Clashing Xinjiang Groups Have A Bloody History

Violence rocked the western Chinese province of Xinjiang Sunday in what has been called the most serious clashes since Tiananmen Square twenty years ago.

More than 1400 people were arrested by police Sunday and upwards of 150 killed after violence broke out between the region's two largest ethnic groups: the Uighur and Han Chinese. The two groups blame each other for the bloodshed, which may have spawned from a fight between the two groups at a toy factory weeks earlier.

But the factory skirmish was just a battle in what has been both a verbal and physical war between the two groups in recent years.

The Uighurs - Muslims, and originally of Turkic descent - have been the main occupants of the territory since the Qing dynasty, which ended in the early 20th century. But displaced Hui (the third largest ethnic group in Xinjiang) and Han Chinese have gained an increasing share of the population share over the years, with recent estimates putting the population split at 45 percent Uighur, 40 percent Han.

This increase of Han Chinese has spurned several tense inter-ethnic conflicts in the past two decades. The Chinese government has encouraged Han Chinese workers to set up businesses in traditional Uighur cities and has adopted rules the Muslim Uighur population says are unfair to their religion and culture.

Because of this, the Uighur population has been increasingly vocal in support of its own independent state. Peaceful nationalist political groups make up the majority of those calling for independence, but two Uighur separatist factions, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, have advocated physical confrontation with the Chinese as a means to independence.

These separatist groups have led to China taking an even tougher stance against the Uighur population. They have blamed Uighurs for supposed terrorist attacks, and blame for a 1997 incident that left at least nine Uighurs dead in the Xinjiang city of Gulja was placed on the Uighurs shoulders.

Last year, tensions ran high as protests by Uighurs were staged in Xinjiang at the same time the notorious protests in Tibet were taking place. The Chinese government accused Uighurs of instigating the Tibetan protests.

And most recently, four Uighurs have been placed in custody of Bermudan authorities after their release from prison at the hands of Americans in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Chinese have accused the men of being terrorists despite never being formally charged, and have demanded the Bermuda extradite the men to face charges in China.

The Han claimed many of the 156 killed and 1000+ injured Sunday in Urumqi were Han Chinese, while the Uighurs claimed most of the casualties and injured as their own.

Monday, Uighurs staged another protest in defiance of a major police presence in the city, shouting "God is Great," the same slogan that became their rallying cry during the 1997 protests in Gulja.

Limited press access and a government firewall banning most, if not all, internet access has made getting accurate and timely information out of Xinjiang difficult, only to be exacerbated by rampant accusations by either side. By looking at the recent past, however, it appears likely that the sporadic conflicts will continue and the relationship between the two groups will continue to boil as no middle ground seems to be anywhere in sight.

China's UN Support Bad News For North Korea

Wednesday, members of the United Nations Security Council agreed in principle to sanctions on North Korea following nuclear and missile tests conducted by the secretive nation in the past six months.

The initial draft, which Security Council members are set to vote on Friday, has received support from the five permanent members (P5) of the United Nations - the United States, who took the lead in drafting the sanctions, Britain, Russia, France, and possibly most importantly - China.

China has been reluctant to side with its fellow Security Council members in making any overly-aggressive statements in response to North Korea's recent actions. They have been a traditional ally of the Communist nation, with roots tracing back to the mid-1900s, when both nations were led by Communist governments and allies against the US, Japan, and South Korea in the Korean War.

In recent years, however, the relationship has soured slightly. One of the largest sources of the two nations' distancing has been the issue of refugees. China's border with North Korea has seen an increasing amount of activity in recent years as more North Koreans attempt to emigrate to China. North Korea has taken a stance of punishing those caught trying to make the move to its western neighbors, with offenders facing up to five years in prison for their first offense.

China has not taken to North Korean defectors warmly, even going so far as to build a wall in 2006 thought to help stem the tide of refugees and smugglers. China's cold approach has been viewed as a move to put pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il to improve conditions in his country viewed largely by outsiders as an oppressed nation.

China's support of the sanctions is likely to further isolate the tiny nation on the Korean peninsula, and with support of the sanctions from Russia, North Korea's other longtime ally, North Korea appears to have been pushed into a very tight corner.

The next months will be telling as to what North Korea's future international stature will be. The sanctions demand the nation suspend its ballistic missile program and stop conducting nuclear tests. It also bans North Korea from exporting weapons, and strongly encourages countries to stop and inspect North Korean ships suspected of transporting arms.

Pyongyang has recently issued statements saying that any interception of its ships by South Korean or US vessels will be considered a hostile action, and has also said that sanctions, such as these coming from the UN, will be considered a declaration of war. North Korea has also threatened to use nuclear weapons in the event of any hostility, and the recent sentencing of two American journalists to 12 years in a forced labor camp is thought to be further politicking by Pyongyang. There are also reports that another nuclear test could be conducted later this month.

The largest test is likely to come from the imposing nations, however. It is unclear as to how far the P5 and South Korea will go to enforce the new sanctions, as all the nations seem to hold a stance of deterrence. South Korea, despite its obvious unhappiness with its northern neighbors, could be unlikely to act because it knows North Korea has up to 10,000 missiles aimed at Seoul and the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The US has also said it does not wish to take any physical actions against North Korea.

What happens next could be anyone's guess, but it is evident that the international community has now placed an enormous amount of pressure on North Korea. With Kim Jong-Il rumored to have suffered a stroke last August and an heir-apparent purportedly named in his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un, who is also said to be far from ready to lead the country, could the 67-year-old Jong-Il make a last-ditch attempt to make North Korea a legitimate international player?

The veil covering the nation's actions has led to an international guessing game as to how much of a threat the nation actually is, but this stern response from the UN Security Council, including two of North Korea's longtime allies, shows that the international community is not taking any chances.