URUMQI, China — Sobbing Muslim women scuffled with riot police, and Chinese men wielding steel pipes, meat cleavers and sticks rampaged through the streets Tuesday as ethnic tensions worsened in China’s oil-rich Xinjiang territory, forcing officials to declare a curfew.
The new violence in Xinjiang’s capital erupted only a few hours after the city’s top officials told reporters the streets in Urumqi were returning to normal following a riot that killed 156 people Sunday. The officials also said more than 1,000 suspects had been rounded up since the spasm of attacks by Muslim Uighurs against Han Chinese, the ethnic majority.
The chaos returned when hundreds of young Han men seeking revenge began gathering on sidewalks with kitchen knives, clubs, shovels and wooden poles. They spent most of the afternoon marching through the streets, smashing windows of Muslim restaurants and trying to push past police cordons protecting minority neighborhoods. Riot police successfully fought them back with volleys of tear gas and a massive show of force.
At one point, the mob chased a boy who looked like he was a Uighur. The youth, who appeared to be about 12, climbed a tree, and the crowd tried to whack his legs with their sticks as the terrified boy cried. He was eventually allowed to leave unharmed as rioters ran off to focus on another target.
After the crowds thinned out, a curfew was announced from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. Police cruised the streets in cars in the evening, telling people to go home, and they complied.
The ugly scenes earlier in the day highlighted how far away the Communist Party was from one of its top goals: creating a “harmonious society.” The unrest was also an embarrassment for the Chinese leadership, which is getting ready to celebrate the 60th anniversary of communist rule and wants to show it has created a stable country.
Harmony has been hard to achieve in Xinjiang, a rugged region three times the size of Texas with deserts, mountains and the promise of huge oil and natural-gas reserves. Xinjiang is also the homeland for 9 million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking group.
