Securitizing the Uyghurs'?: Comparative Socio-Economic Indicators and China's Approach in Xinjiang

The "securitization of the Uyghurs" is a recurrent theme in Western analysis of Xinjiang. By that, most Western analysts mean the  Chinese state treats Uyghurs per se as a security problem, to be solved by pervasive repression or even genocide. One way to  determine whether repression is the principal state strategy in Xinjiang is to compare Uyghurs' socio-economic profile, relative  to China's whole or Han population, with the profiles of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities relative to the whole or white  populations in the Anglosphere countries where most "securitization of the Uyghurs" claims originate. Such comparisons show  that, in significant respects, Uyghurs are better positioned than counterpart US, UK and Australian indigenous peoples and  minorities. That may indicate that inclusionary development, not punitive exclusion, is China's main approach to mitigating  terrorism, religious extremism, and separatism in Xinjiang.