Shaoguan incident
| 2009 Shaoguan incident | |
|---|---|
| Location |
Shaoguan, Guangdong China
|
| Date | 25 June 2009 |
| Deaths | at least 2 |
|
Non-fatal injuries
|
118 |
The Shaoguan incident was a civil disturbance which took place overnight on 25/26 June 2009 in Guangdong province, China. A violent dispute erupted between migrant Uyghurs and Han workers at a toy factory in Shaoguan as a result of allegations of the sexual assault of a Han female. Groups of Han set upon Uyghur co-workers, leading to at least two Uyghurs being killed, and some 118 people injured.
The event was widely cited as the trigger event for July 2009 Ürümqi riots, which ostensibly started as a peaceful street protest demanding official action over the two Uyghurs who died in Shaoguan. Following trials in October 2009, one person was executed and several others sentenced to terms between life imprisonment and five to seven years.
The factory where the incident took place is the Xuri ("Early Light") Toy Factory (旭日玩具厂), owned by Hong Kong-based Early Light International (Holdings) Ltd., the largest toy manufacturer in the world. The company's Shaoguan factory in the Wujiang district employs some 16,000 workers. At the behest of the Guangdong authorities, it hired 800 workers from Kashgar, in Xinjiang as part of an ethnic program which relocated 200,000 young Uyghurs since the start of 2008. According to The Guardian, most workers sign a one- to three-year contract then travel to factory dormitories in the south; in addition to their salaries ranging from 1,000 yuan to 1,400 yuan a month, many get free board and lodging. Most of these Kashgars are away from home to work for the first time. The Far Eastern Economic Review said Guangdong authorities initiated a controversial plan to ship [Uyghur] workers to Guangdong factories amid continuing labour shortages. The young workers, whose families have charged that they were forced to send their children south, often lack even basic Chinese language skills and find it difficult to fit in with the dominant Han culture."The New York Times quoted Xinjiang Daily saying in May that 70 percent of the young Uyghurs had "signed up for employment voluntarily." However, Kashgar residents say the families of those who refuse to go are threatened with fines of up to six months' worth of a villager's income.
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Wikipedia