While comfortably sitting in front of a computer screen in the Times Online London offices, columnist Michael Binyon has decided to inform me that my home here in Xinjiang, China is going to be “explosive” in 2009.  While my family back at home may find this to be disconcerting news, I personally just tend to wonder how much he or many other journalist really know about this region.

“What in the world will go wrong this year?…It is always the unexpected that has politicians, journalists and the UN Security Council scrambling. It will be the same in 2009. We will suddenly know the names of small towns caught up in a new conflict zone, understand the ethnic balance of warring communities or recapitulate forgotten history to show why the eruption of violence was always on the cards.”

He then goes on to make his armchair predictions about places such as Azerbaijan, the Balkans, Thailand, the Philippines, etc., citing events and “indicators” about which I admit to having no knowledge.  Then he decides to tell me about my home:

“China, too, has ethnic rebellions. There seems little chance that Tibetans will again be able to defy Beijing. But in the remote north west the Uigurs, non-Han Muslims, are fiercely opposed to Chinese rule and further terrorist attacks in Xinjiang could provoke a violent response from the Chinese Government.”

I can’t speak for all of Xinjiang, I understand, but during my 3 years of living and traveling throughout this province I have never once felt unsafe or subject to attack and this includes my recent travels to Kashgar, the site of last year’s terrorist attacks.  Are there hard feelings?  Yes.  Tensions?  Of course.  But are all of these people “fiercely opposed” to China?  Such an absolute statement is absurd.  Today I had lunch at a Uyghur friend’s home and during our visit one of his Chinese friends dropped by for a nice chat.  I work with both Uyghur and Han teachers while teaching Uyghur and Han students.  I personally take offense on behalf of all these people when our home gets mentioned alongside the Gaza strip or Georgia.

Maybe I’m ignorantly optimistic, but I’d like to think that I have a better finger on the pulse of this region than Mr. Binyon over there in his London offices.  Just please do me a favor, anybody who reads this, and don’t believe everything you hear in the news.