Word: urumqi
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...Uighurs are a Turkic speaking, largely Islamic minority group concentrated in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. On July 5 several hundred Uighurs went on a rampage in Xinjiang's capital of Urumqi. The violence left 197 people dead, most of them members of China's majority Han ethnic group. The Chinese government has placed the blame on Reibya Kadeer, an outspoken Uighur businesswoman and human rights activist who spent nearly six years in a Chinese jail and now lives in exile in the U.S. (See pictures of the race riots in China's far west...
...stalwarts to senior (posts), Hu is now probably in a position to exert considerable influence on decisions even after he steps down in 2012 through his control of the Organization Bureau, which controls personnel appointments." For this reason, "There could be some sniping at Hu over crises like Urumqi," says Zweig, "but overall, (the Beijing government) is pretty stable...
...Given the level of desperation, says Bequelin, "the government needs to ask itself why it faces such opposition in ethnic areas and consider very seriously changing those policies." Otherwise, Xinjiang and similar regions like Tibet might prove inhospitable for all. The retired Han farmer in Urumqi says his faith in Xinjiang's future has diminished. "It's been developing really fast," he says. "But now I don't know. We've never had this before...
...seen bombings by suspected Uighur separatists and crackdowns by the Chinese authorities. At the time of last year's Beijing Olympics, an attack in the Xinjiang town of Kashgar killed 17 Chinese police officers. But the region's most serious outbreak of violence took place in its capital, Urumqi, over three days beginning July 5, when rioting left at least 156 people dead and more than 1,000 wounded...
Just as Beijing blamed the exiled Dalai Lama for masterminding protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, last year (a charge he has strongly denied), China's official media said the violence in Urumqi was fomented by members of the World Uyghur Congress, a group based in Washington. Its head, Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur entrepreneur who moved to the U.S. in 2005 after being jailed for five years by the Chinese, tells TIME, "I have nothing to do with the demonstrations...