China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region–called “East Turkestan” by many Uighurs–has experienced numerous violent incidents since inter-ethnic riots rocked the region’s capital, Urumqi, in July 2009. Yet this year easily has been the most violent, with the March 1 mass knife attack at Kunming train station in China’s southwest, the April 30 bomb and knife attack outside Urumqi train station, and last Thursday’s bomb attack on an open-air market in downtown Urumqi.
DrMichael Clarke, a research fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute and author of “Xinjiang and China’s Rise in Central Asia–A History” (Routledge, 2011), discusses the escalating violence and the dangers of heavy-handed tactics in Xinjiang.
Why is Xinjiang violence escalating? BBC News, China.
The Danger of Heavy-Handed Tactics in Xinjiang. The Wall Street Journal.