China: Ten Thousand Protest in Xinjiang After Syringe Stabbings

As many as 10,000 people in Urumqi, China took to the streets on Thursday. They were angry over reports of people being stabbed with syringes.

Xinjiang TV reported that the first syringe stabbing occurred on August 20. The Associated Press said as of Thursday evening that 476 people have been treated at a hospital, but most of them showed no signs of being pricked. No one has died or been infected, but that doesn’t stop rumors from swirling—or people from protesting.

There’ve been rumors like this in the past in China—reports of AIDS patients stabbing people with needles—reports that were later shown to be false.

More fundamentally, these latest protests in Urumqi may be linked to the riots there in early July that left hundreds of Uighurs and Han Chinese dead.

Many in Urumqi feel regional authorities have not done enough to ease ethnic tensions—or to bring justice to the people they feel were responsible for the July violence.

Some protestors are calling on Xinjiang Party Secretary Wang Lequan to step down. Wang is a close ally of Chinese leader Hu Jintao, and many blame Wang for mishandling the July riots and their aftermath.

(NTDTV)