Total population | |
---|---|
Various estimates | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Bishkek, Naryn [1] | |
Languages | |
Chinese; many learning Russian as a second language; [2] Kyrgyz among ethnic Kyrgyz immigrants; Dungan | |
Religion | |
Chinese folk religion, Buddhism, Islam, [3] atheism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Overseas Chinese, Dungan people |
Chinese people in Kyrgyzstan have been growing in numbers since the late 1980s. [1] 2008 police statistics showed 60,000 Chinese nationals living in the country. [4] However, the 2009 census showed just 1,813 people who declared themselves to be of Chinese ethnicity. [5]
During the Mongol Empire, Han Chinese were moved to Central Asian areas like Besh Baliq, Almaliq, and Samarqand by the Mongols where they worked as artisans and farmers. [6] The Daoist Chinese master Qiu Chuji travelled through Kyrgyzstan to meet Genghis Khan in Afghanistan.
As China and Kyrgyzstan are neighbouring countries, there is a long history of population movements between the lands that today make up their national territories. The Dungan people (Chinese-speaking Muslims from Northwest China) fled to Kyrgyzstan in 1877 after the failure of their uprising against the Qing Dynasty; they settled in Semirechie as well as the Ferghana Valley. In the early 20th century, Uyghurs, Dungans, and Han Chinese alike came to the Ferghana Valley as migrant workers in coal mines, cotton mills, and farms; some settled down permanently in Kyrgyzstan. The agricultural failures incurred during the 1950s Great Leap Forward spurred many people from Xinjiang to flee to the Soviet Union, including Kyrgyzstan, to escape hardships in China. However, as the Sino-Soviet split worsened, the border was closed and such migration made impossible. [7]
Migration would begin again in the late 1980s, centred on Chüy Region, Bishkek and its surroundings; people from Xinjiang would come to rent land, and grow vegetables. Others came as cross-border traders, selling Chinese alcoholic beverages and buying up clothing—especially coats made from Karakul sheep pelts—for sale in Xinjiang. [1] In the early 2000s, the majority of PRC nationals in Kyrgyzstan were of Uyghur ethnicity, but since then, an increasing number of Han Chinese have been arriving. [8]
Kyrgyzstan and other post-Soviet states are popular destinations for people from Xinjiang because they offer the opportunity to learn Russian, which has become important in urban job markets such as Urumqi. Recent migrants state they chose Kyrgyzstan as their destination, rather than join the large numbers of Chinese people in Russia or Kazakhstan, because Kyrgyzstan is cheaper, and they perceive public safety as being better in Kyrgyzstan than in Russia where there have been cases of attacks on migrant workers. [2]
Chinese traders often employ local Dungans as assistants. [9] Kyrgyz university students of all ethnicities also often seek out employment with Chinese traders, using their job as an opportunity to learn the Chinese language. [10] On the outskirts of Bishkek, there is a large Chinese market, described as a "city within a city"; it has its own hospital, mosque, and apartment buildings. [3]
Migrants from China also work in the construction sector, especially on housing projects for low-income people. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev once gave a speech praising the diligent Chinese workers and contrasting them harshly with local workers, whom he described as "lazy"; however, his speech provoked some resentment from average citizens. Construction company bosses also prefer Chinese workers because they are seen as less litigious than local workers, especially in the case of those living in the country illegally. [4]
There is a popular perception that many Chinese migrants seek to marry Kyrgyz women in order to obtain Kyrgyz citizenship; local people, especially the elderly, object to the women marrying men who are not Muslims. [8] However, such marriages actually remain relatively rare. [7]
Kyrgyz people complain that the Chinese specialists who run factories are secretive and do not wish to train local people how to operate the equipment, just keeping them as low-level manual workers. [8] Kyrgyzstani workers also blame unskilled Chinese migrants for taking jobs away from local people and thus forcing them to migrate to Russia to find work, where they themselves face the danger of violence motivated by xenophobia. [3] Kyrgyz merchants have also organised protests against the Chinese traders. [11]
