Asia-Pacific News
China's Hu urges stability, links riot to terrorism (Roundup)
Jul 9, 2009, 10:52 GMT
Chinese soldiers guard in front of the closed Grand Bazaar in an Uyghur neighbourhood in Urumqi, China, 09 July 2009. This week\'s ethnic riots in western Xinjiang province are the deadliest on record since the end of the Cultural Revolution in the 1970s. EPA/OLIVER WEIKEN
Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday called for stability in far western region of Xinjiang and said organizers of recent rioting had links to 'separatism' and international terrorism.
Stability in Xinjiang was the 'most important and pressing task' facing the government, Hu said in a statement following an emergency meeting of the nine-member standing committee of the ruling Communist Party's Politburo.
Hu and the other leaders said rioting in the regional capital, Urumqi, was a 'serious violent crime which was masterminded and organized by the 'three forces' of terrorism, separatism and extremism at home and abroad.'
They promised 'severe punishment' for rioters 'in accordance with the law,' said the statement issued by state media.
The remarks were Hu's first since he returned to China from Italy on Wednesday after cancelling his attendance at the Group of Eight summit to address the ethnic conflict in Xinjiang.
The leaders ordered local authorities to 'isolate and crack down on the tiny few' accused of organizing the violence and 'unify and educate the majority of masses.'
More traffic and shoppers returned to the streets of Urumqi Thursday as thousands of paramilitary police patrolled.
Markets and car parks were busier than on Wednesday as the government stressed after ethnic-related violence there that life in Urumqi was 'returning to normal.'
China State Television broadcast footage of scores of people walking around major shopping areas Thursday morning in the capital of the far western region of Xinjiang but avoided showing the police and troops on the streets.
The government has not updated the number of dead and injured for more than two days despite reports of new attacks by Uighur and Han Chinese groups.
It has also reported little news from other cities in Xinjiang, some of which also had protests by Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim group that accuses Beijing of discrimination, earlier this week.
Smaller protests and reprisals against Uighurs by groups of Han Chinese were reported in Urumqi Wednesday.
The official casualty toll stands at 156 dead and more than 1,000 injured, but Uighur exile groups said that up to 800 people have died in the violence, many of them Uighurs shot or beaten to death by police.
Xinjiang's population of about 20 million includes some eight million Uighurs and more than 10 million Han Chinese.
COMMENT
blog comments powered by DisqusLatest Headlines in Asia-Pacific
- 1. Chinese dissidents hail late democracy activist Fang Lizhi
- 2. China "worried" over planned North Korea rocket launch
- 3. Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi meets Karen rebels
- 4. Chinese schoolboy sells kidney to buy iPad, iPhone
- 5. Myanmar president invites Karen rebels to form party
Older Talkback
page: 1
Overseas Chinese will support the government and the people of China no matter what.
Our ultimate loyalty, our only loyalty will always be with the ancestral homeland, our beloved motherland: China.
We will support our motherland with our enormous financial resources as well as with man power and intelligence.
For China and for Chinese everywhere we live according to Confucianism, Taoism, and Socialism with Chinese characteristics.
We will always fight for China........from now on and forever!
I will fight for China too. LONG LIVE CHINAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!
NI YIGE YIGE D QU SHU LE D?
NIM LANGG XIAODE SILE 800 DUO NE ?
Foreigners, You do not understand what is happening in China, indeed. You are quite ignorant of us, of China. I am really confused that whether those foreugners are idiot or something else. Why they trust the liar so stupid and so sample?? They want to Fxxk Chinese people around or FXXK themself around????
I am confident in the notion that we, the Western world, can keep china in its place when the time comes to beat its sons and daughters back from our shores.
That china reveals itself to be a fascist behemoth is no surprise to any of us. We've been expecting it for decades. China is, after all, North Korea redux.
I have read somewhere that someone has named a newly discovered subspecies of fast spreading cockroach 'Han'.
I think that's very appropriate.
Long live Tibet!
Spitfire
西方国家都TMD的混蛋
西方国家都TMD的混蛋 all you want, what makes you think any of us gives a hoot what you think?
Bug off, you chinee wanker.
Spitfire
page: 1
Spokesman for 1.4 billion Han CHINESEJul 9th, 2009 - 17:26:48
The so-called western media has NO credibility among the 1.4 billion CHINESE around the globe and we WILL make it our business to discredit these mouth pieces of white christian devil propaganda in EVERY corner of the planet.
The jidujiao bai gui can help incite all they want, we will further discredit the failed white capitalist system and their so-called western democracy.
Now, to the Uighurs.
Those Uighurs that do NOT like CHINA are FREE to leave. GO TO Turkey and stay there for the rest of your miserable lives.
There is a reason why Asians NEVER accepted Turkey as an Asian country and do NOT like Turkish people.
I am NOT surprised that the European countries have had problems with accepting Turkey in the so-called EU.
I fully understand why Greece HATES everything about Turkey.
We CHINESE can NOT and will NEVER accept good relations with Turkey, despite the Turkish president having visited CHINA very recently.
Those ethnic Uighurs that do decide to live in CHINA will have to make a choice where their loyalties lie.
Otherwise they will be driven OUT of CHINA all the way back to Turkey where they came from.
Remember! CHINA belongs to the CHINESE people.
Report this comment