Anti-Chinese Provocation: Sinophobia In Kazakhstan
The night invasion of the territory of a Chinese enterprise in Shymkent is not the first case of manifestation of sinophobia in Kazakhstan. It fits easily into a series of events, in which the desire to play on the theme of nationalism can be traced. Unpunished desire. Xenophobic moodOf the other similar episodes, the loudest is anti-Chinese provocation on social networks in 2016. Then it was said that the Kazakh lands would allegedly be sold to the Chinese. This then led to unauthorized meetings and caused a wave of negative information noise. Then, in 2017, a wave of messages swept across messengers about the mass invasion of Chinese grooms for Kazakh brides.
As an echo of these rumors - disruption of the wedding of the Chinese groom and the Kazakh bride in 2018. This was told on his page on the social network Marat Tolibayev, former vice-minister of agriculture. According to his observationsKazakhstan has high xenophobia. And sinophobia is just one example of this process. - Many Kazakhstanis believe that the Chinese want to penetrate the territory of Kazakhstan by any means (legal or illegal) and dissolve the few Kazakh people in themselves. They are confident that the marriage of Chinese to Kazakh women is the realization of this finely thought-out plan. And against the background of such sentiments, the announced wedding has become a spark, a catalyst for aggressive moods. A group of young people through social networks and instant messengers united with the firm intention to prevent this wedding. A cry was thrown, several dozen young excited guys came to the wedding venueFrightened, the restaurant where the celebration was scheduled, refused the order and returned the money to the family of the Chinese groom. They say that all other restaurants in the city also refused.
Despite all the efforts made the wedding did take place, however, in some room of the warehouse of the company, which is led by the groom's father. Hate speech “Moreover, in slogans like“ It’s inadmissible for Kazakh girls to marry foreigners, ”I see signs of a criminal offense - inciting ethnic hatred. The authors of such slogans put the Kazakh nation above the others, since they believe that to associate with other nationalities is a shame. In addition, such prohibitions are unlawful and offensive against Kazakh girls. You can not dispose of their fate and sacrifice their happiness for the sake of some false interests of the nation. Yes, we must be patriots. We must protect our country, its territory and interests, but in no case should we incite hatred towards others. You can not consider an entire nation to be your enemy: the Chinese, Russians, Americans or anyone else. This is a pernicious path that will lead us to chauvinism, then to Nazism, fascism and war with other nations.
Why are they so afraid of China? Political analyst Marat Shibutov gives his explanation of the painful response of some Kazakhstanis to the strengthening of China’s presence in Kazakhstan. There was a long period in history, when Kazakhstan had no interaction with China, except diplomatic. - The Uighur and Dungan refugees, who at the end of the 19th century after the suppression of the uprisings, fled to Kazakhstan, became a negative factor. It is also important the fact that the leader of the Dungan uprising was then executed with the help of the extremely cruel execution of the “Lynche” - the execution of thousands of cuts. Then there was the uprising of the Kazakhs in XUAR, which was also suppressed. All this has created a negative image, - notes Shibutov.
