Originally published by UPI.com,06 Julay 2010

BEIJING, July 6 (UPI) — Thousands of recently fitted surveillance cameras monitored the people of Urumqi as Chinese riot police checked shoppers’ bags on the anniversary of deadly ethnic riots.

The Beijing government has been careful to be ready for any incidents after nearly 200 people died last year in clashes that rocked Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

 More than 1,700 people were injured as riots stretched across several days starting July 5 in Urumqi, home to mostly Uighur Muslims as well as Han Chinese.

Around 8 million Uighur live in Xinjiang and many are unhappy about the large influx of Han Chinese settlers, whom the Uighurs say increasingly marginalize their interests and culture.

Uighur groups claim that the escalation was caused by the Chinese police’s use of excessive force after they confronted the original peaceful protesters in the streets.

Local government officials said most of the rioters were from southern Xinjiang, including the Kashgar and Hotan prefectures, and were unemployed migrants living in nearly 50 shantytowns across the city.

Beijing said the riots were planned abroad by the World Uighur Congress, which they say is a terrorist organization, and its President Rebiya Kadeer.

The WUC was formed in April 2004 in Munich, Germany, as a collection of exiled Uighur groups including the Uighur American Association and the East Turkestan National Congress. Kadeer, a businesswoman and political activist, has been in exile in the United States since 2005 after 6 years imprisonment in China for allegedly leaking state secrets.

This year buses, supermarkets, department stores and thousands of other public facilities in Urumqi, as well as other parts of northwest China, were fitted with high-definition surveillance cameras ahead of the anniversary.

A spokesman for the Urumqi city council said many of the surveillance cameras had been fitted with “riot-proof” protective shells.

Around 3,400 buses, 200 bus stops, as well as 4,440 streets and lanes were fitted with cameras. Even 270 schools and kindergartens and 100 shopping malls and supermarkets had cameras set up.

Chinese media carried pictures of police searching the bags of shoppers as they entered market areas and parks. Some police operated airport-style security checks that included walk-through X-ray machines.

Over the past year, around 5,000 extra police offices have been recruited in the autonomous region’s security forces.

In May, the city also set up its own so-called Flying Tigers Squad, a special forces unit under the Municipal Public Security Bureau.

“Their main task is to fight terrorism and handle such cases as hostage-taking and gun, explosive attacks,” Wang Mingshan, director of the bureau, said at the time. “The squad members are all experienced. We have equipped them with best vehicles and weapons.”

Li Shenhui, chief director of the special police force under the Urumqi public security bureau, said lessons had been learned from last year’s riots. Many have motorbikes to cut through thick traffic.

“The July 5 riot exposed several security loopholes, such as our poor surveillance system, slow response and lack of coordination between different divisions,” he said.

His force has 530 officers, 70 percent of whom are from ethnic groups other than Han.

“Ethnic officers communicate with local residents better and can be sent into ethnic areas undercover so we can obtain intelligence,” he said.

In the aftermath of last year’s riots, around 1,000 Uighurs were arrested and mosques were temporarily closed. Outside communication remained limited and armed police remained in place until January.

Nine people were executed for their parts in the riots.