Clashes between minority Chinese Muslims and the Han majority last month left at least one person dead and 20 injured, a Hong Kong newspaper and human rights group reported yesterday.The fighting in the eastern province of Shandong broke out Aug. 17 after a Hui man was caught stealing and beaten by several Han in the town of Shimiao, the Ming Pao newspaper and independent Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported. The Hui man, who was not identified by name, returned to the Muslim neighborhood where several thousand Hui gathered sticks, bricks and other improvised weapons and marched on the town's commercial district.
Police tried to separate the groups but were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and four police vehicles were smashed. Only after several hundred members of the paramilitary People's Armed Police were dispatched to the scene did the fighting come under control.
The reports said the clashes had been labeled criminal activity and were currently under investigation, but gave no word of arrests. Numerous violent incidents between Hui and Han have been reported in Shandong and the neighboring province of Henan in recent years, including a Dec. 12, 2000, clash in which police shot dead at least six Hui men.