China

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese forces have launched a "strike hard" security campaign in the restless far western region of Xinjiang, vowing to wipe out lawlessness and "change the face" of the public security situation there. Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi has been rocked by ethnic violence twice this year, in which a total of around 200 people died.. In Xinjiang's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi in July, after taking to the streets to protest against attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in southern China in June that left two Uighurs dead. Han Chinese in Urumqi sought revenge two ... Read Full Story

A court in China's far western Xinjiang region sentenced six men to death Monday for murder and other crimes committed during ethnic riots that killed nearly 200 people. A seventh man was given life imprisonment. The sentences were the first for any of the scores of suspects arrested in the July rioting between Muslim Uighurs and members of the Han Chinese majority in the regional capital of Urumqi. It was China's worst communal violence in decades. The verdicts appeared aimed at placating Han Chinese who have rallied in Urumqi calling for swift justice. An overseas Uighur activist, however, said they were only likely to ... Read Full Story

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court on Thursday handed out a further three death sentences to people convicted of violent crimes during ethnic rioting in far western Xinjiang in July in which almost 200 people died. The official Xinhua news agency reported that a court in Urumqi, Xinjiang's regional capital, also sentenced three defendants to suspended death sentences, which could be commuted to life sentences in two years. The report did not specify the ethnic identity of the defendants, but their names left little doubt they were Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group that calls Xinjiang its homeland. Six people have already been sentenced to ... Read Full Story

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court in the restive far western region of Xinjiang on Monday sentenced six people to death for murder and other crimes committed during ethnic rioting in July in which almost 200 people were killed. It was not immediately clear from the brief report by the official Xinhua news agency if any of the death sentences would be commuted, as sometimes happens in China. Another person was give life imprisonment, Xinhua said. It gave no other details. State television showed deserted streets and heavy security around the courthouse, which it said was closed for all other business. Last month, China ... Read Full Story

China will tout the successes of 60 years of communist rule on Thursday, but the world's most populous nation faces an array of serious challenges as it seeks to sustain fast-paced economic growth. Mass rural unemployment, simmering ethnic tensions in Xinjiang and Tibet, a greying society and the fallout from decades of environmental neglect are only a few of the issues facing the People's Republic founded in 1949 by Mao Zedong. "These guys have gigantic problems in terms of managing a country this size -- you can always say they have to do it better, but it is a big set of issues," said ... Read Full Story