China's Wild West

Are you kidding? "Most Uighurs don't live like Xia Xia". Get this through your head: MOST Chinese people don't even get to live like Xia Xia. The Uighurs that are dirt-poor in this video were dirt-poor long before the Chinese got there, and would still be dirt-poor now (like the vast majority of their neighbors in Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India). It's no coincidence that China is rising, and if some minority groups can put aside their pride long enough to look for opportunities, then they can pull themselves up by their bootstraps as well.

This report was very balanced, the devils advocate position was flawless. You can make your own opinion based on this report. Chinese govt's answers to criticism was discussed at great detail. Anything that is anti-CSC will get a great deal of shills appearing to anonymously defend the CSC's position as the comments show vividly. The CSC's argument that they are helping Uighurs by bringing them into 21st century China should have had a connection drawn to the White Man's Burden 100 years ago in the report.

very interesting piece. I had heard about this area, but never seen it until now. China is a very weird country.

to bigkahuna87:
I am sorry, but you sound like one of the chines channels. This is pure propaganda.

First of all, you do not know much about neighbor countries. You put in one line Afghanistan and Kazakhstan, this is ridiculous, that means you completely do not know these countries.
Afghanistan has been at war for over 30 year for now, and Kazakhstan is most development country in Central Asia, you simply cannot compare them, besides Kazakhstan is an independent county now, not part of any "great nation".

Per East Turkestan(your wording Xinjiang), it might have some better wealth and less violence, but only for Hans not for Uighurs, which is clearly shown by Laura, thanks a lot for that.
The chines government does not allow people to preserve their cultural legacy, like poems or poetry, what can be worst??? The preserving the poetry is that you call extremism??)))

What does mean "more autonomy from assimilation". Assimilation is a thing that does exist or not, it can not be autonomous.

Per history, first time East Turkestan got under military rule of Chine in 18th century, but temporary, I want to underline that "under military rule"( basically was concurred) , and the population of Hans has been only presented by chines troops since that time in the small military fort posts to keep country under control. Even in 1949 the chines population was about 1% of whole ET.

I call the policy of China the state terrorism in ET, and any Uighurs resistance(self defense) to that policy chines propaganda calls terrorism.
It is so obvious that China uses a propaganda machine to put tag on entire Uighur population, and then provide the policy of cultural genocide, like they have done with mongols in North East part of China(another minority) and keep providing this policy in Tibet.

Compared to the neighboring countries of Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, I must say Xinjiang is much better place with more wealth and less violence. The last thing the world needs is another Taliban-like regime that uses religious extremism and indiscriminate violence.

Although the government has made mistakes in Xinjiang, the evidence of flourishing Uighur culture and communities show they they've allowed much more autonomy from assimilation than in the West. Where are our native American cities, communities, places of worship?

Laura was factually wrong when claiming the China annexed Xinjiang in 1949 when it has been a part of China for thousands of years dating back to the Silk Road. In addition, the East Turkestan Liberation Movement IS a real terrorist movement and have launched attacks and bus bombings as recently as August...they are no different from Al Qaeda.

In addition, she mistakenly contrasts the Uighur's with the Chinese. China is comprised of 56 ethnic groups with all of them being Chinese. The correct classification for the majority would be the Han ethnic group.

excellent work! you and your team does such excellent journalism.

Have you heard any countries' government dose not put the one who try to separate their country but not putting them in prison.

All westerners mentions diversity everyday, then why can not China have multi culture.

Keep doing what brave, conscious journalist do-you do it so well........

I'm almost sure Laura wasn't drawing her own "bad Mandarin" conclusion just from her own Mandarin. She did have a guide.

And about the whole bias, its hard to say that the Uygars aren't being victimized a little bit when they can't even speak against China in another country.
I understand that they need to learn Mandarin. When you live somewhere, you learn the damn language. But not allowing Uygur books and poems is pretty repressive.

