China Executes 9 for Ethnic Riots

After months of alleged Uighur disappearances following July's ethnic riots in China's Xinjiang province, the People's Republic of China has executed nine of the 12 individuals sentenced to death for their roles in the riots. Uighurs, members of a Muslim ethnic minority within China's borders, faced a government crackdown after riots took the lives of an estimated 200 in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi last summer. Following the announcement of the nine executions, China's state-controlled press announced that 20 more Xinjiang residents had been indicted for roles in the riots, possibly part of a new "strike hard and punish" campaign, the name local officials have given to periodic crackdowns on what they characterize as the Uighur community's terroristic elements.