More protests follow Chinese mob crackdown

Mobs of thugs roamed the streets attacking the vulnerable in Xinjiang’s capital today as riots that left more than 150 people dead degenerated into communal violence.

Members of the Muslim Uighur ethnic group attacked people near Urumqi’s railway station.

Meanwhile 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 district until they were repulsed by police firing teargas.

Panic and anger bubbled up amid the suspicion. In some areas, Han Chinese - China’s majority ethnic group – armed themselves with pieces of wood and shovels. People bought up bottled water out of fear, as one resident said, that “the Uighurs might poison the water”.

The outbursts happened despite a curfew and swarms of paramilitary and riot police arresting 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 and 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.

The violence is a further embarrassment for a Chinese leadership preparing for the 60th anniversary of communist rule in October and calling for the creation of a “harmonious society” to celebrate. Years of rapid development have failed to smooth over the ethnic fault lines in Xinjiang, where the Uighurs have watched growing numbers of Han Chinese move in.

Wang Lequan, Xinjiang’s Communist Party secretary, declared a curfew in all but name, imposing traffic restrictions and ordering people off the streets overnight “to avoid further chaos”.

“It is needed for the overall situation. I hope people pay great attention and act immediately,” he said in an announcement broadcast on Xinjiang television.

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 spiralled out of control, as mainly Uighur groups beat people and set fire to vehicles and shops belonging to Han Chinese.

After retreating from the teargas, some among the Han Chinese mob were met by Urumqi’s Communist Party leader Li Zhi, who climbed on 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 United States whom Chinese leaders accuse of being behind the riots.

Elsewhere in the city today about 200 people, mostly women in traditional headscarves, took to the streets, wailing for the release of their sons and husbands in the crackdown and confronting lines of paramilitary police.

The protesters briefly scuffled with paramilitary police, who pushed them back before both sides retreated.

Groups of 10 or so Uighurs with bricks and knives attacked Han Chinese passers-by and shop-owners outside the city’s southern railway station, until police ran them off.

The official Xinhua News Agency said that 1,434 suspects had been arrested, and that checkpoints had been set up to stop rioters from escaping.

The disturbances in Xinjiang carry reminders of the widespread anti-Chinese protests that shook Tibet last year and have left large parts of western China living with police checkpoints and tightened security.