No Internet in Xinjiang for 15 weeks
In the months before the Olympics many men in Khotan were imprisoned until women held a protest in the market. The protest only drew more of a crackdown and military convoys could be seen entering the city.
Upon returning to the US I kept in contact with a couple of Uighur friends in Xinjiang over IM and occasionally Skype. When the rioting ocured a few months ago I expected the internet to be cut off for a few days, maybe a week. But for the past 15 weeks I haven’t heard from any of my friends because the internet has been completely shut down in this large swath of China.
There aren’t many stories about it simply because the block is so thorough. Xinjiang has always been a land of Oasis and if there isn’t any technology like phones or internet to connect the cities then a riot can occur in one and the rest of the world wouldn’t know for a year.
The two stories that I have seen on this issue are by AFP: “China’s Xinjiang ‘isolated’ by email, phone blocks” and surprisingl by PC World.
While Xinjiang is a remote region it is also filled with Internet cafes that are constantly stuffed with teens. The last time I remember them being shut down was right after the large earthquake last year. The government closed all net cafes so that citizens wouldn’t be distracted from their mourning of the victims.
This is probably the stupidest move in China’s security strategy. The internet can be used to organize but it is also a release valve for frustrations. When the Uighur youth are forced to reconnect, face to face with old acquaintances and have an excess of free time they will become more active. And when they see themselves being treated as second class citizens they will only agitate for more freedoms. SMS and the internet are great for organizing but word of mouth can work just as well, if not better in the big cities.
Thanks to Reddit.com for bringing this too my attention.
Like many people outside China, I too have been unable to contact many friends in Xinjiang since July. I have a very special friend there who I have only been able to contact through a mutual friend who lives in another province, but this is clumsy and unwieldy. One feels completely powerless. I know that many people in the town I lived in used the internet as we do in the ‘west’, and they too would be feeling the difference from pre-July. But we all get used to new routines, and life goes on. I miss the contact, but write normal letters instead, but I don’t know if they are receiving them. Just hope that the gov’t opens up soon.