The collapse of the "high autonomy": How China rejected the high autonomy

In April 1943, Muhammad Imini Bughra, one of the leaders of the East Turkestan National Liberation Revolution and leader of the Hotan government in 1931-1934, came to Chongqing after nine years of emigration, along with Massoud Sabri Baiqozi, Isa Yusuf Aliptekin, who had been active in central China for many years. Began their political struggle. According to Muhammad Bughra, in their memoirs, in consultation, the first step was to claim a high degree of autonomy from the Chinese central government based on the situation at the time and make it a goal to fight for its realization.

Since then, the three gentlemen have been carrying out various political activities, including the constant demand for a high degree of self-government from the Chinese central government and the inclusion of such rights and national names in the Chinese Constitution. According to Alimcan Inayet, a professor at Ege University in Turkey, there were a number of reasons why the Chinese central government did not want independence directly, but rather a strategy for demanding higher autonomy. But that was not the case with them.

The three gentlemen first submitted a 15-point "petition" to the Chinese central government, led by Zhang Kaishi, in April 1945, which included granting high autonomy and renaming "Xinjiang" to "Turkestan." Then, in August 1945, they again demanded that the Chinese central government grant "high autonomy" to East Turkestan.

According to researcher Taran Uyghur, however, since Zhang Kaishi, all Chinese leaders have discussed the "high autonomy" demands of Uyghur leaders internally and have taken a stance from the outset. Although they appeared to be legitimate and receptive to such claims, they were in fact reluctant to reject them.

So why do Chinese leaders allow Uyghur leaders to formally make such demands on the Chinese central government and its congresses, even if they do not want or even oppose the supreme autonomy? According to Mr. Muhammed Ali, a doctoral student in Uyghur history at Ankara University, the Kuomintang authorities at the time were mainly focusing on factors such as civil war and ethnic relations, in addition to trying to establish themselves as democratic governments in the world.

On January 1, 1949, the Zhang Kaishi government removed Mr. Massoud and Mr. Isa, who were finally claiming high autonomy, from the provincial government chairman and secretary general, and appointed Burhan, a distant and original Russian Tatar, to the presidency. Since then, the term "high autonomy" has gradually lost its political appeal. Even after the Chinese Communist Party occupied Uyghur territory in October 1949, it did not exercise high autonomy.(rfa.org)