I guess things are as bad or worse in China’s Xinjiang province as the news reports indicate. Fox is reporting that the Chinese President has bailed out of the G8 meeting to attend to the crisis:

Chinese President Hu Jintao cut short his stay in Italy and cancelled his attendance at this week’s Group of Eight leaders’ summit due to violence in China’s Xinjiang region, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday. State Councilor Dai Bingguo will attend the summit in the central Italian city of L’Aquila on Hu’s behalf, the Chinese report said.

The Chinese were slated to be big players at this conference given all the noise they have been making lately. I’m sure the ritual calls for the end of dollar hegemony will still echo, they just won’t have quite the same impact coming from the State Councilor.

It’s also a little harder to take seriously from a country that can’t insure domestic tranquility.