I think one of the things that they think about is that China has an immense population of 1.4 billion people. The Tibetan and Uighur homeland, Xinjiang, is seen as a space that could accommodate large populations of Han people from overcrowded areas in the east.
China is also interested, in the case of Xinjiang, in increasing access to central Asia by developing the new Silk Road—what they call the “one belt, one road development initiative”—building new markets and all of that. They're also interested in extracting the resources from the region. About 20% of the oil and around 20% of the natural gas in the country comes from this region.
However, in terms of dialogue and all of that, they do talk about how they're providing for Uighurs and that they give Uighurs help and assistance in going to school. They provide free schooling for them. They provide housing in some cases, as many Uighurs have been moved from their land into subsidized government housing. They see that as a net benefit for Uighurs. They see it as bringing them closer into the nation and also giving them these economic benefits. The process, I think, that they're trying to accomplish is an assimilation process, and also a process that will allow Han people and Han companies from other parts of China to have access to these resources.
I think you're right to note that it's done by force. There's not really any sort of dialogue. Uighurs don't have any choice but to accommodate these things. However, I think that from the state's perspective, they think that what they're doing is actually quite fair and quite just. They think that by moving into their lands, they're actually giving Uighurs and Tibetans opportunities to join the Han nation, to assimilate, to be pulled out of what they call their “backward” ways. Chinese people often refer to Tibetans and Uighurs as “backward” and those regions as “underdeveloped”. They think that bringing development is doing good.