Destruction of Old City

As one of the major trading centers of the Silk Road, the Old City in Kashigar, located in Western China’s Xinjiang province, has long been a heart of Uighur traditions and livelihoods, with a history over 2,000 years.

Redevelopment of Old City in Kashigar, estimated to cost $440 million, began abruptly in 2009, soon after China’s central government said it would spend $584 billion on public works to combat the global financial crisis. Over the next few years, city officials say, they will demolish at least 85 percent of Old City and many of its 13,000 families will be moved. Government say demolition is deemed an urgent necessity because an earthquake could strike at any time, collapsing centuries-old buildings and killing thousands, but critics argue it would destroy Uighrs’ identity and resettlement program is used to have tighter control over Uighrs.

Since the central government adopted a “develop the west” campaign in the past decade, Xinjiang’s economy has grown quickly, living standards on the whole have risen, and Han population, encouraged in part by government incentives, has risen to 40 percent of the population in 2000, a huge leap over the 6 percent in 1949.

Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim group, resent rule by the Han Chinese for a variety of government policies related to employment, language and religion and Chinese security forces have tried to keep oil-rich Xinjiang under tight control since the 1990s, when cities there were struck by waves of protests, riots and bombings.