Global Times says that Xinjiang is under control. China Daily says that rumours are damaging Xinjiang. This may have something to do with rumours that four people have been killed and 13 injured in renewed ethnic rioting in Korla. All the victims are supposed to be Han and two are supposed to have been beheaded.
This harks back to the violence in 2009, but it's also worth remembering that you can say anything negative about Uighurs in the Sinosphere and count on being believed.The slightly bizarre reference to cake in the China Daily story refers to a popular belief that gangs of Uighur traders get together and force hapless Chinese victims to buy cake at exorbitant prices.
Given stuff like this it's too early to confirm anything about what might have happened in Korla. But it's interesting that the Uighur government are pushing hard on the anti-rumour and 'everything under control' fronts. Additionally, Uighur sources are reporting a lockdown on flights in and out of the province.
Update: an attack of some sort has been confirmed by local police. No more details yet.
And there I was thinking Chris Morris might have something to do with it, but TIME actually reported on the cake thing back in December. (More here, suggesting that "we've cut you a slice, so now you have to pay for it" while waving a big knife isn't just folklore.)
Posted by: nick s | March 08, 2013 at 05:25 AM
O/T
Did the Man who Tried to buy our Presidential Election Get rich by Bribing Communist China?
Last week’s admission by Sheldon Adelson’s casino company that it had “likely” violated provisions of the federal law barring U.S. companies from bribing foreign officials raises some intriguing questions. Chief among them: Which transactions by Las Vegas Sands and its far-flung subsidiaries are at issue?
Adelson, one of the world’s richest men, came to public prominence during the 2012 campaign, when he and his wife Miriam donated at least $98 million to various candidates and groups...
Subsequently, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal wrote detailed stories that centered on Yang Saixin, a shadowy Beijing businessman who told the Times that Las Vegas Sands had paid him $30,000 a month until his firing in 2009.
According to the Times’ account, the company provided more than $70 million to companies tied to Yang to construct a trade center in Beijing and sponsor a basketball team.
http://www.juancole.com/2013/03/presidential-communist-engelberg.html
Posted by: johnf | March 08, 2013 at 07:24 AM
gangs of Uighur traders get together and force hapless Chinese victims to buy cake
Clearly they are Church of England Inquisition Uighurs.
Posted by: ajay | March 08, 2013 at 11:00 AM
A colleague suggests that the tension may arise from a belief that the Uighurs are sponging off the government. Another suggests that they could be prosecuted under torte law. A third suggests that it won't be much of a deterrent for the hard core of troublemakers, as they're flanatics.
Posted by: ajay | March 08, 2013 at 11:10 AM
Loving those crumby jokes
Posted by: Strategist | March 08, 2013 at 11:41 AM
That hard core has got some tough nuts in it.
Posted by: Chris Williams | March 08, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Poor Uighurs and the bun libel.
Posted by: Richard J | March 08, 2013 at 11:52 AM
Which has reminded me I'm staffing the cake sale at school chucking out time this afternoon.
Demanding money with menaces for cake? Ha. Those Uighurs have got nowt on the North West London yummy mummy.
Posted by: Strategist | March 08, 2013 at 12:07 PM