China’s name change spree in Xinjiang and Tibet continues unabated

The Chinese Central government has not only been devising but also religiously implementing the policy to change the names of streets, villages, places, and townships in the country, especially in the minority-dominated areas in its western part. The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have borne the maximum brunt in this process.

For example, in Chinese academic parlance, Tibet has been described as Xijang since 2023. This Chinese trick has two mottoes: firstly, China deliberately attempts to dilute the culture of the minority people, or perhaps aims at stamping out ethno-religious or ethno-cultural identities of the minorities, particularly the Uyghurs and Tibetans; and secondly, it wants to expand the process of sinification by dint of imposing the overarching Chinese communist ideology on the minority people.

In a joint report published recently by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and a Norway-based Uyghur organisation (Uyghur Help), the Chinese atrocities on Uyghur culture and identity have come to light time and again. According to the report, the Chinese Central Government has been “systematically changing hundreds of village names” bearing historical, religious, and cultural meanings for Uyghurs into new names that faithfully reflect the ideology of the Communist Party of China (CCP).

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It is important to note herewith that the name-changing spree in Tibet and Xinjiang by the Chinese can be traced back to the end of the 2000s, particularly after the Tibet unrest in March 2008 and the Urumqi riots (5 July 2009) in XUAR. Along with the stern policy of “Strike Hard, Maximum Pressure” in both Tibet and Xinjiang, it led to massive securitisation and surveillance in both the restive regions in the later period.

The Chinese authorities have meted out excesses against Tibetans and Uyghurs. They slyly began one of the government-sponsored measures of “cultural erasure” of the Uyghurs and Tibetans as part of their sinification design. It has been an uphill task for these hapless minorities to maintain their centuries-old unique culture against 75 years of Chinese onslaught.

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The HRW Report gives detailed information, elaborating that as many as 3,600 of a total of 25,000 villages in Xinjiang (almost 15 per cent of the total villages) have witnessed name change in the last one and a half decades (from 2009 to 2023). In 630 villages (nearly one-fifth of the total of 3,600 villages), the names bearing the religion, culture, and history of Uyghurs have witnessed change.

The popular Uyghur names, such as Mazar (shrine), Hoja (Sufi teacher), Meschit (mosque), Haniqa (Sufi meeting place), Gumbez (dome), Orda (palace), Xelpe (Khalifa), Wap (Islamic Foundation), Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), Dutar (an Uyghur music instrument) and Sultan (Emir), are now replaced with pejorative Chinese names such as Hongxing (Red Star), Qianjin (Forward), Hongqi (Red Flag), Youyi (Friendship), Guangming (Light), Bostan (Oasis), Hexie (harmony), Tuanjie (unity) and Xingfu (happiness).

It is found to be a classic case of sinification that Chinese authorities have been imposing on minority nationalities, especially against Uyghurs and Tibetans, since Qing rule. The process of sinification has taken on a new tone and tenor since the communist takeover of Xinjiang in 1949. However, what is not reported in the media is the renaming of some famous streets in the capital, Urumqi, and Kashgar, as confirmed news reports are awaited.

Earlier, seven years ago, two reports were published. One was by Human Rights Watch—“China bans many Muslim baby names in Xinjiang” (April 24, 2017)—and the other was by Radio Free Asia—“Xinjiang’s ‘List of Forbidden Names’ forces Uyghurs to change the names of children under 16"—which described how Chinese authorities at the local political committee in Tohula township of Karakash county in Khotan prefecture banned several Muslim names like Arafat, Saddam, Medina, Husein, Seypidin, Seypulla, Nesrulla, Shemsidin, and Mujahit (for boys under the age 16) and Muslime, Muhlise, Ayshe, Fatima, and Hediche (for girls under the age 16).

This measure was commensurate with the Chinese government’s “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Regulation on De-extremification" that was adopted unanimously at the 28th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Twelfth People’s Congress for the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on March 29, 2017.

In addition, the authorities gave an ultimatum of 72 hours to change the names and issued a diktat not to provide the Uyghur children bearing any of the banned names the much-needed hukou (household registration), which is a necessary condition to enrol tiny tots in public school and other social services in the minority areas. It is a brazen display of Chinese indifference towards the minority culture of a multicultural society like China. Besides, it perhaps spells out the spread of fear of the Chinese among the young and impressionable minds so that they will not raise their voice against the government in the future.

It is imperative to highlight here that this sinister design by the Chinese authorities to change the names of places, cities, and townships is not limited to its provinces or territory alone; rather, it goes beyond the borders. For instance, the Chinese government exhibited the audacity to rename as many as 62 villages in the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh in four phases in the last half a dozen years. The People’s Republic of China not only brazenly, forcefully, and aggressively claims the Indian province of Arunachal Pradesh as its integral part but has also renamed it Zangnan (South Tibet).

The Indian news media and foreign media have aired the attempt by the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs to change the names of six places in Arunachal Pradesh in 2017, 15 in 2021, 11 in 2023, and 30 in 2024, respectively. It exposes the mens rea of an alien, arrogant, and aggressive China against its immediate neighbour (India), with whom it fought a war in 1962 and was involved in intimidation, intrusion, and internecine conflict all along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the last six decades.

The author teaches at the Centre for Inner Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.