Three months after the worst ethnic violence in Xinjiang for 12 years, tens of thousands of troops remain on duty in cities across the region that accounts for one-sixth of China's land area. The transport of security forces from different provinces was so large that it caused cancellations and delays of civil air flights.
On September 26, Beijing announced the first charges against those involved in ethnic riots that struck the regional capital Urumqi from July 5, killing 197 people. Twenty-one people were charged with murder, arson, robbery and damaging property. The city's Communist Party chief and the regional police chief were fired to take responsibility for the riots.
In late July, Beijing announced spending of 4 billion yuan (HK$4.5 billion) on poverty relief and economic development in the three districts of southern Xinjiang where most of the rioters came from. But nothing else has changed. The worst ethnic violence in 12 years - since up to 100 were killed in anti-government protests in Yining in February 1997 - has resulted in no change of policy or self-reflection. Beijing has left in place Wang Lequan , the party chief of the region since 1994, the longest-serving leader of any part of China.
'Through the past decades, our ethnic policies have proved to be correct and effective, and we must stick to them for a long time,' Yang Jing , minister of the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, said on September 21.
Many Uygurs do not agree, saying that the violence reflected long-standing grievances over employment, education and religion that would cause similar protests again.
Hailaite Niyazi, one of two moderate Uygur intellectuals who present the case of their people to the Chinese public through their Putonghua websites, said two grievances lay behind the July violence.