The Eonomist's Digest26

Leaders
Beijing's nightmare
Originally from The Economist July.11th, 2009

Summary:
After the disbandment of the Soviet Union, it seems strange that the People's Republic of China still has these autonomous region like Xinjiang. However, the Chinese government had never thought of these problems of ethnic-Turkic Muslins before. The riots in Xinjiang's capital this week has caused over 150 deaths. It is a shame of the Chinese government, and also is a the most serious bloody event after the 1989 Tianamen Square protests. It also made the China's president, Hu Jintao, skip his G8 meeting. The riot calls the idea into question---China's idea that its people will always happily trade freedom for prosperity.
The Uighurs' bad situation is like that of Tibetans: unfairness. From the riots we know that modernization doesn't soothe the hate of Uighurstan to the Chinese government. Eventhough the Uighur has no such a famous leader in western world like Tibet's Dalai Lama, this threat may cause a bigger problem to the Chinese government----the hatred from the rest of the Islamic world.
The riots were ignited by the false accusation of two Urumqi workers, and the Han Chinese people also suffer from the riots. What's worse is that the Uighurstan in Xinjiang think they are colonized. On the other hand, China's censorship made this thing worse by leaking out little information of the two accused workers; the people think of the worst case. Learnt from the riots in Lhasa, the Chinese government let foreign media to Xinjiang and censor them. Then China will deal with these things with suppression.
Is this sustainable? Except for Tibetans and Uighurs, there are many other uneven threats in China like this. Using repression, this riot may not be a big threat to China's territory. However, without harmony, the regime will be harder to survive.

My opinion:
There's a rumor telling that if China can't make its economic growth up to 8% of their GDp last year, there will be revolutions. This riot in Xinjiang seems to be a political and racial one, but its essence is economic and living one.
Why I say so? Let's see. The Uighur people in China ca have more children than the Han Chinese, but they don't have enough resources---even living necessities to feed their children. The economic weakness of aborigines is also a common problem in Taiwan and U.S. However, both of the countries have a different solution from the Chinese one. At least they don't use military forces now.
It's not sure that China's repression can last long. Racial problems should be dealt with respect; the Chinese government shouldn't take this revolt as a political rebellion, eventhough it doesn't meet the Communists' need.