The Ürümqi Riots
A Uyghur protest in Ürümqi turns into the deadliest ethnic violence in China in decades; official figures say 197 people died, most of them Han, and a vast crackdown and disappearances follow.
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
- "We Are Afraid to Even Look for Them": Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang's Protests — Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch (2009)
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
- Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang — Tom Cliff, University of Chicago Press (2016)
- Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City — Darren Byler, Duke University Press (2022)
- "Absolutely No Mercy": Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims — Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, The New York Times (2019)
Shaoguan
On the night of 25–26 June 2009, at a toy factory in Shaoguan, in Guangdong province far to the south-east, a false rumour that Uyghur workers had raped Han women set off a brawl. Han workers attacked Uyghur colleagues; officially two Uyghurs were killed and many injured. Videos of the beatings circulated among Uyghurs online, and many felt that the authorities did not take the killings seriously.
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
Seven-Five
On 5 July, Uyghurs, many of them students, gathered in Ürümqi’s People’s Square and the Uyghur district around the Grand Bazaar, waving Chinese flags and demanding an investigation. Police moved to disperse them. What happened next is disputed, but by evening crowds of Uyghur men were attacking Han passers-by, burning vehicles and smashing shops. The official toll was 197 dead and more than 1,700 injured, most of the dead Han. Uyghurs say Uyghur deaths, including protesters shot by police, were undercounted.
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
- "We Are Afraid to Even Look for Them": Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang's Protests — Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch (2009)
On 7 July, Han crowds armed with sticks, shovels and knives marched through the city seeking revenge, and Uyghur neighbourhoods braced for attack. Troops sealed off the city.
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
- Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang — Tom Cliff, University of Chicago Press (2016)
The aftermath
Hundreds of people were arrested, and dozens were sentenced to death. Human Rights Watch documented the enforced disappearance of 43 Uyghur men and boys taken in sweeps of Uyghur neighbourhoods, and said the true number was probably much higher.
- "We Are Afraid to Even Look for Them": Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang's Protests — Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch (2009)
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
The riots changed Xinjiang. Beijing poured in money for development and for security, installing cameras and checkpoints. Ürümqi’s Han and Uyghurs pulled apart, with Han residents feeling unsafe and Uyghurs facing suspicion everywhere. Sean Roberts argues that this was the moment the state began to treat the Uyghur population as a whole as a potential threat.
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
- Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang — Tom Cliff, University of Chicago Press (2016)
- Terror Capitalism: Uyghur Dispossession and Masculinity in a Chinese City — Darren Byler, Duke University Press (2022)
Violence followed in the next years: attacks on police stations in the south, a car attack in Tiananmen Square in 2013, the mass stabbing at Kunming railway station in March 2014 that killed 31 people, and a market bombing in Ürümqi in May 2014. Each was blamed on Uyghur militants; each tightened the vise. Visiting Xinjiang in 2014, Xi Jinping told officials in internal speeches, later leaked to the New York Times, to wage a struggle against terrorism, infiltration and separatism using the “organs of dictatorship”, with “absolutely no mercy”.
- "Absolutely No Mercy": Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims — Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, The New York Times (2019)
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
A premeditated violent crime of beating, smashing, looting and burning, instigated from abroad by the World Uyghur Congress and Rebiya Kadeer, in which rioters murdered innocent Han civilians. The government acted to restore order and protect lives.
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
A peaceful protest against the authorities' handling of the killing of Uyghur workers in Shaoguan was met by police force and turned violent. Uyghurs also died, in the violence and in Han revenge attacks, and hundreds of Uyghur men were taken away afterwards; some never came back. Kadeer and the World Uyghur Congress denied organising anything.
- "We Are Afraid to Even Look for Them": Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang's Protests — Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch (2009)
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
Ordinary Han people were attacked and killed in the street for being Han. Many felt the government had failed to protect them, and some took to the streets in anger.
- Oil and Water: Being Han in Xinjiang — Tom Cliff, University of Chicago Press (2016)
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
Why it matters today
"Seven-Five" (5 July) is a turning point. For Han residents of Xinjiang it is a memory of mob killings, and it hardened many against Uyghurs. For Uyghurs it began the era of mass surveillance, disappearances and suspicion that led to the camps; the internet was cut for ten months. Uyghurs and Han in Ürümqi, who had lived side by side, became more segregated and mistrustful.