East Asia

Ethnic clashes in western China

Audio: Play | Download

Anchor Lisa Mullins gets the latest on the ethnic clashes in western China from The World’s Mary Kay Magistad. Chinese authorities have sent 20,000 troops into the western capital of Urumqi to calm the violence between minority Uighurs and Han Chinese, the country’s majority ethnic group.
Listen

Read more on the unrest in western China

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World. Security forces blanketed the western Chinese city of Urumqi today. The city’s been paralyzed for days by ethnic tensions and violence. Mobs of ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese have been roaming Urumqi and attacking each other. More than 150 people have been killed since an initial riot on Sunday. Today, a local Chinese Communist Party leader issued this warning.

CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY LEADER:  [SPEAKS IN MANDARIN]

LISA MULLINS: What he’s saying here is, “For those who brutally killed the other people in the riot, the government will execute them.” The World’s Mary Kay Magistad is in Urumqi right now.  Mary Kay, you heard the government’s threat there, I know it was matched with the dispatching of a barrage of Chinese security forces in the region. What have you seen so far around you?

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Well, starting this morning, there were thousands of security forces, very well armed security forces on the street here. And it was to send a strong and perhaps needed signal that the government and the security forces are again, in control of the streets. Now, this comes after yesterday when there were Hun Chinese taking to the streets with makeshift weapons, and going after Uighurs. And some of that even continued in spots today. You know, you’d walk down the street and everything seems calm, and then turn a corner and there’d be a little skirmish. and in one situation that a colleague of mine saw, there was a skirmish, people were saying, “Get them, get them. Arrest them, arrest them.” And a couple of people were brought forward, their hands were shackled behind their backs by the police. And then the crowd saw that these were two Han Chinese, and suddenly the mood turned and they said, “Release them, release them. These are Han, we need to stand up for Han.” So there’s still very high tension along ethnic lines here.

LISA MULLINS: Mary Kay, are there aggressors that are identifiable at this point, either the Han Chinese or the Uighurs who the Chinese are accusing of, the Chinese government anyway, is accusing of starting this a fomenting the violence?

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Well, the Chinese government continues to say that this was instigated abroad, that Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman who spent six years in prison, and was released for humanitarian reasons to get medical treatment abroad, is the one who’s behind this. She has categorically denied that. I must say right now, as I’m standing out here in the last evening, on the streets of Urumqi, and it feels a little like people coming out after a storm to take a look around. There are people who are strolling down the street, despite the fact that occasionally truckloads of armed soldiers go by. Despite the fact that, you know, from where I’m looking, I can look down a long street and see every few yards a black cloud helmeted policeman with a baton. And people are pretty much, you know, sort of taking all that in stride, and wandering around. I must say though, that most of those who I see doing that are Han Chinese.

LISA MULLINS: One final question. President Hu Jintao went to the G8 summit in Italy, turned around, went back to China, basically saying that this is something going on in the region where you are right now, that he has to tend to. What do you make of that?

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: I think China’s leaders increasingly feel that they have to be seen to be responsive. They have to be seen to be out, if not on the scene, as Hu Kintao Wen Jabao was immediately after the Sichuan earthquake last year, then at least in the country. At least showing the Chinese people and the world that he’s on top of the situation, that things are quickly gonna return to normal, and that he’s taking this seriously.

LISA MULLINS: Alright, thank you very much. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad in Urumqi, the capital of China’s western Xinjiang province. Mary Kay, thanks for the update.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Thank you Lisa.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.