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Hu quits G8 because of Xinjiang riots
The Chinese president flies home from Pisa as more troops prepare to take on protestors
Chinese president Hu Jintao has flown home from Italy, where he was due to take part in the G8 summit starting today, because of the worsening ethnic riots in Xinjiang province. Early today, a massive security presence was reported in the regional capital Urumqi as troops, with bayonets fixed, joined riot police in an attempt to quell the continuing violence between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese.
President Hu was sightseeing with his wife in Pisa when it was suddenly decided he should be at home. He hopes to return for the summit in L'Aquila on Thursday.
The situation in Urumqi worsened on Tuesday afternoon when groups of Han Chinese went on the rampage, smashing shops and stalls belonging to the Muslim minority and shouting "Down with Uighurs".
This came in response to an earlier protest by Uighurs, mainly women complaining that husbands and sons had been wrongly arrested following the riots on Sunday in which officials say 156 people died.
The tension between the western region's incoming Han Chinese and the native Uighurs has been growing for several years. What lit the fuse for the recent clashes was a fight that broke out on June 26 at the Xuri toy factory in Shaoguan, thousands of miles away in Guangdong province.
The brawl resulted in two Uighurs being beaten to death by Han Chinese. But no one was arrested for the killings - which was why the Uighurs in Urumqi were protesting.
The Chinese government takes a hard line with the Uighurs. They claim that separatists in the region have links with al-Qaeda and on this occasion have blamed the Washington-based exile group, the World Uighur Congress (WUC), for organising the riots. The WUC, founded by Rebiya Kadeer, has denied any involvement.
President Hu has a special interest because he is a former party leader of Tibet, the province to the south of Xinjiang where there were riots in the capital Lhasa last year. Hu's government has promised to bring ethnic harmony and stability in western China. As the BBC's correspondent in Urumqi, Quentin Somerville, points out today, it is a guarantee that increasingly lacks credibility. ·
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Hu Jintao has flown home from Italy, where he was due to take part in the G8 summit starting today, because of the worsening ethnic riots in Xinjiang province. Early today, a massive security presence was reported in the regional capital Urumqi as troops, with bayonets fixed, joined riot police in an attempt to quell the continuing violence between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese.
What have the Muslims done after 9/11 to deserve this?
Never in all my time reading 'comments' have I read anything based on an almost complete ignorance of the situation being discussed. I can only assume M Jose is intending to be provocative, if not, then he must acquaint himself with both sides of the argument and endeavour to become more objective. He is correct that many Uighurs do not respect the Han Chinese, but ignores the possibility there may be reasons. The entire situation is sad, since the overwhelming majority of Uighurs and Han Chinese are genuinely decent people.
I think it is good to see the Chinese standing up for their rights and insisting on their cultural uniqueness. The Uighurs don't respect the Chinese, they should be grateful they are allowed to stay in the country. The Uighurs should learn to speak Chinese, it is only sense. Good for the Han Chinese, they should be proud of their heritage and who they are. Confucius would be proud of them.