URUMQI, China — Police fatally shot two Uighur men and wounded a third Monday in western China, where violence has kept flaring despite the massive numbers of troops sent to restore calm more than a week after deadly ethnic rioting.
It is the first time the Chinese government has acknowledged that its security forces opened fire since communal violence hit Urumqi, the capital of the restive Xinjiang region, on July 5. At least 184 people have been reported killed and 1,680 wounded.
The midafternoon shooting sent frightened residents scurrying into homes and shops for cover and bystanders hitting the ground.
The incident underscored how far authorities are from imposing order between the Muslim Uighurs and the Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group.
Despite the flood of security forces sent into Urumqi, they have yet to end the violence and halt all the Uighur protests.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the United States had officials in the region but was still gathering information about what was happening.
An official with the Urumqi city government, who gave his surname as Fan, said police on patrol about 2:55 p.m. saw three Uighur men attacking a fourth Uighur with long knives and batons. When they tried to break up the fight, the three turned against the officers, he said.
“The police fired into the air for warning, but it’s not effective. Therefore, the police shot them, according to law,” he said.
China’s leaders have sought to play down tensions between ethnic groups, dispatching Politburo member Zhou Yongkang to spread the message that stability in Xinjiang was the “most important and pressing task that has overwhelming priority,” the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The Uighurs, who number 9 million in Xinjiang, have complained about an influx of Han Chinese and government restrictions on their Muslim religion. They accuse the Han of discrimination and the Communist Party of trying to erase their language and culture.
Han Chinese, many of whom were encouraged to emigrate to Xinjiang by the government, believe the Uighurs should be grateful for Xinjiang’s rapid economic development, which has brought new schools, highways, airports, railways, natural-gas fields and oil wells to the sprawling, rugged region the size of Texas.
Since last week, tens of thousands of Chinese troops have poured into Urumqi and other parts of Xinjiang. People have been ordered to carry identification for police checks when traveling in Urumqi.
