Deadly Ethnic Riots Pose Fresh Crisis for Beijing [UN? Human Rights Groups, State Dept?]

Wall St. Journal ^ | July 06th 2009

[Steelfish]

JULY 7, 2009

Deadly Ethnic Riots Pose Fresh Crisis for Beijing

By SHAI OSTER and GORDON FAIRCLOUGH

URUMQI, China -- Chinese security forces clamped down on large parts of this city of 2.4 million Monday, after long-simmering ethnic tensions erupted in rioting Sunday that authorities said left 156 dead and more than 1,000 injured.

The number of fatalities, if confirmed, would represent one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence in China in decades.

The government said more than 20,000 security personnel were deployed to Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region. Armored cars patrolled the city's streets and squads of paramilitary People's Armed Police marched through narrow alleyways where rioting had occurred. Late Monday, many streets were cordoned off and largely deserted.

The violence grew out of protests by Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking and mainly Muslim ethnic group, against what they see as discrimination against them by the Han Chinese majority.

[GonzoGOP]

The Muslims are going to find out that the ChiComs are not the US. The Chinese are ruthless and will simply crush their rebellion. And unlike Afghanistan in the 1980s there is no US to send them weapons and supplies for their rebellion. With Obama in command we are firmly on the side of the dictators.

[Zhang Fei]

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

[kromike]

With Obama in command we are firmly on the side of the dictators.

True. Yet, expect the "Deeply Concerned" template speech to make its appearance shortly, followed by hours & hours & hours of sleep-inducing droning blather.

[Wuli]

“The Muslims are going to find out that the ChiComs are not the US.”

These “Muslims” would be unrecognizable in most of the Middle East, in dress and in most major cultural habits, besides praying in a Mosque (less regularly than many Muslims).

When the Marxists took over China, the Uighurs were the majority, a very dominant majority, in the province where riots took place recently.

Since 1949 “economic development” in the province has predominately meant making room and jobs for ethnic Han Chinese.

The capital of the province, which was always at the center of Uighur cultural life, is now a Han-Chinese majority city. In our lifetime the Uighurs will become a small minority in their own land.

It’s a Chinese form of cultural genocide; they just do it slowly, over a long time, until the minority no longer exists.

The same thing is going on in Tibet.