1989 Ürümqi unrest
| 1989 Ürümqi unrest | |
|---|---|
| Location | People's Square, Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China |
| Date | May 19, 1989 (UTC+8) |
| Injured | 150 |
The 1989 Ürümqi unrest, also known as the May 19 riots in Ürümqi (Chinese: 乌鲁木齐五·一九骚乱) took place in the city of Ürümqi, capital of Xinjiang in China in May, 1989, which began with Muslim protesters marched and finally escalated into violent attack[1] against Xinjiang CPC office tower at People's Square on May 19, 1989.
The immediate cause was a book called Sexual Customs (性风俗) published in 1987 which purported to describe the sexual life of Muslims and provoked some Hui people from Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang. The protesters, mainly Uyghur and Hui, initially conducted orderly march in the previous days and demanded for the government to destroy Sexual Customs and punish the book authors.[2] However, the protest ended up rioting, where nearly 2,000 rioters overthrew cars, smashed windows and some attacked staff at CPC office. The government dispatched 1000 policemen and 1200 armed police soldiers to disperse the crowd and arrested 173.[3]
The protests were not limited to Ürümqi. Muslims all across China organized protests in 1989. 3000 Muslims from all ten Muslim Ethnicities marched in Beijing on May 12. In April 20,000 Muslims demonstrated in Lanzhou & up to a 100,000 demonstrators came out in Xining. Smaller scale demonstrations took place in Shanghai, Inner Mongolia, Wuhan, & Yunnan.[4]
References
- ^ "A Recent History of Unrest in Xinjiang | Xinjiang: Far West China". Archived from the original on 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ "乌鲁木齐穆斯林游行——5.19事件/尼扎穆丁∙侯赛因文/伊利夏提译". Archived from the original on 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2012-02-18.
- ^ 国家利益高于一切——新疆稳定问题观察与思考. 新疆人民出版社. 2002. p. 254. ISBN 7-22807710-5.
- ^ C. Gladney, Dru (1991). Muslim Chinese - Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic. Harvard University Asia Center. p. 3.
