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang and the political strategies used to suppress them. They also explain why certain areas have seen higher concentrations of ethnic-based violence than others.

Essential reading for anyone struggling to understand the origins of unrest in contemporary Tibet and Xinjiang, this volume considers the role of propaganda and education as generators and sources of conflict. It links interethnic strife to economic growth and connects environmental degradation to increased instability. It captures the subtle difference between violence in urban Xinjiang and conflict in rural Tibet, with detailed portraits of everyday individuals caught among the pressures of politics, history, personal interest, and global movements with local resonance.

Ben Hillman is senior lecturer in comparative politics at the Crawford School of Public Policy and fellow at the Research School of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. He has published widely on Chinese politics and ethnic politics in Asia. He has also worked as an adviser to the United Nations on postconflict governance and the incorporation of minority groups in political processes.

Gray Tuttle is the Leila Hadley Luce Associate Professor of Modern Tibet in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University and serves on the executive committee of Columbia's Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race. His Columbia University Press books include The Tibetan History Reader (2013), Sources of Tibetan Tradition (2012), and Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China (2005).