Less than 6 months following a Hotan riot that left 18 people dead in July of 2011, this small, Xinjiang city has made international news yet again with a string of suspicious deaths. In what is becoming a familiar trend in Xinjiang news, conflicting reports and changing stories have made it hard to pin down exactly what occured.

On Monday, July 18th 2011, a deadly clash between Uyghur civilians and Chinese police has left at least 18 people dead. According to Chinese reports this includes 2 policemen, 2 hostages and 14 Uyghur. But what exactly happened here?

It was two years ago today that the streets of Urumqi, capital of China’s Xinjiang province, were filled with protesters, police, riots and burning cars.

It was two years ago today that almost 200 people died and hundreds more were wounded.

At 10:30am on Thursday morning, August 19th, a Uyghur man in Aksu, Xinjiang threw a bomb into a group of people while riding his motorized tricycle. According to reports, 7 people have died and 14 more are injured. The man responsible for the attack was injured but survived and is now under arrest.

Xinjiang authorities aren’t taking any risks this month as the one-year anniversary of the Urumqi riots approaches.
The increased tension and security has taken on many forms which can be seen by the various pieces and comments that have been published over the last couple of weeks.

On this day one year ago riot police were called into a toy factory in Guangdong to break up a brawl between Han and Uyghur workers. By the time calm had been restored 2 Uyghur had died and over 100 other people were injured.

Now that this dark chapter in Xinjiang’s history is behind us, I would like to take a step back and quickly analyze what effects – both good and bad – have resulted from this blockage and what China and the rest of the world should learn from this.

While most of the focus of Xinjiang’s communication clampdown has been on the internet, I thought I’d share with you one more intriguing part of the new life here in the restricted province.

What has happened in Xinjiang leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics? A breakdown of the attacks and threats in Xinjiang.