10,000 Chinese protest series of needle stabbings

Thousands marched through this city in western China on Thursday after a series of stabbings with hypodermic needles further unnerved residents already jittery over deadly rioting between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs.
More than 10,000 people, mostly from the Han Chinese majority, took the streets, demanding increased security and punishment for those behind the July riots. Demonstrators said police beat some protesters, but there were no major clashes.
By nightfall authorities had cordoned off the city center, blocking intersections with patrol cars, and disconnected mobile phone text messaging services. Paramilitary police with shields, sticks and submachine guns sealed off People's Square, where demonstrators had shouted down politicians. About 100 green trucks parked on the plaza.
"Everybody is angry," said a female receptionist surnamed Ma at the Hong Xin Hotel, next to People's Square. "Two months have passed, and the hooligans still haven't been brought to justice. So many innocent people lost their lives. They should not die in vain."
The resort to mass demonstrations to air grievances is likely to further unnerve the Chinese leadership -- already grappling with tens of thousands of increasingly large and violent protests every year -- just as it prepares for a nationwide celebration of 60 years of communist rule on Oct. 1.
But the unrest shows how unsettled Urumqi remains despite continued high security since 197 people were killed in the worst communal violence to hit Xinjiang province in more than a decade. The rioting began in Urumqi, the provincial capital, on July 5 when a protest by Muslim Uighurs spiraled out of control, and Uighurs attacked Han. Days later, Han vigilantes tore through Uighur neighborhoods to retaliate.
State media reports said that most of the victims of the string of needle stabbings were Han Chinese, suggesting these attacks were also ethnically motivated. Fears of AIDS could also be adding to concerns. Xinjiang has the highest rate of infections in China, with about 25,000 cases of HIV reported last year -- fueled by needle-sharing among drug users.
The first needle stabbing occurred Aug. 20, according to a report Thursday on Xinjiang TV. Rumors about multiple attacks swirled, and on Wednesday shopkeepers in two commercial areas shuttered their stores early to protest plunging business as panicky residents stayed off the streets, said a local newspaper editor, who asked that his name not be used because he feared angering the government officials who ultimately control his newspaper.
All told, 476 people have sought treatment for stabbings, though only 89 had obvious signs of being pricked and no deaths, infections or poisonings occurred, the TV report said. The official Xinhua News Agency said 21 people had been detained. While none of the reports gave a motive, the TV report said almost all the victims, 433, were Han Chinese with the rest from eight other ethnic groups.
During the Thursday's march, protesters caught and nearly beat a woman who supposedly stabbed someone in the crowd until police intervened, Xinhua reported.
Protesters focused their anger on officials' failure to provide protection and start trials for any of the 1,200 people the government said it has arrested or detained over July's rioting.
"There are so many security forces deployed here, yet they're incapable of protecting us," said protester Zhao Jianzhuang, who joined the march near People's Square.
Given the tight nationwide security for the October anniversary, the protest underscored the difficulties Beijing faces in satisfying a public increasingly empowered by the nation's rapid economic transformation but locked out of the authoritarian political order. Large, often violent protests occur daily, with 87,000 in 2005, the last time figures were published. Yet the government has offered few systemic changes to curb the corruption, misrule and a perceived unfair gap between rich and poor that fuels most local protests.
"If you try to deal with demonstrators, that is one thing, that's a security concern. But on the other hand, you really have to find social measures to make sure there is not further anger among residents," said Bo Zhiyue, a China politics expert at National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute.
A recent order from Beijing instructed local officials to defuse demonstrations by personally meeting with protesters. When Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan tried to do so Thursday, protesters shouted "step down," according to Ma, the receptionist, and the local newspaper editor. Last week, Wang was shown repeatedly on state television touring the region with President Hu Jintao, a close ally, on a visit meant to show the region's return to calm.
Any trouble in Xinjiang is magnified through a prism of ethnic tensions. The Uighurs see Xinjiang as their homeland and resent the millions of Han Chinese who have poured into the region in recent decades. The Uighurs say the Han have unfairly benefited from the riches of Xinjiang, a strategically vital Central Asian region with significant oil and gas deposits. Meanwhile, the Han often stereotype Uighurs as lazy, more concerned with religion than business, and unfairly favored by set-aside quotas for government jobs and university places.