Ethnic Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang

Despite a decade of rapid economic development, rising living standards, and large-scale improvements in infrastructure and services, China's western borderlands have experienced 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.

Despite a decade of rapid economic development, China’s western borderlands have experienced a wave of ethnic unrest not seen since the 1950s. Through on-the-ground interviews and firsthand observations, this volume creates an invaluable record of the conflicts and protests as they have unfolded—the most extensive chronicle of events to date.

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).

The body of research produced is undoubtedly of a very high standard, and makes a valuable contribution to the study of the ongoing conflicts in Xinjiang and Tibet.

Highly recommended.

Tsering Shakya, coauthor of The Struggle for Tibet:
These essays provide detailed study of ethnopolitics in contemporary China based on solid fieldwork and scholarly analysis of regional peculiarities and standardizing policies.

Morris Rossabi, author of The Mongols and The Mongols and Global History:
These studies of contemporary China's relations with the Tibetans and the Uyghurs offer insights on a wide variety of issues, including the Chinese state's policies toward Buddhism and Islam, the causes of conflicts between China and these so-called minority nationalities, the government's economic policies and the ensuing environmental effects, and the possible economic synergies between Chinese and Tibetan and Uyghur entrepreneurs. The authors differ in their opinions about the future, with some providing negative predictions while others are more optimistic, but each furnishes informed analyses.

June Teufel Dreyer, author of China's Political System:
Ethnic Conflict and Protest in Tibet and Xinjiang is a terrific book. Ten experts take a balanced and clear-eyed view of the conditions and politics behind the recent wave of ethnic unrest in China. It should be required reading for those who would understand the interlocking causes of conflict, including decision makers in Beijing.

Andrew J. Nathan, coauthor of China's Search for Security:
Ethnic unrest in Tibet and among the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is very much in the news and is a subject of great academic and public interest. It is hard to research because the Chinese government limits access to these areas. Nonetheless, these resourceful and courageous scholars have managed to access these regions, find out what is troubling the ethnic minority residents there, and assess how deep the trouble is.