July 2009 Ürümqi riots

A series of violent riots over several days broke out on 5 July 2009 in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), in northwestern China. The first day's rioting, which involved at least 1,000 Uyghurs, began as a protest, but escalated into violent attacks that mainly targeted Han people. According to Chinese state media, a total of 197 people died, most of whom were Han people or non-Muslim minorities, with 1,721 others injured and many vehicles and buildings destroyed. Many Uyghurs disappeared during wide-scale police sweeps in the days following the riots; Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented 43 cases and said figures for real disappearances were likely to be much higher.

Rioting began following the Shaoguan incident, where false accusations of rape of a Han woman by Uyghur men led to a brawl between ethnic Han and Uyghur factory workers in Shaoguan, resulting in the deaths of two Uyghurs who were both from Xinjiang. The Chinese government claimed that the riots were planned from abroad by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and its leader Rebiya Kadeer. Kadeer denies fomenting the violence in her fight for Uyghur self-determination.

Chinese media coverage of the Ürümqi riots was extensive and was compared favourably by foreign media to that of the unrest in Tibet in 2008. When the riots began, telephone and internet connections within Xinjiang were cut off. In the weeks that followed, official sources reported that over 1,000 people were arrested and detained; Uyghur-run mosques were temporarily closed. The communication limitations and armed police presence remained in place as of January 2010. By November 2009, over 400 individuals faced criminal charges for their actions during the riots. Nine were executed in November 2009. According to China News Service, they were executed for crimes such as murder or arson. By February 2010, at least 26 had received death sentences.