Rioting in Urumqi

I’m seeing reports on Twitter on riots in Urumqi (Urumchi), Western China. Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang, a Muslim-majority region populated by the Uighur ethnic group. It’s been the center of a long-term campaign by the Beijing government to fully integrate the region into China. This has included a policy of moving Han-origin Chinese families into the region to change its ethnic balance and suppression of Uighur language and Islamic practice.

 I can’t find any reference to the riots in the mainstream media (A Reuters article is now up), but Twitter is alive with reports of the riots. You can find photos of the riots, YouTube video, and a stream of English and Chinese language discussion of the violence.