Police in Yueyang, Hunan Province stated on their official Weibo account on December 3 that they have handled a dispute over qiegao, or baklava, a popular Xinjiang snack, between several local people and 16 Uyghur vendors that devolved into a street brawl. The locals were forced to pay 160,000 yuan ($25,700) in compensation to the vendors. This news led to hot debate online, with more than 2 million Weibo posts on the topic.

Business disputes are common in China. This incident in Yueyang is not an extraordinary event. It's the ethnic factor that has drawn public attention.

Was the damaged qiegao really worth 160,000 yuan? Obviously not. Even the local government has pointed out that the compensation included the price of damaged motorcycles and medical expenses for the Uyghur vendors. But why were they able to demand such extortionate compensation, with backing from the local police?

One likely reason is because of the ethnic angle. Police and local governments always want to steer clear of any hint of ethnic conflict. Fearful of stirring up trouble, they often try to smooth things over rather than acting in accordance with their principles or the law. But this ultimately backfires. Once the case gets out, it causes a strong reaction from the public, and the debate online changes to slamming the ethnic minorities involving and doubts about the national ethnic policies. 

But in this case, netizens have shown a sense of humor. Instead of just attacking the Uyghur, they have been joking about the price of the cake and questioning the police handling of this incident. In fact, these cases reflect police and local governments' failed understanding of China's ethnic policies. If this incident happened in Xinjiang, the result of police's response will be different because they do not view all incidents which involve ethnic minorities as inherently problematic.

At the beginning of reform and opening-up, only a few people moved from Xinjiang into the rest of China. But with economic development, mobility has also increased rapidly, bringing with it the possibility of ethnic conflict.

Given this increased mobility, local governments should also understand China's ethnic policies and be able to deal with incidents which involve ethnic minorities. Anti-violence and emphasis on law and order should be the basic principles when handling incidents involving any ethnic minority.

In recent years, to reshape Xinjiang's image nationwide, the Xinjiang government has taken a series of actions, such as picking role models and helping street children. However, we should also pay great attention to this incident. Individual cases of bad behavior cannot really affect Xinjiang's image and the relationship between ethnic groups, but both the Uyghur and the Xinjiang government need to do more to restore their reputation in the eyes of the public.

The author is an associate researcher of the Sociology Institute at the Academy of Social Sciences of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn