China ramps up efforts to stop deadly ethnic violence

Reporting from Urumqi, China, and Beijing -- In an escalating campaign to stamp out ethnic violence, Chinese forces saturated the city of Urumqi, helicopters dropped leaflets urging calm, and the local Communist party boss warned of the death penalty for rioters convicted of killings.

"We're determined to maintain social stability," said Urumqi's Communist Party chief, Li Zhi, at a press conference today. "To those who committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them."

Thousands of Chinese troops flooded into this city Wednesday to separate feuding ethnic groups after three days of communal violence left 156 people dead, and a senior Communist Party official vowed to execute those guilty of murder in the rioting in western China.

Long convoys of armored cars and green troop trucks with riot police rumbled through Urumqi, a city of 2.3 million people. Other security forces carrying automatic rifles with bayonets formed cordons to defend Muslim neighborhoods from marauding groups of vigilantes with sticks.

Military helicopters buzzed over Xinjiang's regional capital, dropping pamphlets urging people to stay in their homes and stop fighting. Special police from other provinces were called in to patrol the city.

The crisis was so severe that President Hu Jintao cut short a trip to Italy, where he was to participate in a Group of Eight summit. It was an embarrassing move for a leader who wants to show that China has a harmonious society as it prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Communist rule.