Clash In China’s Xinjiang Injures 40 -Rights Group – Reuters

From Reuters:

A clash between farmers and police in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang over the price of cotton injured at least 40 people, a Hong Kong human rights watchdog said on Thursday. Tensions erupted in the Suxingtan area of Xinjiang after villagers farming cotton on fields contracted from a paramilitary group began to sell the cotton in the market, rather than back to the group, resentful of the low prices they were being offered.

The land was owned by the Construction and Production Corps , a paramilitary organisation formed in the 1950s by disbanded soldiers aimed at bringing restive areas under Beijing’s control. [Full Text]