A Uighur woman stands beside the road as Chinese army troops ride past on a truck in Urumqi on July 9, 2009
On the streets of Urumqi there are many different views of why racial violence exploded this week. Some support the official explanation that forces at home and abroad plotting to split the western region of Xinjiang from China encouraged minority Uighurs to riot. Others say that discrimination of the Muslim group has created a deep reservoir of anger that can be ignited with little provocation. Among the competing views, two facts seem abundantly clear: animosity between Hans and Uighurs in Xinjiang's capital city is unlikely to fade, and the threat of further violence is never far away.
Rioting on July 5 left 156 dead and more than 1,000 injured, but by the week's end Urumqi was lumbering towards normalcy. Markets and grocery stores reopened, allowing residents to catch up on days of missed shopping. Traffic resumed through most of the city, though it was still blocked on occasion by slow-moving patrols of security vehicles. Convoys of armored personnel carriers and trucks loaded with rifle-bearing members of the People's Armed Police have driven throughout the city over the past three days, usually accompanied by a sound truck broadcasting speeches from local party leaders.
In the city's Uighur neighborhoods, makeshift barriers of timber and broken beer bottles have been swept away, a sign that the influx of some 20,000 personnel has eased fears of Han vigilante mobs that formed July 7. "They had clubs and knives and there was nothing we could do," says a man named Yusef as he stood beside a barricade of trash bins still protecting an alley filled with ramshackle Uighur homes. "Now it's a little bit better. The government has come and they're enforcing the law. The People's Armed Police are here, and they're keeping the Han away." Later in the day, the Uighur residents dismantled the barrier.
In the first days after the riot, China's state media was filled with scenes of young Uighur men smashing buses and attacking pedestrians. After thousands of Han gathered to retaliate on Tuesday, the official press has shifted to a narrative of racial harmony, running stories of Uighurs who protected Han during the rioting. But despite the façade of unity, many fear the anger will inevitably bubble up again. "Of course it will continue," says a 71-year-old Han retiree who lives near Xinjiang University in the far south of Urumqi, where Uighur rioters smashed shops and cars on July 5. "Han were beaten, people had family killed and things stolen, but they weren't allowed to respond."
Uighur residents also fear further hostility. "There will be more conflict in the future," says a 25-year-old Uighur man sitting by a mosque in the Nanmen district, where the southern Uighur district abuts Urumqi's downtown. "Everyone has seen the images of Uighur attacking Han, but no one knows about Han attacking Uighur."
Chinese officials blame the violence on Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman and rights activist who now lives in the U.S. False rumors that Uighur workers raped Han women at a factory in coastal Guangdong province led to a riot there in late June, during which two Uighur workers were killed. The Chinese government says Kadeer used Uighur anger over that incident to foment the riot in Urumqi. She denies the charge and says a heavy-handed police response to a peaceful Uighur protest calling for a speedier investigation into the Guangdong deaths on Sunday led to the violence.
Blaming an overseas figure — a strategy that was also employed after the deadly riots in Tibet in March 2008, which China says were masterminded by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader — helps authorities dissipate anger that might be directed at Uighur citizens in Xinjiang. When thousands of revenge-minded Han formed on Tuesday, Urumqi's Communist Party Secretary Li Zhi rushed to the scene and led them in chants against Kadeer. But while she makes a good target, Kadeer's significance to the average Uighur is limited. "They talk about Rebiya, but what does she have to do with this? She is so far away," says the young man near the mosque. "Ask the people and they will tell you the real reason. It is what happened in Guangdong."
Uighurs across Xinjiang complain about job discrimination and the influx of Han migrants. But in Urumqi, where they are outnumbered 5-to-1 by Han Chinese, their most immediate concern is safety. Thousands of paramilitary troops are preserving an unsteady peace, but for some that is not enough. "I'm afraid of people fighting each other," says a 22-year-old Uighur college student. He longs to go to another city in Xinjiang where the Uighur population is larger. "I want to go to Kashgar, Khotan or Aksu where it is safe. Right now a lot of people are leaving Urumqi."