Riots irrupt in Occupied Chinese Territories

Riots and street battles killed at least 140 people in China's western Xinjiang province and injured 828 others in the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit the region in decades. Officials said Monday the death toll was expected to rise.

The unrest is another troubling sign for Beijing at how rapid economic development has failed to stem — and even has exacerbated — resentment among ethnic minorities, who say they are being marginalized in their homelands as Chinese migrants pour in. The Uighur natives don't want their country rule by China, but Communists officials labels such separatist groups as terrorists.

"First they fired tear gas at the students. Then they started beating them and shooting them with bullets. Big trucks arrived, and students were rounded up and arrested," a witness said.

The clashes in Urumqi echoed last year's unrest in Tibet, when a peaceful demonstration by monks in the capital of Lhasa erupted into riots that spread to surrounding areas, leaving at least 22 dead. The Chinese government accused Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of orchestrating the violence — a charge he denied.

Since the communist take over of China, it has routinely snatched neighboring territories for itself, then ruling them with tighter and tighter restrictions. Their most recent target is Taiwan, though the island nation has stood up to threat for decades.

See Chick's KINGS OF THE EAST.