When ethnic disturbances broke out in western China last week, bringing the worst violence the country has seen in years, international reaction proved curiously mild. The violence in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, resulted in the deaths of at least 184 people, with some putting the number much higher. The events alarmed China's leadership, prompting President Hu Jintao to suddenly leave the G-8 summit in Italy. As for the rest of the world, the sense of alarm, if there was one, seemed rather muted.
World leaders remained eerily quiet or spoke in tones strikingly deferential to China, despite pleas from Uighur activists and expressions of support from Tibetans, who are intimately familiar with the perils of asserting a minority identity inside the giant Asian nation. The Urumqi events and the international reaction demonstrate how effective China's foreign policy strategy has proven in pursuit of Beijing's two paramount goals in the global arena. ...
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