Riots in Inner Mongolia over murder of pastoral ethnic Mongolian herder

In 2011, the intentional hit and run killing of a Mongolian herder by a Han coal truck driver sparked protests in Inner Mongolia [Jacobs, 2011]. The protests can also be attributed to resentment towards the waves of ethnic Han migration into the region, as by 2011, Han Chinese outnumbered ethnic Mongolians by 5 to 1. Further grievances concerned the environmental destruction caused by Han Chinese mining operations, the belief by Mongols that decades of economic growth had disproportionately benefited Han Chinese, and resentment over the loss of Mongolian pastoral traditions [Jacobs, 2011]. In response to the protests, the Chinese government severely restricted and censored internet access and arrested large numbers of college students, professors, and Mongolian herders, while at the same time seeking to ameliorate the conflict by promising to address the environmental by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in protections for the steppe habitat that  the Mongolian herders rely on, and by supporting Mongolian language education and promotion of their culture. Critics saw this response cynically as a challenge for Chinese leadership, saying that “you can’t just throw money at an issue like ethnic identity” [Pei quoted in Jacobs, 2011].