The point that everyone misses is the Chinese government victimizes everyone, even their own people(Han). It's really easy to find a bias when you don't see that this special only meant to present the Uygar point of view. If you want the Chinese Government/Han point of view, you can watch the other 50 billion pods of China on Current.

This really does remind me of Burma, but i think she's already mentioned it in the video when she interviewed one of those people in it. I remember when I was part of the campaign for Burma, I ended up getting into a heated discussion with one of my friends who said that China was a great place and how people he met there in Shanghai were satisfied with the way the government was run. I was almost convinced by him, but then I realized those opinions were that of ethnic Chinese people, and not ethnic minorities of China. Somehow, I just wasn't convinced that China isn't as great he told me it was, so after watching this, I felt like I was right for not being convinced. But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that U.S. government is any better than the Chinese if you consider the problems that they both have individually.
I also think that the XingJian or the Uighur province could be better off as an independent nation so that they could develope and preserve their own culture at the same time, but it'll be very difficult to get around with because the education system that they have.

LOL Laura doesn't speak Chinese either.

Keep in mind that China is a communist nation and it is veiling it's nature in these "modern" cities that look like freedom.

Freedom doesn't exist there.

No matter how much good press it attempted to generate for itself.

People especially here forget that.

Laura, I appreciate you very much for this report.
It is very difficult to get any independent information about Uighurs from China.
As far as you can see from this report. Chinese government are practicing cultural genocide against whole Uighurs nations, and it seems that no one in our modern civilized world does not concern about it.
I am ethic uigur who lives in North America and originally from Kazakhstan. I can only pray to a god to help my beautifully, talented people to survive from being destroy by the communist Chinese regime.

I feel helpless and frustrated to do anything to help my nation to survive, and only the reports like that can give me a light in the tunnel. a hope that western world can get known Uighurs straggle in the " Perfect Chinese world of business" and take any action to prevent Uigurs being wiped off from the face of the Earth, as well as Tibetans.

I can say that I understand that young guy. who refused to talk with an interpreter. It is a feeling of being people of second kind on your own land, and hide your frustration and anger all the time inside, because if you show it off, you or members of your family will be prosecuted and tortured.

Again, thank you so much Laura for this report, and sorry for being so emotional.

Haha!

Nice one hopping into the dead sea there, babe... Nihao, yeast infection!

The rain here alone stings my eyes but you've been in china for what, not even a week and you slosh around in a big puddle in xinjiang? That was really dumb.

Wow.
I have long been Leary about Communist China. They are huge, are nuclear and kinda scary if you think about it.

But... is that why the story was rather biased? I would be tempted to show the underdog as a hero against a communist nation perhaps... but I would pay equal time to the other point of view if I were producing this pod, for the reputation of Vanguard.

In the bird flu stories, I believe parts of regular China away from the biggest cities were just as impoverished.

The wild animal markets were horrifying. I would much rather buy an animal out west than in the other part of China. But that wasn't the story really.

I don't understand all the details of China's modernization and how the communist government is involved.

In the other parts of communist China we have observed that there are pretty much two extremes of lifestyles, middle class (and some government elite), and the very poor. That is classic for any communist attempt to rule.

An issue in the pod was language.
I don't think it is a bad thing for children to be bi-lingual. That is perfect even if it is to have business in a neighboring country.
But it is essential if they wish to work or live in downtown or other parts of China.

The lack of the population not being able to speak the language could be much why the stress is like it is. Could you imagine how hard it would be to live in the USA and only speak Islandic or something? Communication will make life easier for everyone.
Education isn't a bad thing. On the other hand I really disagree with communist dogma of the Chinese government.

I have great respect for their 3k+ history, the culture of China, their early discoveries in medicine and science. I truly wish that they did not fall to communism. Perhaps that is more the evil of the story as it was that time when the discord seemed to peak. (according to the internet)

When watching I also felt like it was a half-hearted approach to show both sides of a story, and we know all situations have two sides. Please present both, we are actually intelligent and will probably reach an opinion or view much like yours, but we were not given that opportunity.

