The Great Transformations of Tibet and Xinjiang: a comparative analysis of rapid labour transitions in times of rapid growth in two contested minority regions of China
Rapid growth since the mid-1990s in the Tibetan and Uyghur areas in Western China has been associated with the rapid transition of the local (mostly Tibetan and Uyghur) labour forces out of the primary sector (mostly farming and herding) and into the tertiary sector (services). The TAR, for instance, went from being one of the most agrarian populations in China in the late 1990s, with 76 percent of its labour force employed in farming and herding in 1999 (almost entirely Tibetan), to 56 percent by 2008. These changes reflect the rapid disembedding of these minority populations from their traditional socio-economic foundations, the speed of which, for better or worse, often astounds even regular researchers in these areas, even those accustomed to equivalent changes elsewhere in China. These changes are analysed through a longitudinal and comparative trend analysis of aggregate employment, wage and nationa
