But since the communists triumphed in 1949, the grip of the Han Chinese has tightened ever further.
Since 1949, the Han Chinese have grown from 5% to 38% of the population of about 18m.
The violence in Xinjiang was crude, racist stuff on both sides, with the Han Chinese suffering the brunt of it.
In these crowds, the Han Chinese stood out not so much for their lack of swagger as for the lack of a decent hat.
The Han Chinese are the country's dominant ethnic group, and the Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority who consider Xinjiang their homeland.
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The doctor said the Han Chinese are trying to defend themselves.
But as a result of inward migration over past decades, that number is now almost matched by residents from the Han Chinese majority, our correspondent adds.
The Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims who, like the Tibetans, have spent the last two millennia struggling against the Han Chinese, are already a minority in their own land.
At the time, protesters burned vehicles and shops, some advocating independence from China, and others demonstrating against the growing influence of the Han Chinese in the area.
The campaign against her rose to fever pitch last month after nearly 200 people were killed in the fighting between the Uighurs, the Han Chinese and the police.
Some protesters advocated independence from China, while others demonstrated against the growing influence of the Han Chinese in the area and other regions of China with ethnic Tibetan populations.
From its perspective, the policies may even be regarded as a success because the migration of Han Chinese into the sparsely populated regions enhances government control over the longer term, regardless of the friction it may create.
It extends well into areas of the city where ethnic Han Chinese form the majority.
State media reports said most of the workers were ethnic Han Chinese, with two reported to be ethnic Tibetans.
Woeser, a Tibetan poet and blogger, says that some ethnic-Tibetan officials privately complain about the clampdown, but Han Chinese officials in Tibet toe a uniformly hard line.
During the night, a lorry driven by an ethnic Han Chinese driver hit one of the herders, called Mergen (single-named, like many Mongols).
Economic considerations are also coming into play -- it is significant that the initial rape rumors were spread by a Han Chinese angry that he lost his job in the factory where the Uighurs were working.
China wrongly blamed him for the ferocious ethnic attacks on Han Chinese in riots in Lhasa, in 2008.
Meanwhile, for some Han Chinese, the Uighurs seem ungrateful and backward, pampered by the state with preferential policies, such as being allowed to have more children.
When conflict broke out in 2009 with the Kokang, an ethnic-Han-Chinese minority, 37, 000 people fled to China, provoking sharp criticism of the Burmese junta.
Many Han Chinese complain that the government has not done enough to keep them informed.
More than half its people are Han Chinese, but the area is home to more than 40 different ethnic groupings, including Tibetans, Hui and Mongols.
The rail link to Lhasa brought disproportionate benefits to ethnic Han Chinese whose language and culture enabled them to take quicker advantage of the Han tourist influx.
Hundreds of Han Chinese were on the streets of Urumqi on Tuesday, holding sticks and pipes, and calling for severe punishment of the Uyghurs, who they say committed serious crimes.
Despite the destruction of Han businesses in 2008, many if not most of the city's shops, even in the old Tibetan quarter around the Jokhang, are run by Han Chinese.
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