China’s repression in Xinjiang is here to stay

Significance

This abandons affirmative action and accommodation of ethnic sensitivities, and instead actively and often forcibly promotes assimilation into the culture and society of the Han Chinese, China’s majority ethnic group.

Impacts

• Similar aims and methods apply in Tibet as in Xinjiang; the backlash has been less deadly, but potential for violence remains.
• Hong Kong faces a much lighter, but essentially similar, pattern of repression and cultural assimilation.
• Subsidised investment-led economic development will continue in Xinjiang, but Han Chinese will benefit disproportionately.
• No foreign sanctions will be costly enough to make repression in Xinjiang unsustainable.