Firstly, it seems that both cases involved both phenomena. The pro-China crowd (here and presumably among PRC netizens) accuses a monolithic “Western Media” of depicting both Uighurs and Tibetans as peaceful protesters ONLY. That some protested entirely peacefully, seeking redress of legitimate grievances is highly likely, yet one doubts that the Chinese media covers these at all. The assumption that EVERYONE who participated in these events is “anti-China“, even those likely in the majority who either did no one physical harm or sympathize with the motivations if not the methods of the extremists, is unwarranted and unlikely.

Thus, it is easier in both Tibet and Xinjiang to use the “few bad apples” approach, led by an ethnic, grand high bad apple to whom these few’s allegiance extends to beating and killing Han brutally at will. As soon as anyone dies, no grievance, cause, or statement can be legitimate–but anything short of that (I.e. a protest with official CCP permission) will likely fail to get anyone’s attention while still getting the organizers in hot water.

It’s disturbing that in both cases Chinese patriots have chosen to demonize Western media for its biased coverage…I expect journalists would like nothing more than to cover their stories freely–in neither case is/was this possible. When dealing with a restricted information environment (I.e. the PRC and most authoritarian countries), the facts will always be in hot dispute.

In the sense that terrorism is justified by some as a weapon of a discontented weak against the strong, riots which involve deliberate killings very much resemble terrorism. But terrorism tends not to be perpetrated by angry street mobs. Happy people do not form mobs or protest groups.

Outrage and xenophobia on both sides and no one wants to budge or even listen. Good going West and East: you guys still suck at communicating with each other.

When will this fighting and killings end?

Those who mock the Chinese media should demand a higher quality from western reporters as well. But that won’t happen because most of them don’t care for the truhh, they just want to see more china bashing.

At least the Chinese netizens have the smarts not to believe the official media.

It serves for everyone doesn’t it?

Aren’t we all looking for answers?

Beijing has a problem that its ethnic policies basically does not make anyone happy. The Chinese governments of any levels all get uptight when certain incidents involve ethnic minorities. They always try to “harmonise” things, while things, going against their wishes, more than often get out of their hands.

On one hand, Beijing gives the ethnic minorities some little treats, eg. couples can have more than 1 baby if they like, students can get some extra points in the National College Entrance Exam, lenient sentences for crimes(maybe petty ones?);
While on the other, Beijing treats ethnic minorities as potential enemies who need tight control. When I was attending university in Shanghai I heard from a few friends from Xinjiang that as ethnic minorities they were refused to be served in all the little hotels/hostels they tried to check in. They couldn’t even organise normal dance parties just for festivals.
Uyghurs usually can’t get good jobs even back in Xinjiang, let alone Shanghai, causing a huge economical disparity, which usually heralds hatred among the uneducated and subsequently social unrest.

This time they tried to cover up yet another “molestation” case of some Uyghur worker in Guangdong province, and when the Han mob had to take justice to their own hand, unfortunately 2 lives were tragically cut short. This typifies the governments reaction when ethnic minorities commit petty crimes, and has long begotten resentment among the Hans. Whereas for the majority of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, they can’t even share a tiny little bit of the wealth that has built on the local oil/gas reserves, unemployed, uneducated, what they see is just brutal Han voilence and oppression.

What Beijing needs to do, is to treat all Chinese citizens as equals. It sounds funny, I know, because they haven’t even sorted out all the problems among Hans yet… Democracy and a “melting-pot society” that we are so familiar with in the west are just like a distant dream.

That said, murderers shouldn’t be portrayed as “peaceful protesters” and should be given fair trials in courts of the law.

China’s problem, sometimes, is it wants to have its cake and eat it too… Hmmm… it is quite annoying to be honest but irresponsible, distorted reports in certain western media do not really help in solving the problem at all.