'Securitizing the Uyghurs'?: Comparative Socio-Economic Indicators and China's Approach in Xinjiang

The 'securitization of the Uyghurs' is a recurrent theme in Western analysis of Xinjiang. By that, most Western analysts mean the Chinese state treats Uyghurs per se as a security problem, to be solved by pervasive repression or even genocide. One way to determine whether repression is the principal state strategy in Xinjiang is to compare Uyghurs' socio-economic profile, relative to China's whole or Han population, with the profiles of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities relative to the whole or white populations in the Anglosphere countries where most 'securitization of the Uyghurs' claims originate. Such comparisons show that, in significant respects, Uyghurs are better positioned than counterpart US, UK and Australian indigenous peoples and minorities. That may indicate that inclusionary development, not punitive exclusion, is China's main approach to mitigating terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism in Xinjiang.