The Wall Street Journal, 17 November 2013

BEIJING—Weekend unrest in China’s far western Xinjiang region left 11 people dead, local authorities said, in the latest episode in a wave of violence in the ethnically divided region that presents a major security challenge for Chinese leaders.

Assailants armed with axes attacked a police station Saturday evening in the restive town of Selibuya, Xinjiang’s government said in a statement posted to its official Sina Weibo microblog late Saturday. The town—which is called Siriqbuya in the language of the local Uighur ethnic group—is about one hundred miles east of the city of Kashgar, which is has jurisdiction over the area, and 600 miles from the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.

The government said nine assailants were killed in the attack along with two people identified as assisting local police. An additional two police were injured in the attack, the statement said.

The statement didn’t identify the ethnicity of the assailants. It included the name of one person who officials said was an attacker, a name similar to those used by the region’s Uighur ethnic group. Local authorities in the region either declined to comment or said they had no additional information on the attack.

The Chinese government has long blamed unrest in Xinjiang on those they describe as ethnic Uighur separatists. Uighurs are a minority in China, where Mandarin-speaking Han Chinese make up a vast majority of the population.

Uighurs widely practice Islam, which is closely monitored and controlled by local authorities. The Chinese government has alleged some of those who have carried attacks in Xinjiang in recent years have ties to overseas terrorist networks. Uighur rights groups reject such claims, and instead say many in Xinjiang are dejected by discrimination from local authorities.

In recent interviews, many ethnic Uighurs lamented growing socioeconomic disparities in parts of the region, which is rich in natural resources. State-owned companies have set up widely in parts of Xinjiang, but Uighurs say Han Chinese transplants from outside Xinjiang often win such jobs due to language barriers between Han Chinese and Uighurs, among other factors.

China’s government has attempted to use economic development as a way to win stability in Xinjiang. But the impact of large numbers of Han flooding traditionally Uighur locales has exacerbated tensions. Interethnic riots in Urumqi left nearly 200 people dead in 2009.

Saturday’s attack was the second major incident to strike remote Selibuya this year. In April, at least 21 people were killed in a clash between local residents and police, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The weekend unrest follows an incident in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in late October, in which the government says assailants from Xinjiang drove an SUV into a crowd of tourists.

At least five people were killed in the incident, including three assailants and two tourists, and about 40 others suffered injury. Five others have been detained in connection with the Tiananmen incident, authorities said.

The Selibuya attack came just after the conclusion of a closely watched conclave of senior party leaders, known as the Third Plenum. In addition to outlaying a laundry list of ambitious economic and other reforms, party leaders said they were establishing a new national-security committee to better coordinate against growing threats at home and abroad.

Write to Brian Spegele at [email protected]

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303985504579203091101613568