The Economist has been visiting the southern Tarim basin, between Minfeng and Qiemo, and reports on the rather unconventional commercial-paramilitary organsiation that operates in a big way out there as a result of historical han settlement by demobbed soldiers – the bingtuan 兵团. As well as dividing itself into various regiments, The Economist reveals the bingtuan is, surprisingly, one of the world’s largest producers of tomato sauce. It is an outfit also well covered in Christian Tyler’s 2003 book “Wild West China”, and inextricably linked to Han-Uyghur issues in the province.
An interesting contrast to the context of The Economist’s article is provided by John Pilkington in his book “An Adventure on the Old Silk Road”. He was one of the first foreign travellers over the Khunjerab and into Xinjiang after it had opened to foreign nationals on 1 May 1986. He writes at the time: “It is true that the minorities’ living standards have imprived greatly under the Chinese. But some of the minority languages are no longer taught in schools… Minorities in Wales, Spain, New Zealand and the Soviet Union have been driven to violence over just such issues; but the Uyghurs and their fellow-minorities of Xinjiang have raised no more than the occassional skirmish.”
Flashmen 