Word: urumqi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...streets of Urumqi there are many different views of why racial violence exploded this week. Some support the official explanation that forces at home and abroad plotting to split the western region of Xinjiang from China encouraged minority Uighurs to riot. Others say that discrimination of the Muslim group has created a deep reservoir of anger that can be ignited with little provocation. Among the competing views, two facts seem abundantly clear: animosity between Hans and Uighurs in Xinjiang's capital city is unlikely to fade, and the threat of further violence is never far away. (Read a brief history...
...events in Urumqi seem to suggest that as long as Uighurs feel helpless in the face of what they see as encroachment by an often-hostile culture, the potential remains high for new outbreaks of violence...
...reflection of the fact that the region was only brought under Beijing's control in its entirety during the 19th century rein of the Qing dynasty. And this week they have found themselves in violent confrontation with Han Chinese, who have become a significant majority in the capital, Urumqi, thanks to Beijing's settlement policies...
...right to travel outside of China, or even within it. Those who do manage to move to China's major cities eke out a desperate living as migrant workers, often viewed with distrust and suspicion by the larger Chinese population. The immediate cause of Sunday's protest in Urumqi appears to have been a mass attack on a community of Uighur laborers in a southern Chinese factory town thousands of miles away from Xinjiang...
...Beijing casts its own role in Xinjiang as that of a benevolent force for progress, citing the economic development spurred by its billions of dollars of investment. To be sure, Urumqi is now a city of skyscrapers, but its population is almost 75% Han Chinese, and the Uighurs claim they're frozen out of jobs - and see themselves as the victims of China's own westward expansion...