More than 27 people died when western China erupted into riots on Wednesday, after demonstrators went after a police station and state buildings and law enforcement officials responded by opening fire on the crowd.
The stand-off was reportedly triggered by mounting issues between the Chinese Han majority and the Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority living in the region. According to Chinese state-run media service Xinhua, this bout of violence was the most brutal that the city of Xinjiang had experienced in recent years.
In the township of Lukqun in Turpan Prefecture, mobs of people brandishing blades began rioting in the area's police stations, government buildings and a construction site, the New York Times reported.
"Knife-wielding mobs attacked...stabbing at people and setting fire to police cars," a report released to the media said.
17 people were killed at first-among them, nine were law enforcement officials and security guards. Then, police responded by shooting back. 10 demonstrators were hit.
Information explaining what incited the confrontation has not yet surfaced, but some contend that Uighur and Chinese unrest could have been a large contributing factor.
In the recent past, the two entities have been at odds with one another-Uighur residents have reported that serious unrest plagues the area, while Chinese government officials tell a different story.
"This clash did not happen by chance," spokesperson for World Uyghur Congress Dilxat Raxit said. "There have been sweeps and crackdowns in the area, leading to many Uighur men disappearing, and the authorities have refused to give information about their whereabouts." He claimed he had gleaned this information from multiple phone calls with citizens living in the Xinjiang area.
The Uighur minority claimed that they have grown to resent the heightened number of Han Chinese people living in Xinjiang; they said the Han people receive better jobs and more land, and that the government has tightened up on religious restrictions. This is an issue for the Turkic-speaking group, who observe more conservative aspects of Sunni Islam.
According to senior researcher in Hong Kong for Human Rights Watch Nicholas Bequelin, the area of Xinjiang where the violence hit has historically been relatively peaceful.
"But the tension has been escalating in recent years," he said. "The tensions are linked to the introduction of policies that call for much finer control and monitoring of local Uighur affairs by officials. You have a lot of rehousing and relocation there, too."
Uighurs used to constitute the vast majority of Xinjiang's residents. In the last 20 years, however, the number of Han Chinese citizens has spiked-Uighurs now form up around 46 percent of Xinjian's population of 22 million. Han Chinese make up around 40 percent.
