After last year’s riots in Tibet, China yet again faced unrest on July 6, this time in the Muslim and Turkic-speaking northwestern province of Xinjiang. While somewhat different from the case of Tibet, the developments illustrate China’s inability of substituting the fruits of economic modernization for political benefits both for Han Chinese and oppressed ethnic minorities, some of which have called for separatism. As China rises and global conscience spreads, Uighurs and Chinese appear to be in a tug of war. Two vivid forces are at play in this regard: a rising desire of Uighurs to assure their cultural and religious autonomy, including through full independence, on the one hand, and China’s equally strong intention to consolidate its integrity and power, on the other.

The July 6 unrest was spurred by the deaths on June 25 of two Uighur toy factory workers accused of raping a Han Chinese. The rioters demanded justice from the authorities. The riot resulted in 1,400 people arrested, 156 killed and 1,080 injured, with the Chinese suffering the most, the Economist reports. Calling for retaliation, thousands of Han Chinese took to the streets the next day. The Economist cites one Han putting it this way: “This is no longer an issue for the Government. This is now an ethnic struggle between Uighur and Han.” Li Zhi, Urumqi communist party leader, stressed that those who used “cruel means” would be executed. The turmoil continued on July 8 as China’s President Hu Jintao left the G-8 Summit in Italy to address more pressing matters at home. The neighboring Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan started evacuating their citizens from Xinjiang.

Uighurs feel that China’s economic rise and vigorous Han immigration policy in the province will end their autonomy for good and that China will impose even harsher restrictions on their religious and cultural practices. Uighurs now constitute only 45 percent of the provincial population as opposed to 75 percent in 1949. The Chinese, in turn, view Uighurs as a backward people. They accuse the World Uighur Congress and its exiled leader Ms. Rebiya Kadeer of abetting the unrest and separatism in Xinjiang. The latter is home to significant energy reserves and a transit route for Central Asian oil and gas. Furthermore, China seeks to maintain an integrity that is questioned as well as threatened by Tibet and mocked by Taiwan. It also attempts to uphold legitimacy in light of its growing global economic and political clout without being portrayed as an advancing Han Chinese-dominated empire.

Unlike in Tibet’s case, the Chinese allowed foreign journalists into Urumqi to report on the riot, perhaps to convince the world of the Uighur’s own militancy against the Han. However, internet and telephones lines were blocked elsewhere across the province, not only due to the closed regime but also because China learnt what social internet networks could do and did in Iran. On balance, China has made some modest progress by opening up to the world, which should be further exploited and recognized as China’s increasing awareness of its own responsibilities as a legitimate state within the international system.

The unrest drew mixed reactions from various capitals. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was highly critical, saying: “Unfortunately, China is trying to conceal those events [in Urumqi] by using its economic and political power as well as its population.” Turkey’s Trade and Industry Minister Nihat Ergun called for a boycott of Chinese goods. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, somewhat hypocritically given its own recent repression, voiced support for “the rights of Chinese Muslims.” The Organization of Islamic Conference urged China to address the problems of Muslim groups, while the President of the EU parliament Hans Gert Poettering called on Chinese authorities to respect human rights.

But not all were openly critical. U.S. spokesman Robert Gibbs called on all in the province for restraint. While voicing concern over the plight of fellow Muslims, some of the Muslim Gulf states have not been particularly vocal, not least because of their trade and oil export deals with China. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon underlined that “all the differences of opinion, whether domestic or international, must be resolved peacefully through dialogue.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, beset by its own separatist trends, stressed that the events are an internal matter of China. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry concurred.

The Uighur unrest in Xinjiang, which will most likely be blamed on Uighurs for its immediate causes, reveals several trends. Nationally, it demonstrates China’s failing attempts to integrate its minorities and consolidate Han Chinese-based monolithic national identity, while also pointing to the effective measures China readily employs to suppress dissent of any kind. Internationally, it illustrates the worn-out debate about sovereignty, on the one hand, and human rights, on the other. China’s impressive economic growth and global interdependence thus far have failed to tear down the walls of an oppressive state. They have also not ended, so it seems, the still alive dictum of “might is right.”