Violent incidents have spread over the past week in a tense region of western China, just days before the fourth anniversary of a bloody clash between minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority that left almost 200 people dead and resulted in a major security clampdown.
China’s communist authorities have labeled some of the incidents — including one that left 35 people dead — as terrorist attacks, and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) has ordered that the situation be promptly dealt with to safeguard overall social stability, state media has reported. A state-run newspaper said yesterday that authorities had beefed up security in the region.
The latest violence reportedly took place on Friday in southern Xinjiang’s Hotan area. In one incident, more than 100 knife-wielding people mounted motorbikes in an attempt to storm the police station for Karakax county, the state-run Global Times reported.
Photo: AFP
In another, an armed mob staged an attack in the township of Hanairike, according to the news portal of the Xinjiang regional government. It did not say what sort of weapons the mob had.
Xinhua news agency reported a “violent attack” on Friday afternoon on a pedestrian street in downtown Hotan City. No casualties were reported in any of the incidents, which state media said were quickly brought under control.
The government’s news portal Tianshan Net said there were no civilian casualties in Hanairike.
Exiled Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, disputed those accounts, saying there were several protests in the Hotan area against what Uighurs see as China’s suppressive policies in Xinjiang.
The incidents on Friday in Xinjiang came after what the government described as attacks on police and other government buildings on Wednesday in eastern Xinjiang. The violence in Turpan Prefecture’s Lukqun township killed 35 people and was one of the bloodiest incidents since the July 5, 2009, unrest in the region’s capital city, Urumqi, killed nearly 200.
Xinjiang is home to a large population of minority Muslim Uighurs in a region that borders central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has been the scene of numerous violent acts in recent years.
Critics often attribute the violence in Xinjiang to what they say is Beijing’s oppressive and discriminatory policies. Many Uighurs complain that authorities impose tight restrictions on their religious and cultural life.
The Chinese government says it has invested billions of dollars in modernizing the oil- and gas-rich region and that it treats all ethnic groups equally.
Calls to local government agencies were either unanswered or were responded to by people who said they were unauthorized to speak to reporters.
State-run media reported that the incident on Wednesday started when knife-wielding assailants targeted police stations, a government building and a construction site — all symbols of Han authority.
Dilxat Raxit also disputed that account, saying the violence started when police forcefully raided homes at night.
Xinhua said 11 assailants were shot dead, and that two police officers were among the 24 people killed.
“This is a terrorist attack, there’s no question about that,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) said on Friday at a regular news briefing. “As to who masterminded it, local people are still investigating.”
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