There have been numerous incidents of xenophobic violence against Chinese migrants by ethnic Kyrgyz, including one in June 2002 which resulted in three deaths. [3] During the 2010 riots in Bishkek which overthrew Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government, the Guoying Center, a prominent symbol of Chinese traders' presence in Kyrgyz's capital city, also became a target for mobs, who looted shops and burned the building. [12] The Kyrgyz also violently targeted Uyghurs and Dungans during the same riots. [13]
The Kyrgyzstan Overseas Chinese Newspaper (Chinese :吉尔吉斯斯坦华侨报 / Jí'ěrjísīsītǎn huáqiáo bào / Хырхызстан Хуачё бо) began publication in 2006 as a semi-monthly newspaper; it had a circulation of roughly 3,000 as of 2009 [update] . It is printed in Xinjiang by the same department which publishes the Xinjiang Economic Daily . [14]
Bishkek, formerly known as Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative centre of the Chüy Region. Bishkek is situated near the border with Kazakhstan and has a population of 1,074,075, as of 2021. Bishkek is the primate city of Kyrgyzstan—it is the sole metropolis in the country, and about 17% of all inhabitants of the country live in Bishkek's metropolitan area.
The history of the Kyrgyz people and the land now called Kyrgyzstan goes back more than 3,000 years. Although geographically isolated by its mountainous location, it had an important role as part of the historical Silk Road trade route. Turkic nomads, who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states such as the First and Second Turkic Khaganates, have inhabited the country throughout its history. In the 13th century, Kyrgyzstan was conquered by the Mongols; subsequently it regained independence but was invaded by Kalmyks, Manchus, and Uzbeks. In 1876, it became part of the Russian Empire, remaining in the USSR as the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic after the Russian Revolution. Following Mikhael Gorbachev's democratic reforms in the USSR, in 1990 pro-independence candidate Askar Akayev was elected president of the SSR. On 31 August 1991, Kyrgyzstan declared independence from Moscow, and a democratic government was subsequently established.
Dungan is a term used in territories of the former Soviet Union to refer to a group of Muslim people of Hui origin. Turkic-speaking peoples in Xinjiang Province in Northwestern China also sometimes refer to Hui Muslims as Dungans. In both China and the former Soviet republics where they reside, however, members of this ethnic group call themselves Hui because Dungans are descendants of historical Hui groups that migrated to Central Asia.
Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia, lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the capital and largest city. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and China to the east and southeast. Ethnic Kyrgyz make up the majority of the country's almost 8 million people, with about 1,000,000 Kyrgyzstani people born ever 2 years, and followed by significant minorities of Uzbeks and Russians.. The nation and people are known for their hospitable and caring attitude, and they are famous for it.
Osh is the second-largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". It is the oldest city in the country and has served as the administrative center of Osh Region since 1939. The city has an ethnically mixed population of 322,164 in 2021, comprising Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Koreans, and other smaller ethnic groups.
The Tulip Revolution or First Kyrgyz Revolution led to President of Kyrgyzstan Askar Akayev's fall from power. The revolution began after parliamentary elections on February 27 and March 13, 2005. The revolutionaries alleged corruption and authoritarianism by Akayev, his family and supporters. Akayev fled to Kazakhstan and then to Russia. On April 4, 2005, at the Kyrgyz embassy in Moscow, Akayev signed his resignation statement in the presence of a Kyrgyz parliamentary delegation. The resignation was ratified by the Kyrgyz interim parliament on April 11, 2005.
Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva is a Kyrgyz diplomat and politician who served as the President of Kyrgyzstan from 7 April 2010 until 1 December 2011, becoming the first female Central Asian head of state. She was sworn in on July 3, 2010, after acting as interim leader following the 2010 April Revolution, which led to the ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. She previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as head of the parliamentary caucus for the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan. She is also known for the persecution of human rights activist Azimzhan Askarov and the failed policy that led to the clashes of June 2010.
