Most of China’s dead are Han

China raised the death toll from ethnic rioting in Xinjiang, giving for the first time the ethnicity of the dead, and a big security presence in the city at the center of the strife prevented protests on Saturday.

China raised the death toll from ethnic rioting in Xinjiang, giving for the first time the ethnicity of the dead, and a big security presence in the city at the center of the strife prevented protests on Saturday.

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The official Xinhua news agency said 184 people had died in the July 5 riots in Urumqi, the Xinjiang regional capital, and 137 of those killed were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's 1.3 billion population. The previous death toll was 156.

The latest figure included 46 Uighurs, the largely Muslim people of Xinjiang who share cultural bonds with

Central Asian peoples. All but one were men. Uighurs, once a sizeable majority in Xinjiang, now make up 46 per cent of its 21.3 million people, according to government data.

Xinhua said the other person killed in the attacks that erupted last weekend was a member of the Hui ethnic group, which is Muslim butculturally akin to Han Chinese.

The report did not say if any of the dead were killed by security forces.