You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
China-Japan-Koreas
China: At Least 140 Killed During Riots in West
2009-07-06
Violent street battles killed at least 140 people and injured 828 others in the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit China's volatile western Xinjiang region in decades, and officials said Monday the death toll was expected to rise.

Security forces have clamped down on the city of Urumqi and set up checkpoints to catch any fleeing rioters, state media reported, after tensions between ethnic Muslim Uighur people and China's Han majority erupted into riots.

Rioters on Sunday overturned barricades, attacking vehicles and houses, and clashed violently with police, according to media and witness accounts. State television aired footage showing protesters attacking and kicking people on the ground. Other people, who appeared to be Han Chinese, sat dazed with blood pouring down their faces.

There was little immediate explanation for how so many people died. The government blamed Uighur exiles for stoking the unrest. Exile groups said the violence started only after police began violently cracking down on a peaceful protest.
Posted by:ed

#9  See also PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > WHY RED CHINA FEARS ISLAM?

* BHARAT RAKSHAK > JAPAN MAY DEPLOY MORE TROOPS TO DISPUTED CHINA SEA REGIONS [Daoyus] TO INCREASE ITS CONTROL [JSDF increase size of Younaguni Island Garrison just across from TAIWAN]. MANY WMF POSTERS are viewing this move as an attempt by Japan to geopol isolate = contain China as well as to MILPOL SHORE UP OR SUPPORT TAIWANESE SOVEREIGNTY AGZ MAINLAND CHINA [Japanese mil protection of TAIWAN agz CHIN]???

* WAKK > JAPANESE GOVT. GETS TOUGH WITH RUSSIA OVER KURILS ISLANDS. Tokyo = Japanese Diet unilater passes NEW LEGISLATION PROCLAIMING SOUTHERN KURILS/KURILES AS AN "INTEGRAL PART" OF JAPAN-NIPPON.

OTHER > JAPAN has also repor agreed to de facto purchase the US THAAD BMD SYSTEM + closely coordinate wid USA on ASIA-SPECIFIC TMD-RMD.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-07-06 22:21  

#8  At last check its repor up to 156 dead.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-07-06 18:53  

#7  China will have to address the Xinjiang situation urgently. They've been too focused on the Eastern part of China. Most likely scenario will be based on the "make love, not war" gambit. All they need to do is is abolish the "one child" policy, for Han in the area. The policy doesn't apply to minorities, i.e Uigurs. Xinjiang is about 45% Uyghur. Han is over 40%
As Mark Steyn endlessly reiterates, "it's the demographics, stupid" It's the most potent weapon in the islamists armory, witness the takeover of Europe.
I'm also guessing that the majority of those killed and injured would have been Han.
Posted by: tipper   2009-07-06 15:58  

#6  and how will the Obama Administration play this?

probably they will be 'concerned' or maybe 'very concerned'
Posted by: Lord garth   2009-07-06 15:18  

#5  Radio Free Asia has an article on the anti-Uighur pogrom in Guangdong:

Three youths belonging to the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group and now under Chinese government protection after ethnic clashes in the southern province of Guangdong said fighting began when Han Chinese laborers stormed the dormitories of Uyghur colleagues, beating them with clubs, bars, and machetes.

The deadly fighting between Turkic-speaking, Muslim Uyghurs and Han Chinese at the Lacewood toy factory in Guangdong's Shaoguan city began late June 25 and lasted into the early hours of the following day.

Authorities said two people died and 118 were injured in the clashes, which were sparked by an online report that Uyghur migrant workers at the factory had raped two Chinese women. A Chinese man is now detained for "forging" that report.

Excerpts of interviews with the three men, conducted on a single, hidden cell phone, follow. All spoke on condition of anonymity, and while their accounts cannot be independently verified, they are consistent:

Uyghur Man 1: Who are you?

RFA: Radio Free Asia's Uyghur service. We broadcast in the Uyghur language.

Uyghur Man 1: We do not have any freedom here. If they hear us talking on the phone, they will punish us.

RFA: Where were you when the brawl happened?

Uyghur Man 1: We were taking our meal break after the night shift, when the day shifters [Uyghurs] were sleeping in their dorms. We saw them [Han Chinese] storm into their dorms, pull them out from their beds, and start beating them, hacking and burning.

RFA: What time was it when this happened?

Uyghur Man 1: It was around 12:30 a.m. or 1 a.m.

RFA: How many people stormed in?

Uyghur Man 1: Thousands of Chinese, and 800 Uyghurs were there.


A long and illuminating interview transcript follows.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2009-07-06 14:05  

#4  The violence will continue until the Han eradicate the Uighurs from their homeland, which should take another 100-200 years.

My feeling is that China's Final Solution will take a lot less time than a century. Heck - ordinary Chinese literally hacked to pieces 40,000 Chinese Christians during the run-up to the Boxer Rebellion using little more than machetes and axes.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2009-07-06 14:01  

#3  This is the sequel to riots in Guangdong. Short version: factory boss brings in Uighurs to work alongside Han because they're cheaper. Uighurs start stealing from Han because they feel it's justified payback. Han get mad about it. Uighurs rape a Han girl, Han go after Uighurs. Uighurs retaliate with knives and bats, and then the Han do what they always do when there's a fight with a foreigner, call in EVERYBODY. The Uighurs were defeated and 150 or so went to the hospital (got the snot beaten out of them.) The violence will continue until the Han eradicate the Uighurs from their homeland, which should take another 100-200 years. They just bulldozed a huge historic district in the Uighur capital a few weeks ago in order to build concrete apartment blocks for Han settlers.
Posted by: gromky   2009-07-06 13:44  

#2  The Chinese are dealing with a restless Caucasian (Turkic) minority. The rest of the world will avert its eyes, since Caucasians are fair game.

Posted by: Zhang Fei   2009-07-06 12:29  

#1  I know most of y'all have no use for the Uighurs (mostly Muslim, and some really nasty Muslims among them) but do recognize that 'State Television' (Chinese equivalent of our CNN etc. only even more so) is the source, and do remember how the Chinese government handles even peaceful protests (e.g Tiannemen Square). My understanding is that this protest was intended to be peaceful, and to get some public attention on their grievances (many of which I find legitimate - East Turkestan is treated by the Chinese government in many ways similar to Tibet but with a different religious underpinning.) Why and how that evolved into this disaster I do not yet know, but I bet it is not a 'simple' answer.
Posted by: Glenmore   2009-07-06 09:57  

00:00