(Bloomberg) -- China has backed Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s violent crackdown on protesters, saying it hopes the “strong measures” will bring calm.

“China supports all efforts that help the Kazakh authorities end the chaos as soon as possible and firmly opposes external forces’ acts to deliberately create social unrest and incite violence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Friday at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

He added that China, “as a brotherly neighbor,” would offer any help necessary to Kazakhstan.

Russia Deploys More Troops to Restore Control: Kazakh Update

An unknown number of demonstrators died in the clashes in Kazakstan over rising fuel prices, discontent regarding living standards and widespread corruption. Some 26 protesters and 18 officers were killed, police said, after earlier giving an estimate of “dozens.” Tokayev had pledged to respond “harshly” to put down the biggest challenge to the nation’s leadership since independence in 1991. 

He has blamed the unrest on unspecified outside forces, and took the unprecedented step of asking Russia and other members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization to send in troops. Tokayev has vowed to continue operations against what he called “terrorists.”

Kazakstan imposed a state of emergency and internet access was cut in much of the giant country. The unrest led the central bank to temporarily halt financial market operations.

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