Xinjiang

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After Protests, China Relaxes Lockdown in City

Anger over fatal fire leads to demonstrations in Xinjiang

(Newser) - Authorities in China's western Xinjiang region opened up some neighborhoods in the capital of Urumqi on Saturday after residents held extraordinary late-night demonstrations against the city's draconian "zero-COVID" lockdown that had lasted more than three months. The displays of public defiance were fanned by anger over a...

Fire Kills 10 in Locked-Down Region of China

Neighbors say COVID restrictions kept fire engines at a distance

(Newser) - A fire in an apartment building in northwestern China's Xinjiang region killed 10 people and injured nine, authorities said Friday, during the stringent lockdowns that have left many residents in the area stuck in their homes for more than three months. The fire broke out Thursday night in the...

Report: US Officials to Turn Their Backs on Winter Olympics

Sources say diplomatic boycott of Beijing Games has been formally recommended to Biden

(Newser) - The Biden administration is likely planning a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics in February in response to human rights abuses in China, according to a report. Several sources tell Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin that a formal recommendation has been made to President Biden that the US refrain from...

Weaves Suspected to Be Made From Human Hair in Prison Camps Seized

Federal authorities in New York announce seizure of shipment from China

(Newser) - Federal authorities in New York on Wednesday seized a shipment of weaves and other beauty accessories suspected to be made out of human hair taken from people locked inside a Chinese internment camp. US Customs and Border Protection officials told the AP that 13 tons of hair products worth an...

Photojournalist Aired Abuses in China. Now He's Missing

Wife says Lu Guang was last heard from on Nov. 3

(Newser) - A renowned photojournalist whose images have shed light on the challenges of China's economic rise hasn't been heard from in almost a month and is believed to be in state custody. Lu Guang, a first-place winner at the 2004 World Press Photo awards, had been meeting with photographers...

Mass Disappearances Are Happening in China

Rights groups say thousands of Uighurs have vanished

(Newser) - Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people in China's far west have been spirited away without trial into secretive detention camps for alleged political crimes that range from having extremist thoughts to merely traveling or studying abroad, rights groups and academics estimate. The mass disappearances, beginning the past year,...

'Serious Violent Terrorist Incident' Strikes China

31 dead as bomb-laden SUVs plow through market

(Newser) - Assailants in two SUVs plowed through shoppers while setting off explosives on a busy street market in China's volatile northwestern region of Xinjiang today, killing 31 people and injuring more than 90, local officials say. The attack in the city of Urumqi was the bloodiest in a series of...

Was Tiananmen Crash a Suicide Attack?

Death toll hits 5; police eye Xinjiang region

(Newser) - The death toll following yesterday's SUV crash in Tiananmen Square has climbed to five, with two tourists—a Chinese man and a Filipina woman—dead along with the vehicle's occupants. "It looks like a premeditated suicide attack," says a Reuters source. If so, it would be...

'Terrorist Attack' Strikes Troubled China Region

Knife, ax fight erupts in ethnically divided Xinjiang

(Newser) - A deadly confrontation in China's ethnically divided Xinjiang region has left 21 people dead, in what government officials are calling a "terrorist attack," Reuters reports. The Xinjiang government says the violence was sparked after community workers found a number of knives in the house of local Uighurs;...

Passengers, Crew Foil China Hijacking

Six suspects detained

(Newser) - A hijacking attempt on a Chinese plane was foiled today by passengers and crew just after departure, the AP reports, citing state media. The Tianjin Airlines plane had taken off from the remote city of Hotan in the restive far-western region of Xinjiang, and returned there safely 22 minutes later....

China Sees Muslim Extremists in Xinjiang Unrest

But human rights groups doubt government story

(Newser) - Chinese authorities are blaming Muslim extremists with links to Pakistan for the burst of violence in the western region of Xinjiang that killed 11 people Sunday, reports Reuters . Leaders of this latest uprising in the restive region joined the so-called East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) while in Pakistan, says Beijing,...

1.6M Chinese in Deep Freeze
 1.6M Chinese in Deep Freeze 

1.6M Chinese in Deep Freeze

Northern China battles worst winter weather in decades

(Newser) - Some of the worst winter weather ever recorded has left thousands of people homeless in northern China. Close to 1.6 million people have been affected by blizzards and record-low temperatures, AP reports. More than 100,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged in Xinjiang, and 100,000 head of...

China Executes 9 Over Uighur Riots

Executed were convicted of murder during Xinjiang province unrest

(Newser) - Nine people convicted of murder and arson during July riots in China’s Xinjiang province were executed today. Chinese news services did not identify the executed, but previous statements suggest that they are Uighurs. The riots in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, left 197 people dead as Uighurs...

Dozens 'Disappeared' After China Riots

Rights group: Uighurs vanished after being detained by police

(Newser) - Dozens of Uighur men and boys rounded up in the wake of the riots that shook China's Xinjiang province over the summer are missing, according to a reports from a human rights group. Interviews with families in Urumqi found evidence that 43 people had vanished since being taken away by...

Chinese Court Sentences 6 to Death for Ethnic Riots

All the condemned appear to be Uighurs

(Newser) - A court in China's far western Xinjiang region sentenced six men to death today over riots between Muslim Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority that killed nearly 200 people in July. The sentences—the first for any of the scores of suspects arrested in the rioting—appeared aimed...

9 Busted in China Syringe Attacks

Spate of random stabbings unsettle western Urumqi

(Newser) - Chinese authorities have arrested nine suspects in connection with the recent spate of syringe attacks in Urumqi, reports state media. Some 531 people had been stabbed with hypodermic needles in Urumqi, most but not all of whom were Han Chinese, according to police. The attacks had set off another round...

China Closes Urumqi Mosques, Imposes Curfew

(Newser) - Chinese authorities forced mosques in Urumqi to stay closed today and reimposed a curfew in the restive western city, reports the BBC. The curfew was lifted after thousands of troops had seemed to restore order between Han Chinese and Uighur Muslims, who have battled in the worst ethnic violence China...

US Exile Is Voice of Uighurs

(Newser) - The crisis in China's Xinjiang province has given an activist living in America and the Uighur movement a rare moment in the spotlight, reports the New York Times. Rebiya Kadeer, 62, has been championing the rights of China's Muslim minority from a Washington office since 2005 when she came to...

As Riots Quiet, China Vows to Execute Killers

Anyone found guilty of murder will be executed, says party head

(Newser) - After thousands of troops were deployed to quell ethnic unrest in the Chinese city of Urumqi, “the situation is under control,” said officials—who vowed to execute anyone behind the riot's 156 deaths. Most of those charged with murder so far have been students, said the city’s...

Chinese Prez Ditches G8 to Grapple With Ethnic Crisis

(Newser) - Chinese President Hu Jintao abandoned plans to attend the G8 summit and returned to China from Italy to deal with growing unrest in Xinjiang after some 160 people were killed in riots there, the Financial Times reports. Troops have flooded into the provincial capital, Urumqi, in a bid to restore...

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