It is just as difficult to get news out of Xinjiang as it is out of Tibet. This week, a small but serious riot broke out near the city of Kashgar in far western China. The numbers are all over the place-- between 12 and 20 people were killed. The ethnic composition of the victims is also in dispute. Some reports say the majority of the victims were Han civilians. Others say the majority were knife-wielding Uyghurs killed by Chinese security forces.
I did not post this earlier because there was simply no photographic or video footage of the rioting or the gruesome aftermath. The photograph above is one of a couple to have trickled out. Plus, I was waiting for more accurate figures to emerge, which never happened.
The latest development is worrisome. A Han Chinese woman in a Peshawar market (it's unclear if she was a tourist, a trader, or someone else) was shot dead. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility. It was supposedly retaliation for the violent treatment of Uyghurs by the Chinese in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government has always been quick to link unrest inside Xinjiang to foreign terrorist influences, despite the lack of evidence. This attack by a non-Uyghur terrorist on a Han Chinese in Pakistan brings forth a whole new element to the conflict.
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