Guangzhou massacre

In the Guangzhou massacre, Chinese rebels under Huang Chao who were revolting against the Tang dynasty were said to have engaged in a massive slaughter of foreign merchants in Guangzhou.

Background
Xenophobia had been building up in China, directed against the wealthy foreign merchants, who were scapegoated for troubles which plagued Tang dynasty China. An earlier Yangzhou massacre (760) took place in which Chinese rebels massacred the wealthy Arab and Persian merchant community. The wealth of these foreign traders/merchants spurred extreme xenophobia from the Chinese during the decline of the Tang dynasty.

Arab and Persian pirates raided and looted warehouses in Guangzhou (known to them as Khanfu or Sin-Kalan) in AD 758, according to a local Guangzhou government report on October 30, 758, which corresponded to the day of Guisi (癸巳) of the ninth lunar month in the first year of the Qianyuan era of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty.

Huang Chao revolted against the declining Tang dynasty after failing the Imperial Examination multiple times. He rebelled in 875 and led his army across China to Guangzhou in Lingnan.

Guangzhou was called "Khanfu" by the Arabs, and another name for Guangzhou is Canton.

Massacre
The Chinese rebels led by Huang Chao slaughtered Jews, Muslim Arabs, Muslim Persians, Zoroastrians (a.k.a. Parsees or Mazdaists), and Christians when they seized and conquered according to the Arab writer Abu Zayd Hasan As-Sirafi. Huang Chao's army was in Guangzhou during 878–879. Mulberry groves were also ruined by Huang's army. Only the Arabic source of Abu Zaid mentions the massacre, Chinese sources of the Tang dynasty history say nothing of the massacre and only mention Huang Chao occupying Guangzhou and retreating after disease struck his army.

The main motivation for the killings were that the victims were foreign and wealthy.

The death toll could have ranged from 120,000 to 200,000 foreigners.