Diasporas in the New Media Age: Identity, Politics, and Community

16 Net Nationalism

291 16 Net Nationalism The Digitalization of the Uyghur Diaspora yitzhak shichor Following the deadly riots in Xinjiang in early July 2009, news agencies and other organizations received e-mail messages calling on Tibetans to participate in worldwide protests and demonstrations in front of China’s diplomatic missions in support of and solidarity with the suppressed Uyghurs in East Turkestan (Xinjiang). Allegedly sent by the Uyghur American Association and the World Uyghur Congress, these e-mail messages proved to be fake; they had never been sent by the uaa or the wuc. This is not the first time that hackers, most probably Chinese (as no one else has a motive in such provocations), have used the Internet to undermine Uyghur activism by impersonation, delivering viruses and blocking Web sites and occasionally interfering in personal e-mail exchanges (including academic, based on my own personal experience).1 This incident highlights both the positive and the negative significance of digital communications. On the one hand, Uyghurs have greatly expanded the use of the Internet, achieving a higher degree of visibility than ever before; on the other hand, by doing so they have become exposed to disruptions, malicious penetrations, and cyberattacks as a part of a long-standing conflict between them and China. Uyghurs, aTurkic-Muslim nationality mostly located in Northwest China, were hardly known—let alone felt—in the international system until the early 292 d i a s p o r a s i n t h e n e w m e d i a a g e 1990s. Claiming an independent homeland from China, Uyghurs have been accused by Beijing of separatism, terrorism, and religious (Islamic) extremism . Suppressed inside China, Uyghurs have become more visible outside China, apparently because of the dynamic and extensive use of technologically advanced media adopted by their growing diaspora communities. Still, these communities are relatively small and spread over many countries (with the majority in central Asia). This has entailed difficulties in communication not only among diaspora Uyghur communities but also between them and their host countries as well as international and nongovernmental organizations (ngos). Many of these difficulties have apparently been removed by relying on digital means, but the main question is to what extent these means helped to overcome Uyghurs’ internal divisions, to improve their organization , to consolidate their collective identity, and, most important, to promote the Uyghur national cause. Based on a few years of research of Uyghur diasporas, as well as theoretical concepts and comparative studies of transnational diaspora communities and communication, this chapter discusses the role of conventional and digital media in shaping the Uyghur agenda, nationalist identity, and international impact, in the post–cold war environment. Its first part (“Outline”) provides the background for Uyghur history, nationalism, and the creation of its diaspora. The second part (“Off-Line”) deals with the Uyghurs’ use of conventional media that had failed to accomplish their nationalist vision and to create a transnational unified movement. The third part (“Online”) concentrates on the emergence of Uyghur digital transnationalism in the 1990s, based primarily on the use of online communication media, first and foremost the Internet. The fourth section (“Bottom Line”) evaluates the effectiveness (and vulnerability) of digital media in promoting Uyghur national identity and vision and their impact on China’s foreign and domestic policies and the international system at large.2 uyghur diaspora nationalism: outline Uyghurs are the largest non-Chinese nationality in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China. Of Inner Asian Turkic stock, the Uyghurs trace their origins to the Huns, well before the arrival of the Chinese in Eastern Turkestan in the second century bc, during the Han dynasty. Though there is some debate on their origins (Gladney 1990,1992,1996;Geng 1984;Koçaog∫lu 1997),the Uyghurs, who are mentioned in Chinese historical records as a tributary of the Chinese Empire, reached their climax in the mid-eighth century, when China’s Tang dynasty t h e u y g h u r d i a s p o r a 293 managed to survive at their mercy. Uyghur kingdoms had begun converting to Islam by the mid-tenth century and maintained their independence for about one thousand years until invaded by the Manchu (Qing dynasty) in the mid-eighteenth century. Failing to regain its independence, in 1884 Eastern Turkestan (as the region is still called by Uyghurs and Turks...