Security forces kept a firm grip on the tense Xinjiang capital Thursday after days of ethnic violence that killed 156 people, and alarmed Chinese leaders vowed to deal firmly with those behind the attacks. According to AP, crowds of Han Chinese cheered as trucks full of police and covered in banners reading “We must defeat the terrorists” and “Oppose ethnic separatism and hatred” rumbled by. The minority Uighurs became far more fearful about talking to reporters.

The region’s worst ethnic violence in decades has already forced President Hu Jintao to cut short a trip to Italy, where he was to participate in a Group of Eight summit and hold talks with Barack Obama.