China admitted killing a number of Uighurs in recent unrest. A reader took exception to this BBC report:
Some 200 people – mostly Han Chinese – died in the clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi.
There's no qualifier that the 200 fatalities figure is based on the Chinese government, much less whether the number was independently verified. It's presented as an authoritative number. Yet, the BBC finishes off, saying:
Uighur groups in exile have said hundreds of Uighurs were killed.
For comparison, there's a wide disparity between Israeli and Palestinian casualty counts, and reports routinely note this.
I won't fault the BBC for treating Israeli, Palestinian and Uighur figures with a healthy dose of skepticism. But on what basis are the Chinese numbers assumed reliable?
