7. The Yangzhou and Guangzhou massacres in China
The Yangzhou massacre in China in the year 760 CE took place during the An Shi Rebellion against the weakening Tang Dynasty. It was directed almost entirely against foreign traders in Yangzhou, who were targeted by the rebel troops entering the region for the twin crimes of being foreigners and for having money. Nearly all of the victims were traders and merchants from Persia and Arab lands. How many were killed during the mostly xenophobic murder spree is unknown, but it was likely in the thousands, and possibly several thousand. Persian and Arab traders had by then come to dominate the trading stations along the Grand Canal, and their domination over local trade was widely resented, and the local citizenry joined with the rebel troops in exterminating them.
The Guangzhou massacre took place over a century later, which by then had seen a resurgence of the Arab and Persian traders and their return to dominance in the region. Many Chinese believed that the Tang Dynasty had been weakened by the influx of so many foreigners in their realm, and rebellious troops under Huang Chao, supported by the local Chinese, murdered thousands of Arab, Persian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian traders (most of the Arabs and Persians were Muslims) as well as Christians, destroying their wares and property. Arab sources reported a death toll of more than 200,000, and a Christian publication from the mid-nineteenth century estimated 120,000 were killed for the crime of being successful and foreign.