using their job as an opportunity to learn the Chinese language. On the outskirts of Bishkek, there is a large Chinese market, described as a "city within a city"; it has its own hospital, mosque, and apartment buildings. Migrants from China also work in the construction sector, especially on housing projects for low-income people. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev once gave a speech praising the diligent Chinese workers and contrasting them harshly with local workers, whom he described as "lazy"; however, his speech provoked some resentment from average citizens. Construction company bosses also prefer Chinese workers because they are seen as less litigious than local workers, especially in the case of those living in the country illegally. Inter-ethnic relations There is a popular perception that many Chinese migrants seek to marry Kyrgyz women in order to obtain Kyrgyz citizenship; local people, especially the elderly, object to the women marrying men who are not Muslims. However, such marriages actually remain relatively rare. Kyrgyz people complain that the Chinese specialists who run factories are secretive and do not wish to train local people how to operate the equipment, just keeping them as low-level manual workers. Kyrgyzstani workers also blame unskilled Chinese migrants for taking jobs away from local people and thus forcing them to migrate to Russia to find work, where they themselves face the danger of violence motivated by xenophobia. Kyrgyz merchants have also organised protests against the Chinese traders. There have been numerous incidents of xenophobic violence against Chinese migrants, including one in June 2002 which resulted in three deaths. During the 2010 riots in Bishkek which overthrew Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government, the Guoying Center, a prominent symbol of Chinese traders' presence in Kyrgyz's capital city, also became a target for mobs, who looted shops and burned the building. The Kyrgyz also violently targeted Uyghurs and Dungans during the same riots. Media The Ji'erjisisitan Huaqiao Bao (吉尔吉斯斯坦华侨报, literally "Kyrgyzstan Chinese Emigrant Newspaper") began publication in 2006 as a semi-monthly newspaper; it had a circulation of roughly 3,000 . It is printed in Xinjiang by the same department which publishes the Xinjiang Economic Daily. See also China–Kyrgyzstan relations References Notes Sources Kyrgyzstan Chinese diaspora in Asia Ethnic groups in Kyrgyzstan