Unrest in China
It's not just peasants and Tibetians who are dissatisfied with policy decisions in China. How would your students describe the causes of the unrest? How would they identify the cleavages involved? How would they evaluate the capacity of the state to deal with the dissatisfaction?The New York Times published this story late on 5 July 2009.
Riots in Western China Amid Ethnic Tension
At least 1,000 rioters clashed with the police on Sunday in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot.
The rioting broke out Sunday afternoon in a large market area of Urumqi, the capital of... Xinjiang, and lasted for several hours before riot police officers and paramilitary or military troops locked down the Uighur quarter of the city...
At least 3 Han Chinese and one police officer were killed in the rioting and 20 people were injured, according to Xinhua, the official news agency. Dozens of Uighur men were led into nearby police stations with their hands behind their backs and shirts pulled over their heads, one witness said...
Many Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers), a Turkic-speaking Muslim group, resent rule by the Han Chinese, and Chinese security forces have tried to keep oil-rich Xinjiang under tight control since the 1990s, when cities there were struck by waves of protests, riots and bombings. Last summer, attacks on security forces took place in several cities in Xinjiang; the Chinese government blamed separatist groups.,,
Uighurs are the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang but are a minority in Urumqi, where Han Chinese make up more than 70 percent of the population of two million or so. The Chinese government has encouraged Han migration to the city and other parts of Xinjiang, fueling resentment among the Uighurs. Urumqi is a deeply segregated city, with Han Chinese there rarely venturing into the Uighur quarter...
From Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency: Death toll in Xinjiang riot rises to 140The death toll has risen to 140 following Sunday night's riot in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the regional government said Monday...
At least 828 people were injured in the deadly violence that erupted Sunday night.
Rioters burned 261 motor vehicles, including 190 buses, at least 10 taxis and two police cars...
From Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency: Commentary: Riot a catastrophe for Xinjiang
Sunday's deadly riot in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region bruised the beautiful city of Urumqi and shocked the world, barely 16 months after the nightmarish Lhasa violence that still clings to many Chinese minds...
Given its unique location and demography, the northwestern Chinese region has been a target of separatist and terrorist actions, particularly in the past two years...
Police said that in the first half of 2008, five terrorist rings were busted in Xinjiang and 82 suspected terrorists detained...
Now the three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism are at work again. An initial investigation showed a separatist group made use of the June 26 brawl involving workers from Xinjiang in a toy factory in the southern Guangdong Province to foment Sunday's unrest and sabotage the country. Behind the scheme was the separatist World Uyghur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer.
Government investigations indicate that Sunday's unrest was controlled and instigated from abroad...
Labels: capacity, China, cleavages, political integration
posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:46 AM
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