Scattered mobs of Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese roamed the streets and beat passers-by yesterday as the capital of China’s Xinjiang region degenerated into communal violence, prompting the government to impose a curfew in the aftermath of a riot that killed at least 156 people.
Members of the Uighur ethnic group attacked people near Urumqi’s railway station and women in headscarves protested the arrests of husbands and sons in another part of the city. Meanwhile, for much of the afternoon, a mob of 1,000 mostly young Han Chinese holding clubs and chanting “Defend the country” tore through streets trying to get to a Uighur neighborhood until they were repulsed by police firing tear gas.
Panic and anger bubbled up amid the suspicion. In some neighborhoods, Han Chinese armed themselves with pieces of lumber and shovels to defend themselves.
PHOTO: AP
People bought up bottled water out of fear, as one resident said, that “the Uighurs might poison the water.”
The outbursts happened despite swarms of paramilitary and riot police enforcing a dragnet that state media said led to the arrest of more than 1,400 participants in Sunday’s riot, the worst ethnic violence in the often tense region in decades.
Trying to control the message, the government has slowed mobile phone and Internet services, blocked Twitter — whose servers are overseas — and censored Chinese social networking and news sites. It also accused Uighurs living in exile of inciting Sunday’s riot. State media coverage, however, carried graphic footage and pictures of the unrest — showing mainly Han Chinese victims and stoking the anger.
PHOTO: EPA
Wang Lequan (王樂泉), Xinjiang’s Communist Party secretary, declared a curfew in all but name, imposing traffic restrictions and ordering people off the streets from 9pm yesterday to 8am today “to avoid further chaos.”
Sunday’s riot started as a peaceful demonstration by Uighurs over a deadly fight at a factory in eastern China between Han Chinese and Uighur workers. It then spiraled out of control, as mainly Uighur groups beat people and set fire to vehicles and shops belonging to Han Chinese.
After retreating from the tear gas, some among the Han Chinese mob were met by Urumqi’s Communist Party leader Li Zhi, who climbed atop a police vehicle and started chanting with the crowd.
Li pumped his fists, beat his chest, and urged the crowd to strike down Rebiya Kadeer, a 62-year-old Uighur leader exiled in the US whom Chinese leaders accuse of being behind the riots.
About 200 people, mostly women, took to the streets in another neighborhood, wailing for the release of their sons and husbands arrested in the crackdown and confronting lines of paramilitary police. The women said police came through their neighborhood on Monday night and strip-searched men to check for cuts and other signs of fighting before hauling them away.
The protesters briefly scuffled with paramilitary police, who pushed them back with long sticks before both sides retreated.
Groups of 10 or so Uighur men with bricks and knives attacked Han Chinese passers-by and shop-owners at midday outside the city’s southern railway station, until police chased them off, witnesses said.
Li, the Communist Party official, told a news conference that more than 1,000 people had been detained as of early yesterday and suggested more arrests were under way.
The official Xinhua news agency said earlier yesterday that 1,434 suspects had been arrested, and that checkpoints had been set up to stop rioters from escaping.
Officials at the news conference said they could not give a breakdown of how many of the dead were Uighurs and how many were Han.
Sunday’s riot started as a demonstration by 1,000 to 3,000 people protesting the deaths of Uighur workers killed in a brawl in the southern city of Shaoguan last month.
Also See: ANALYSIS: Beijing afraid fractures in Xinjiang could split China
Also See: PRC asks Spain to stop inquiry
Also See: Uighur leader wants probes into Xinjiang
Also See: EDITORIAL: Xinjiang and Taiwan’s silence
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique