In reversal, China now wants to preserve Kashgar’s Old City

In an about-face, Xinjiang’s highest legislative body has issued new regulations to protect Kashgar’s Old City — the heart of Uyghur culture — which they previously ordered to be destroyed and reconstructed, leaving only a small area as a tourist attraction.

The measures, which take effect on May 1, prompted accusations of Chinese hypocrisy by experts on the far-western region, who say it’s meant to benefit investors in tourism and deflect criticism of Beijing’s persecution of the 11-million mostly Muslim Uyghurs. 

The Regulation on the Protection of the Ancient City of Kashgar passed on March 31 aims to protect the cultural heritage of Kashgar’s ancient city, which is was once a key trading post on the Silk Road between China and Europe.

But starting in 2008, China has already demolished 85% of Kashgar’s ancient quarter and relocated thousands of residents to newer “earthquake-resistant houses,” according to a June 2020 report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project, or UHRP, on the destruction of the Old City.

By the end of 2010, more than 10,000 ancestral earthen homes there had been destroyed, and shops near the 15th-century Id Kah Mosque were transferred to new buildings made to look like Uyghur architecture, according to journalist Nick Holdstock, who has written two nonfiction books about Xinjiang.

“Above their doors are wooden signs saying ‘Minority Folk Art’ or ‘Traditional Ethnic Crafts’ in English and Chinese,” he was quoted as saying in the UHRP report.

Now all that is left is about 15% of the Old City, which has largely been renovated into a Disneyland-like tourist center for visiting Chinese tourists and dignitaries.

The supposedly ancient Kashgar gate that appears frequently in Chinese promotional material is actually a modern creation and doesn’t reflect traditional Uyghur design.

China’s past actions appeared to be motivated by a “campaign to stamp out tangible aspects of Uyghur culture,” the UHRP report said.

Cradle of Uyghur civilization

This is particularly painful for Uyghurs because Kashgar is considered to be the cradle of their civilization, with two millennia of history. 

Urumqi may be the political capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, but Kashgar has been the historic center of Uyghur statecraft, politics, art, music literature, trade, culture and religion. 

It was in Kashgar that in the 11th century prominent Uyghur Turkologist Mahmud Kashgari penned the “Divan Lugat-it Turk,” the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, which also contains an  early map showing countries and regions from Japan to Egypt.

A strategic trading post along the Silk Road, Kashgar was visited by Marco Polo on his way to the court of Kublai Khan during the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in the 13th century, and before that had been the capital of the Uyghur Karakhanid Empire, a Turkic-Uyghur empire that lasted from 999 to 1211.

It was in Kashgar that the first East Turkistan Republic was declared in 1933, before China aided by the Soviet Union invaded and took control of the region in 1949 against the wishes of the people to remain an independent country.

‘Museumify’

Now, after all the destruction China has wrought in the city, new regulations call for the preservation of the old quarter’s overall historical appearance, natural environment, historical buildings, ancient trees, traditional communities, streets, courtyards, buildings and other structures such as street-side pillars.

They will also protect intangible cultural heritage, including historical events, figures, handicrafts, traditional arts and customs and rituals.

“Any demolition, alteration or disruption of the architectural or landscape features designated for conservation is strictly prohibited,” the regulation says.

But experts say the measures will hardly rectify the damage already done, and will only serve to turn what’s left of Kashgar’s vibrant culture into a tourist attraction.

“It seems absurd in the present context to think that the Chinese government actually is concerned about the preservation of Uygur culture,” said Sean Roberts, director of the Central Asia Research Project at George Washington University.

“One of the dangers that Uyghur culture faces right now in China is being ‘museumified’ in a way that no longer reflects active lived culture, but reflects something that is packaged for tourists,” he said. 

Deflecting criticism

More seriously, the move is likely meant to deflect attention from atrocities China has committed against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, Roberts said.

Besides the destruction of thousands of mosques and other structures significant to Uyghur heritage, Chinese authorities have suppressed Muslim religious practices and arbitrarily detained Uyghurs in state-sponsored camps, where some have been subjected to forced labor, sterilization, contraception and abortion.

Since 2017, an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs have been herded into concentration camps, where they are subjected to forced labor, mistreatment and human rights abuses.

China has denied committing atrocities in Xinjiang and says the camps are actually vocational centers that have been shut down. 

But the United States has determined that China’s actions against the Uyghurs constitute a genocide, while a U.N. report said they may amount to crimes against humanity.

Benefitting Chinese developers

The new regulation will benefit Chinese investors involved in tourism in the city, said Henryk Szadziewsk, a senior researcher at the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

For example, Beijing-based tourism and property developer Zhongkun Investment Group Ltd. is involved in restoration efforts and tourism initiatives in the Old City, he said.

Following earlier reconstruction work, the Old City’s neighborhood Communist Party committee leased the reassembled quarter to Zhongkun, which began marketing the area as a “living Uyghur folk museum” and established a “near monopoly” over Kashgar’s tourism, the UHRP report said.

“The new Kashgar Old City has a different set of people who occupy that space — people who have interests in tourism and people who have interests in the exploitation of that,” Szadziewski told RFA.

“To come up with this and to try to portray it as something genuine is quite a cruel irony for the Uyghur people,” he added.

The regulation comes 13 years after a European Parliament resolution urging an end to the demolition in Kashgar and calling on Beijing to include the area in UNESCO’s Silk Road Protection Project.

At the time, the European Parliament suggested that Beijing consider applying to add Kashgar city to the UNESCO cultural heritage list, alongside Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

But Beijing has not responded to the calls.

Among UNESCO’s priorities is the safeguarding of cultural expressions and the knowledge and know-how of local communities. 

Preserving Kashgar will be impossible without its inclusion on UNESCO’s protection list, given the instability of local policies and future plans, said Kahar Barat, a Uyghur-American historian known for his work on Buddhism and Islam in Xinjiang.

Barat said he believes that for the Chinese government to genuinely safeguard the Old City it must ensure comprehensive cultural preservation, including the restoration of manuscripts, old madrassas and mosques.

“Preserving the city’s appearance and traditional streets primarily caters to tourism, showcasing it to visitors,” Barat said.

Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.