On Monday, a worried UN -secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, urged China to use "extreme care" in dealing with violent protests. By then, however, it was too late.
Scores of people had been killed in Urumqi, the capital of Beijing's Xinjiang region. Over the weekend, ethnic rioting erupted in the troubled inland city. Violence continued through Tuesday.
The disturbances apparently started with a peaceful protest on Sunday over the deaths in June of at least two Uighur workers in southern Guangdong province. The victims, Turkic Muslims, were killed by Han, members of China's dominant ethnic group. Urumqi's Uighurs were outraged by, among other things, the failure of Guangdong authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Uighurs accuse Urumqi's police of savage attacks on demonstrators on Sunday. At this point it is difficult to say how the violence started, but it is clear that, sometime after the initial demonstration, Uighurs began attacking Han in the streets with sticks, bricks and knives. Enraged demonstrators set fires and overturned vehicles. The latest reports indicate that thousands of Han are now roaming the streets of Urumqi looking for revenge.
The latest official death toll is 156, but undoubtedly more have died. How did this tragedy happen?
"There were no warning signs about the riots," said Tang Yan, a 21-year-old pharmacy employee who fled rampaging Uighurs. "No one expected it."
Though these disturbances may have come as a surprise to Ms Tang, they were all but inevitable.
There have for centuries been Han living in what the Chinese today call Xinjiang, or New Frontier, which comprises one-sixth of the territory of present-day China. In the 1940s, the Han, an amalgamation of ethnicities, constituted about five per cent of Xinjiang's population. Today, their number has swollen to about 40 per cent. In the capital of Urumqi, the Han now constitute more than 70 per cent, a result of Communist Party programmes and incentives over the course of the past 60 years aimed at bringing Han settlers into the Muslim lands it administers. The Han take almost all the good jobs and business opportunities. Beijing strips the Uighur homeland of its mineral resources and best crops. There are Uighur officials in Xinjiang, but real political power is held by the Han.
Yet that is not the worst of it. Beijing's programme assumes that relentless modernisation will result in the assimilation of the Uighurs. And just in case economic development does not eradicate their culture, China's coercive policies are supposed to finish the job. Uighurs are ordered to shave their beards and not fast at Ramadan.
Prayer in public outside mosques is forbidden. Imams' sermons on Friday are restricted. The teaching of Arabic is allowed only in special schools sanctioned by the government, and Uighur-language instruction has been eliminated. In Kashgar, now known as Kashi, the government in February began razing the historic buildings and mosques in the Old City, ostensibly to root out the remnants of Uighur culture.
Xinjiang? The Uighurs do not recognise the term, and they want their own nation.
They proclaimed the East Turkestan Republic in 1944, but the new state did not last long. Mao Zedong crushed the Uighurs in 1949, the year he proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Now, Beijing calls the Turkic Muslims "Chinese", but that is a fiction. The Han and the Uighurs come from different racial stock, speak different languages and practise different religions. In short, the Uighurs are a conquered people.
But they have not accepted Chinese domination. Han Beijing has the power to maintain its rule, but the local population is more sullen than compliant. Relations between the Han and Uighurs have historically been uneasy, but in recent years they have deteriorated, especially since early 1997 when fighting flared in Yining, the capital of the short-lived East Turkestan Republic. The unrest is thought to have led to at least several hundred deaths, and subsequent executions added to the toll.
Since then, there have been scattered violent acts, such as those that occurred last year at the time of the Olympics. There is, despite what Beijing claims, no Uighur movement to speak of, but a formless opposition has been difficult to contain, especially because Han rule has been so unpopular. "There is not a day something is not happening in Xinjiang," said Erkin Alptekin, an exiled Uighur leader.
Beijing has claimed the current protests were instigated from abroad, specifically by exiled Rebiya Kadeer and the World Uighur Congress. Given the apparent lack of co-ordination in the Uighur community, that is unlikely - and irrelevant in any case.
The fundamental problem for the Chinese central government is simply that most Uighurs do not want to be part of the People's Republic. Therefore, nobody should have been surprised by events this week.
Are the Uighurs employing violence? Yes. But that is the result of Beijing's policies, which triggered similar acts by the normally pacifist monks in Tibet in March 2008.
Beijing's minority policies are abhorrent and unsustainable. As one observer said:
"There's a fire burning in Xinjiang, and the Chinese can't extinguish it."
Gordon G Chang is author of The Coming Collapse of China.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
SPECS
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Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
RESULTS
Bantamweight: Victor Nunes (BRA) beat Azizbek Satibaldiev (KYG). Round 1 KO
Featherweight: Izzeddin Farhan (JOR) beat Ozodbek Azimov (UZB). Round 1 rear naked choke
Middleweight: Zaakir Badat (RSA) beat Ercin Sirin (TUR). Round 1 triangle choke
Featherweight: Ali Alqaisi (JOR) beat Furkatbek Yokubov (UZB). Round 1 TKO
Featherweight: Abu Muslim Alikhanov (RUS) beat Atabek Abdimitalipov (KYG). Unanimous decision
Catchweight 74kg: Mirafzal Akhtamov (UZB) beat Marcos Costa (BRA). Split decision
Welterweight: Andre Fialho (POR) beat Sang Hoon-yu (KOR). Round 1 TKO
Lightweight: John Mitchell (IRE) beat Arbi Emiev (RUS). Round 2 RSC (deep cuts)
Middleweight: Gianni Melillo (ITA) beat Mohammed Karaki (LEB)
Welterweight: Handesson Ferreira (BRA) beat Amiran Gogoladze (GEO). Unanimous decision
Flyweight (Female): Carolina Jimenez (VEN) beat Lucrezia Ria (ITA), Round 1 rear naked choke
Welterweight: Daniel Skibinski (POL) beat Acoidan Duque (ESP). Round 3 TKO
Lightweight: Martun Mezhlumyan (ARM) beat Attila Korkmaz (TUR). Unanimous decision
Bantamweight: Ray Borg (USA) beat Jesse Arnett (CAN). Unanimous decision
HWJN
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Company%20Profile
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Profile Periscope Media
Founder: Smeetha Ghosh, one co-founder (anonymous)
Launch year: 2020
Employees: four – plans to add another 10 by July 2021
Financing stage: $250,000 bootstrap funding, approaching VC firms this year
Investors: Co-founders
Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Blackpink World Tour [Born Pink] In Cinemas
Starring: Rose, Jisoo, Jennie, Lisa
Directors: Min Geun, Oh Yoon-Dong
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The%20Kitchen
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Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
RACE CARD
6.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Dirt) 1,200m
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,900m
7.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 2,000m
8.15pm: Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (D) 1,600m
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid