A Want of Sincerity

We need more genuine ambassadors of understanding between the Han and the minorities ... outstanding individuals who are fluent in Mandarin, Uighur, Tibetan, Mongolian (why not? Just because they haven't been so troublesome ...) and other minority languages, who are conversant in the cultures of the minorities as well ... we need such people to apply themselves, in a spirit of genuine goodwill and fraternity, to promoting communication and understanding, especially on the part of the overwhelming majority towards the minorities; to resolving disputes peaceably and profitably for all, to eliminating misunderstanding and miscommunication. Hopefully, with enough of these people around, a genuine spirit of respect and friendship can replace the half-grudging, half-patronising, state-enforced tolerance that often prevails at present.
The state, whether represented by Beijing or Urumqi, is making an admirable decision by enforcing tolerance and forcibly de-emphasising the ethnic aspect to the recent unrest, even if its means are sometimes a little crude. Perhaps its general blockheadedness and lack of sensitivity towards the western regions were in no small part responsible for the riots ... but I believe the government is being genuine when it speaks of China's fifty-six (officially-recognised) ethnic groups being part of the same big family, and whatever discrimination there has been has, unfortunately, been partly due to stark geopolitical reality and mostly due to the natural lack of sensitivity of an overwhelming more-than-98% majority towards the remaining less-than-2% in their midst.
I describe it as "natural", only in the sense that it is to be expected given the inherent laziness of the human mind to comprehend and actively accommodate those different from ourselves, especially when they are so few and, usually, far in between. It is by no means a desirable state of affairs. Government-enforced tolerance can only hold so far and achieve so much. When the only thing stopping (some of) Urumqi's Han and Uighur inhabitants from beating each other up to a pulp is a line of paramilitary policemen, something cannot be right. What if one day the police were no logner there, or split along ethnic lines too? And even if the police were there all the time, reliable and unfailing in their duties, would you want to be part of such a society? Where your Uighur neighbour hates you, no, hates an abstraction that he identifies you with, and wishes to beat you to a pulp just because you happen to be Han?
What is needed is genuine understanding, tolerance and accommodation, not the patronising toleration epitomised by propaganda slogans. And such ambassadors of understanding would help greatly in this. By speaking, fluently and humbly, the tongues of the minorities, they are showing by their deeds that they respect the differences between the minorities and the Han. By actively immersing themselves in and acquainting themselves with minority cultures, they are irrefutably demonstrating that they respect these cultures as equals to their own, helping eliminate, or at least greatly reduce, any perception of arrogance or insensitivity. By encouraging and initiating conversation between the ethnic groups, they will help build trust; and once that happens the problems at hand will become much easier to resolve.
At the very least, the ethnic / religious dimension, which is potentially explosive but not very relevant to the solution of the essentially economic issues that drove the recent riots and general resentment amongst the minorities, would be neutralised and taken out of the picture. Economic underdevelopment and lack of economic opportunity in the minority-populated western regions is a serious issue of pressing concern. It would be an unqualified tragedy if the issue is manipulated along ethno-religious faultlines to create an ugly and most unwanted ethnic conflagration, while the issue at the heart of the matter remained unaddressed.