More so, sources said, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is in Beijing to handle the situation. In fact, it was Wen who took centrestage after last year’s devastating earthquake in China. That the current situation in Xinjiang has required Hu to cut short his visit to a summit as important as the G-8 and is being seen as a clear indication that the matters are far more tense than they appear.

In many ways, sources said, the situation in Xinjiang runs the risk of becoming another embarrassment for China as it prepares to clamp down on the rioting. What had officials quite surprised is the fact that Beijing often brazens out these difficult questions just like it does in Tibet, but this time Hu felt the need to be seen back at home. He is also likely to address the nation after a Politburo meeting.

The Chinese President left on Wednesday morning even before US President Barack Obama arrived at the summit. Many critical issues like taking stock of the economic crisis, climate change and food security were to be discussed at the meet. In fact, there were indications that China will seek to have a debate on continuing with the US dollar as the global reserve currency.

Also, the G-5 meet — India, China, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico — was on Wednesday evening, where a political declaration spelling out joint position of these countries on these key global issues was finalised. But Hu did not even wait that long and entrusted the task of representing Beijing at these meetings to State Councilor Dai Bingguo.

His departure has only increased the focus on the Uighurs, the situation in capital Urumqui and China’s unsaid policy of gradually changing the demographics in places like these where now 60 per cent population is said to be Hans. For China, the deteriorating situation also raises an increased threat of Islamic terrorism.

Despite strong undercurrents of violence, Chinese authorities have used their leverage with Pakistan to not allow the tension in the province to acquire a violent Islamic fundamentalist character by way of well-oiled material support. Chinese news sources have put the toll at 156 in the rioting with reports that several paramilitary columns have moved in to ensure calm.

China official threatens death penalty for rioters

URUMQI: As northwest China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region settled into tense stillness on Wednesday after three days of deadly ethnic violence, a Communist Party leader from the region pledged to seek the death penalty for anyone behind the strife that state news reports say claimed at least 156 lives.

Li Zhi, the party boss in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital, said that many suspected instigators of the riots had been arrested and that most were students.

The Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, once were a large majority in Xinjiang but now make up only about half of the province's 20 million people. In Urumqi, Uighurs are greatly outnumbered by the Han, who make up about 90 percent of China’s population.

News reports from Urumqi said up to 1,000 Han Chinese protesters gathered there on Wednesday, but Li said squads of riot police and military troops had imposed calm on the city. The police and military presence on Urumqi streets was visibly beefed up on Wednesday, and helicopters clattered overhead, looking for evidence of unrest.

The state news agency, Xinhua, reported that many neighbourhood stores remained closed, their food and bottled water sold out. A heavy paramilitary police presence enforced an overnight traffic curfew, putting the city into virtual lockdown. NYT