Exactly one week after the most deadly ethnic violence on the mainland in decades, the city of Urumqi , the centre of the violence, and the rest of Xinjiang were reportedly tense but calm yesterday.
The authorities have raised the death toll to 184 and for the first time gave the ethnic breakdown of the dead, of whom 137 were Han Chinese.
As mainlanders of all ethnicities try to come to terms with the full horror of the riots, it is time for attention to shift from the breaking news to examining the deeper issues and searching for answers.
Why, for instance, did the Xinjiang authorities fail to contain the spread of the violence when the riots started?
There is little doubt the riots, which came less than 18 months after the violence in Tibet , will trigger a sharp debate among mainland academics and, more important, within the leadership over the policy on ethnic minorities.
The central government appears to have drawn an important lesson from its mishandling of the overseas media during the riots in Tibet, this time choosing to grant foreign journalists access in Urumqi and elsewhere in Xinjiang swiftly. The move earned praise from international correspondents and analysts, while helping to improve the mainland's image.