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DE RUEHGZ #0498/01 2300910
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 180910Z AUG 09
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0855
INFO RUEHGZ/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE 0228
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0664
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 0166
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 0230
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 0165
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 0176
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0219
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC 0215
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC 0023

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000498 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM, INR/EAP, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ELAB SOCI KJUS CH
SUBJECT: Guangzhou's Minorities: Uighurs and Others in a Sea of Han 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Linguistic, cultural and religious differences 
often lead to "major communication difficulties" between Guangzhou 
officials and minority groups.  The municipal government has 
mandated sensitivity training for police and other officials who 
deal frequently with minorities.  Provincial Party Secretary Wang 
Yang warned foreign reporter of "problems" if China fails to adjust 
policies towards minorities.  Academic experts on minority issues 
term the government's treatment of Uighurs in Guangzhou "lenient," 
and say that there is some public resentment of this.  Local media 
has apparently received orders to treat issues of race and ethnicity 
with care.  When African immigrants protested in front of a 
Guangzhou police station last month, local papers merely referred to 
the incident as a "foreigners' gathering." END SUMMARY 
 
Lost in Translation 
------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) When local officials arrived at the site of the June 26 
Shaoguan factory clash between Han and Uighur workers, their 
attempts to control and diffuse the situation were hindered by a 
lack of any Uighur interpreters, according to Guangzhou Academy of 
Social Sciences (GZASS) researcher Liu Zhaohua.  Liu said that 
different languages, customs and religious practices cause "major 
communication difficulties" between Guangzhou's Uighur and Han 
populations at the best of times, and remain a potential source of 
friction and misunderstanding.  Though the estimated 500-2000 
Uighurs in Guangzhou is a far smaller community than those in other 
Chinese cities, it does tend to cluster together and avoid mingling 
with other ethnic groups, said Liu. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Local government has taken steps to avoid cross-cultural 
misunderstandings and to reduce the potential for violent incidents. 
 Following the Shaoguan clash and Urumqi riots, the Guangzhou 
Government ordered research into the state of the local Uighur 
community, according to both Liu and her GZASS colleague, Yao Yi. 
Simultaneously, the Religious Affairs Bureau began providing to the 
police and other officials who deal frequently with the public 
updated training on customs and taboos of minority groups, said the 
scholars. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Guangdong Party Secretary and Politburo Member Wang Yang 
told foreign reporters July 30 that China's policies for dealing 
with minority groups would "definitely need adjustments," which, if 
not made promptly, would lead to "problems," according to Reuters. 
Wang characterized the Shaoguan incident as "a conflict between 
workers that should be regarded as a criminal act," a view that was 
echoed by the GZASS academics, who said that minority matters in 
south China were generally a subset of the larger migrant labor 
issue. 
 
Huizhou Taking a Breather 
------------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) Several companies in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, recently 
told the South China Morning Post that they would not recruit Uighur 
laborers this year due to "cultural differences," an exceptionally 
high turnover rate and high administrative costs resulting from the 
need to supply interpreters and halal food.  While the GZASS experts 
said Pearl River Delta factories recruit workers from minority 
groups, they denied these programs represented a formal government 
policy. (Note: According to a late July edition of Phoenix Weekly, 
governments in southern Xinjiang indeed have a policy of exporting 
surplus labor to China's coastal areas.  Following the unrest in 
Urumqi, these governments reaffirmed that the policy would remain 
unchanged, according to the report.  End note.) 
 
¶6. (SBU) The GZASS researchers said that economics, not ethnicity, 
is the driving force behind the decision whether to hire minority 
groups, as well as the reason Uighur numbers in Guangzhou are 
expected to decline in the future.  Since 2000, the total number of 
Uighurs has decreased as the city's economy has developed more 
high-technology industries, according to Liu, who added that Uighurs 
have tended to follow demand for unskilled labor to other parts of 
the Pearl River Delta. 
 
A "Lenient" Approach to Uighurs 
------------------------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Guangzhou Government has been "lenient" towards Uighurs 
with regard to the enforcement of laws and municipal regulations, 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000498  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
according to Yao, who said that police tend to overlook small 
infringements by Uighurs.  (Note: Uighur and other minority street 
vendors, nearly all of whom are unlicensed, operate relatively 
openly in Guangzhou.  End note.)  Though she assessed that the 
public generally supported preferential treatment for minorities to 
make up for fewer opportunities in less-developed parts of the 
country, Liu conceded that some Han Chinese complain about the 
government's favorable medical care, financial support and 
prioritized education and promotion opportunities provided to ethnic 
minorities. 
 
Parsing Ethnicity: The "Foreigners' Gathering" 
------------------ --------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Media accounts of a mid-July incident in which members of 
Guangzhou's African community surrounded a police station following 
the serious injury of two Africans fleeing from a police document 
check conspicuously avoided making reference to the ethnicity of the 
participants.  Instead, the event, which took place soon after the 
Urumqi riots, was quickly termed a "foreigners' gathering" by local 
media. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Similarly, an August 11 press report did not indicate the 
African ethnicity of a "foreign" woman who had been arrested for 
smuggling illegal drugs into Shenzhen from Kuala Lumpur.  (Comment: 
Though the paper did not mention the woman was African, a cartoon 
next to the report showed a woman of African ethnicity awkwardly 
attempting to smuggle items.) 
 
GOLDBECK