WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Monday it "deeply" regrets that at least 156 people have been killed in ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang region, adding it raised the issue with a visiting Chinese diplomat.
"We deeply regret the loss of life" in the restive region, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said as China's deputy foreign minister Wu Dawei visited Washington. "We call on all sides for calm and restraint."
China said on Monday that at least 156 people were killed when Muslim Uighurs rioted in some of the deadliest ethnic unrest to have hit the country for decades.
The violence in the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday involved thousands of people and triggered an enormous security crackdown across Xinjiang, where tension has long simmered amid Uighur claims of repressive Chinese rule.
Kelly said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "dropped by" a meeting involving Wu, Clinton's deputy James Steinberg and Kurt Campbell, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
But Kelly did not say which of the three raised the issue of the violence or reveal exactly what was said.
He confirmed that the issue had been raised with Wu after saying earlier: "I'm sure that we'll raise some of these concerns that we have about the violence in Xinjiang the last few days."
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