with a population that exceeds one million. The official thesis claims that “As the Han nation has the greatest population of all the Chinese nations, and forms 92% of the general population, other nations are designated “ethnic minorities”21 due to their low populations.” This is the description that the Chinese government deems valid. And according to this, the Han nation is the main nation that makes up China. Others nations are classified as minorities. For this reason, the Han call themselves “Big Brothers”. This nomenclature provides them with privileges in matters like leadership, guidance, governing and position, because they see themselves as the most skilled and ambitious group concerned with the future and integrity of China.

This idea was not a dominant expression during the Communist period. Marxism employs social discrimination based on class, not based on race, as is done today in China. The Marxist doctrine is not based on regionalism or race, or on any social classification. Marxist philosophy states that all human conflicts arise from capital. However, in today’s China, there is a new emphasis on the necessity of preserving “China’s Integrity” in all official documents and informational and political expressions, because the Communist ideology can no longer act as the safety valve of national unity after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the ideological system or the depletion of their real effects on China.

China, having experienced many internal dynastic conflicts throughout history, is not far from total disintegration and returning to a time of dynastic conflict. Therefore, it is not odd that the Chinese authorities describe the protests of the Uyghur people in Turkistan as efforts of “separatism and separatists”. Again, for the same reason it is not strange that official statements and the comments of authorities emphasis the following notions: “China’s Unity ... National Integrity ... One Nation ... Strong State ... One State ... National Cooperation ... Preservation of Country Unity ... Tolerance and Stability ... Development ... Advancement ... Modernity ... ” They do not use notions that are opposed to those mentioned above: “Discrimination ... Radicalism ... Terrorism ... Devastation ... Obscurantism ... ” The fact is that China sees the Turkistan issue as an internal affair, like Chechnya in Russia; we can see this in the expression of an official spokesman of the Chinese foreign affairs department, Chen Gang, who became deeply concerned when riots erupted in Urumqi on 05.07.2009. However, this time, the protests were only against discrimination in businesses and the discrimination against the local people, where they were relegated to second or third class citizens. After the incidents and after a meeting with high-level party officials, in a broadcast on Chinese television in 8.7.2009 the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, threatened “heavy penalties, as stated in the law, for those who were involved in the clashes.” The Chinese president was worried by the violence of these events and was concerned that they could spread to other regions outside Urumqi and Kashgaria; he made a clear reference to this: “It is very important and an urgent task that social stability in the Xinjiang region, where there are