Viewers may conclude during that kind of reporting that Vanguard assumes the viewer is ignorant, stupid or not capable of making decisions. I highly doubt that was the intention at all.
Now before criticizing Laura, realize that the producer & editor (maybe more) had to take alot of raw footage and try to make sense out of it. With a limited amount of time on the air. I hope next time, they allow the viewer to participate and form their own conclusions. We like doing that.

However, during a time when there was only positive press for China, I do admire Vanguard for trying to tackle this topic.

Thanks for reading. Sorry it was long.

Dengzhi, you also have to understand what it's like to grow up being almost the only Chinese person around in the US. I think one oftentimes just tries to conform to those around him/her. It's not so simple. Anyways, she's reporting on Uighurs loosing their cultural identity in China and we're talking about the reporter loosing her cultural identity in America. I'm going to ponder on that for a bit.

Why did they find a chinese reporter who doesn't speak chinese to report on china? At least take chinese 101.

I noticed you kept referring to the area surrounding Urumqi as the Gobi desert. Correct me if I am wrong, but I am fairly certain that Urumqi is located within or closer to the Taklamakan desert.

Overall I think this piece is pretty biased. Although I suppose there were lackluster attempts made at the end to present "China's" point of view.

Uighars, although a minority are still a part of China so they are technically Chinese, so its not them v. Chinese... It might be Uighars v. Han, but not the former.

Also there was failure to mention that Uighars have had violent unrest in the months leading up the Olympics, therefore the Chinese have increased security measures in the area, not just because they're paranoid. In fact, releasing information such as news of the unrest was such sensitive information for the Chinese government that they delayed releasing that news for a while and even attempted to cover up. So portraying the Uighars as victims is rather unfair..

Also w/ modernization and globalization there comes a homogenization of cultures anyways. Although it's one of the negative aspects of globalization it does happen and there's not much one can do about it. Thus, there will always be people unhappy with such events and blaming it on those who are trying to modernize the state, such is the case with Tibet.

Please try to present a balanced story next time. Trying your best to present an unbiased view is a journalist's foremost job. To do otherwise is a gross misrepresentation of ourselves. Leave the personal views to the bloggers.

You barely speak Mandarin yourself, how can you claim those kids don't speak Chinese?

Besides, do some research on the history of the region before you report. China did not suddenly claim this region in 1949.

It amazes me how much you were able to document without being censored, very profound story and very controversial.
Didn't even know the Uighurs still existed, I mean I studied them in history classes but did not know they were still around.
Great report, very informative.

Free Hawaii

Of all the stories and reports delivered on China in the midst of the Olympics, this is one of the most original. There has been little coverage of the country beyond the Games, Beijing's high level of air pollution and appropriately, of course, memorials/recovery of victims from the earthquake in May.

It's always said that journalists should "go where the silence is." You found it with this piece. I knew nothing about Uighurs before this...This episode truly shed some light on an issue that is sure to be ongoing.

China is "one mighty power" in the sense that is doing what other countries want to do. Admired and feared by other nations is the major goal for a government. "victory....is apparent to all, but the science of ensuring victory is a mysterious secret, generally unknown."

Great Vanguard episode......

This is where O.B.L is hiding, not Pakistan. The US will never cross into China, #1 Fear of the backlash, #2 Why would they want to end the war on terror, there is to much $ in it. Mabe we should take a few tip from the Russians on how to fight a war. Theirs 1 week, Ours 6 years.

I liked this report so much. Lauraling, good job! you visited the places I lived before. you talked to these faces vey familiar to me. I grove up in there I miss it so much. But your report refereshed my memory. I went to home with your report. thank you and wish you all the best.

Iraqi Kurds = Chinese Tibetans
Can you say most favored trade nation instead of oppressive government?

Free Tibet

This was interesting to us since we traveled to Xinjiang in June. We visited many of the same places in Kashgar and Urumqi that Laura did. I believe we were at the Kashgar market the same day she was because we saw a couple of the same scenes that were shown in the news report. It was good to hear stories directly from the people. We like Laura's reporting.