CHINA’S ETHNIC MINORITIES

A YEAR AFTER XINJIANG RIOTS, ETHNIC TENSIONS REMAIN

Austin Ramzy

Time, July 5, 2010

One year ago, the streets of Urumqi were awash in blood. On July 5, 2009, hundreds of young men belonging to the predominantly Muslim Uighur ethnic minority rioted, beating and stabbing members of the Han majority on the streets of the capital of China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang. Two days later, Han residents took to the streets and, armed with clubs and knives, took revenge on the city's Uighur community. All told, 197 people, mostly Han, were killed, and some 1,700 were wounded.

It was China's worst ethnic violence in years. The central government blamed the bloodshed on outside agitators, namely overseas Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, who has denied any involvement. But the ease with which the city's running racial tensions exploded into mass violence made it clear that China had some deep problems within its own borders. In the past year it has turned to both economic incentives and a leadership shake-up to rebuild the peace in Xinjiang.

Urumqi's Communist Party secretary Li Zhi was sacked in September following public protests over a series of suspected syringe attacks that targeted the city's Han population. Wang Lequan, a hard-liner and ally of President Hu Jintao who ran Xinjiang as Communist Party secretary for 16 years, was removed from office in April. Wang was replaced by former Hunan party secretary Zhang Chunxian, who has a reputation as a savvy politician and has advocated using the Internet to better understand public opinion. But while Wang is out, the government's tough security measures that he helped install in the far west aren't expected to change. The security budget for Xinjiang is expected to nearly double this year to $423 million, the official China Daily reported. On June 24, Chinese authorities announced they had cracked a terrorist cell that was responsible for a 2008 attack in the southwestern Xinjiang city of Kashgar that killed 17 border police. Ten suspects were arrested.

(...) [artículo aquí]