Real news doesn't seem to get much attention in this forum, but I thought I'd put this out there. It's probably been on the news all day, but for anyone that's not heard, there was a protest and violence in Urumqi in western China.

News article here.

To sum it up, the Uyghurs are an ethnic minority in China (some of whom are separatist, I think, but I don't know if that's related). The protest was over a fight last month between Uyghurs and Han Chinese (main Chinese ethnic group) in which some Uyghurs were killed.

As for the violence, China's claiming the Uyghur protesters started it. They're claiming the demonstration was peaceful but the police started firing on the protesters anyway. There doesn't seem to be any reliable information on how the violence started.

Regardless of who's responsible, that's a ton of people dead. In all the Iranian protests, I don't think there were even two dozen dead (maybe I'm wrong on that). But this protest managed to result in over 150 people dead in a single day, which just seems like a bloodbath.

[edit] And now they've arrested over 1400 people. Jesus Christ.

China will put out what it wants to put out so accurate news reports may be hard to come by. Although, the arrest count doesn't surprise me, it's very easy to get arrested there. What a mess. It's a wonder any news got out, really.

China is a huge country with several similar groups to the Uyghurs, that are fighting for separation and the right to practice their religion (this particular group is Muslim). I think that the relatively open report on the events in this case might act as a threat to other groups in the same situations in other parts of China... Bascially, the chinese government is made up of extreme power-hunger and lack of respect for human rights.

China is a superpower. It does what it pleases.

One of my biggest questions here is, where are they holding these 1400 people?

Uighurs say police fired on students

It will be very hard to determine who is at fault here. There's only so much other nations can do, as Kafka already mentioned, they are a superpower. They see fit to rule as they please. They are known for their suppression in their country and I doubt we'll ever receive any part of the real circumstances to the whole thing.

There was a major demonstration over here yesterday at the Chinese Embassy by Uyghurs. From what I understand it's not so much that they are separatists but Muslims and religion is a no-no in communist China.