China’s Kurdish Policy

[DRoshani]

Publication: China Brief Volume: 6 Issue: 1December 31, 1969 07:00 PM
Age: 40 yrs
By: Yitzhak Shichor

One of the basic components of post-Mao China’s policy, domestic and
international, is opposition to separatism. This policy reflects
China’s uncompromising adherence to the maintenance of territorial
integrity at all costs—primarily with regard to Taiwan, but also to
Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. Similarly, the Chinese are
fundamentally and officially opposed to separatist movements
elsewhere, suggesting recently that self-determination should not
necessarily involve national independence and that stateless nations
should not necessarily form, or be given, states.

These rules also apply to the Kurds. To be sure, Chinese scholars
deplore the Kurdish “tragedy:” the fact that a nation with such a long
history could never set up its own country; the refusal of any country
to seriously help the Kurds; and the use of force by host governments
(primarily Turkey) to suppress Kurdish nationalism. Nevertheless, the
Chinese ultimately admit that the Kurds’ demand for independence
endangers these countries’ territorial integrity and national
security. They claim that Kurdish legal rights should be respected and
protected, but only within an autonomous arrangement in an existing
state. Separatism will only lead to war, engender terrorism, and will
ultimately be rejected by the international community [1].

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