Kurmanbek Saliyevich Bakiyev is a Kyrgyz politician who served as the second president of Kyrgyzstan, from 2005 to 2010. Large opposition protests in April 2010 led to the takeover of government offices, forcing Bakiyev to flee the country.
The culture of Kyrgyzstan has a wide mix of ethnic groups and cultures, with the Kyrgyz being the majority group. It is generally considered that there are 40 Kyrgyz clans, symbolized by the 40-rayed yellow sun in the center of the flag. The red lines inside the sun visualise the crown of a yurt, the traditional dwelling of nomadic farmers, once the main population of the Central Asian area. The dominant religion of Kyrgyzstan is Sunni Islam (91%). The Russian population is Russian Orthodox.
Alikbek Jeshenkulov is the former Foreign Minister of Kyrgyzstan (2005–2007) and now the leader of the oppositional party "Za spravedlivost".
Daniar Toktogulovich Usenov is a Kyrgyz banker and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan from October 2009 to April 2010. He previously served as Mayor of Bishkek.
Kyrgyzstan–Russia relations are the relations between the two countries, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Russia has an embassy in Bishkek and a consulate in Osh, and Kyrgyzstan has an embassy in Moscow, a consulate in Ekaterinburg, and a vice-consulate in Novosibirsk.
China–Kyrgyzstan relations are the bilateral relationship between China and Kyrgyzstan.
The number of Chinese people in Kazakhstan varies through the centuries. There have been various migrations of ethnic minorities from China to Kazakhstan in the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as that of the Dungan people (Hui) fleeing Qing Dynasty forces after a failed 1862–1877 rebellion in Northwest China or the Uyghur and Kazakh exodus from Xinjiang during the 1950s Great Leap Forward; however, their descendants do not consider themselves to be "Chinese people". The modern wave of migration from China only dates back to the early 1990s.
There is a population of Uyghurs in Kyrgyzstan, who mostly came to the country in three separate migrations throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. According to official statistics, they make up about 0.9% of the national population.
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan, or Uyghur Kazakhstanis, form the country's fifth-largest ethnic group, according to the 2009 census.
The 2010 Kyrgyz Revolution, also known as the Second Kyrgyz Revolution, the Melon Revolution, the April Events or officially as the People's April Revolution, began in April 2010 with the ousting of Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev in the capital Bishkek. It was followed by increased ethnic tension involving Kyrgyz people and Uzbeks in the south of the country, which escalated in June 2010. The violence ultimately led to the consolidation of a new parliamentary system in Kyrgyzstan.
The Sart Kalmyks are an ethnic group of the Oirats, who live in Issyk Kul Province, Kyrgyzstan. Their population is estimated to be c. 12,000. They are descendants of the Ööled tribes, who moved to the territory of the Russian Empire after the failure of the Dungan revolt, some part inhabited the area during the rule of the Zunghar Khanate. They used to speak Sart Kalmyk, a dialect of the Oirat language, but have largely switched to the Kyrgyz language by now. As a result of their long co-inhabitance with Kyrgyz people, they have largely incorporated into the Kyrgyz nation, though some Kyrgyz still consider them to be distinct. Today the majority of Sart Kalmyks also identify themselves as Kyrgyz, or as "almost Kyrgyz". They belong to the Muslim faith.
Huimin bao is a socio-political newspaper published in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Named after the Hui people, it is the world's only Dungan language newspaper.
Sadyr Nurgojo uulu Japarov is a Kyrgyz politician who has been serving as the president of Kyrgyzstan since 28 January 2021. He previously held the post of acting prime minister of Kyrgyzstan in the 2020 interim government, following the resignation of President Sooronbay Jeenbekov. Japarov also became acting president of Kyrgyzstan after Jeenbekov's resignation, but resigned himself on 14 November 2020 to run for the 2021 presidential election, in which he was elected to succeed the acting president, Talant Mamytov.