ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses intensified pressure on Uyghurs and growing ethnic inequality in the post-1978 era. Many Uyghurs are worried about their financial security and demand government action to promote fairness and social justice. Unsurprisingly, they endorse economic communitarianism. Economic individualism has become increasingly irrelevant in advanced societies since the 1990s. Economic behavior has become a matter less of meeting survival needs and more of attaining subjective well-being. Financial security in the early stages of industrial capitalism is achieved through individual effort and hard work. It is now achieved through a society-wide safety net based on a progressive taxation system. Inequality is no longer glorified or even tolerated and is addressed through government intervention and redistribution. It is clear that economic communitarianism is more advanced and progressive than economic individualism. The Uyghur advocacy of economic communitarianism shows their conformity to economic beliefs among people in advanced societies.
