China's Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu arrived in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Friday to direct the work of defusing the ongoing unrest in the city, Xinhua reported.
Meng urged that the local governments and the committees of the Communist Party of China (CPC) of all levels "to restore social order as soon as possible."
"Maintaining stability is the central task of overriding importance in Xinjiang at the present time," He said in a meeting with local officials upon his arrival.
He also warned that "those who were involved in the violence of beating, smashing, looting and burning, and those who broke social orders with different means or undermine ethnic unity, shall be punished according to the law without exception, whatever his ethnicity is."