The curious case of the alleged attempted hijacking of a China Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi to Beijing by Uygur extremists last week aroused much interest in the foreign press. That was because so little information was released by the authorities. Some overseas media even questioned whether the incident was an attempt to justify further crackdowns on the Uygurs, a Muslim ethnic minority who live mainly in Xinjiang .
There is some justification for the foreign press' suspicions that something wasn't right. All reports of the foiled hijacking disappeared quickly from Xinhua's website. So did the indignant response of Xinjiang Party chairman Nur Bekri to those journalists who implied that it was a stunt engineered by the authorities. Now it's as if it never happened.
But the episode has thrown into stark relief the way the mainland's 55 recognised ethnic minorities are perceived by the Han Chinese majority. They are either sinister separatists, like the supposed hijackers, or exotic types in colourful costumes who are there to be photographed and pointed at as if they were rare animals in a zoo. Neither perception is flattering to the minorities themselves. More importantly, it's a damning indictment of the mainland's failure to integrate them.
Every March, it becomes very obvious that minorities are not regarded as 'real' Chinese by their compatriots, when the National People's Congress holds its annual meeting in Beijing. On the first day of the Congress, every mainland newspaper carries the obligatory photo of a group of ethnic minority women in their traditional costume and headgear, and lined up like performing seals outside the Great Hall of the People.
The NPC, though, is also a time when the lesser-known officials, like Mr Bekri, seek to demonstrate their loyalty and diligence to their superiors. His announcement of the alleged hijacking guaranteed him headlines at a highly auspicious time. It also confirmed the deep-seated prejudice of many Han Chinese that the Uygurs are a dangerous, desperate bunch responsible for much of the crime in eastern cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.
Of course, such stereotypes aren't just restricted to ethnic minorities. People from Sichuan are said to be sly and good with money, Shanghainese women are domineering princesses, while those from Henan are frequently typecast in TV dramas as criminals. But at least they are on TV, unlike minorities who never feature as characters in popular shows or movies.
