A senior Chinese diplomat and a fellow national were shot dead in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek at the weekend.
Piotr Tyablin, deputy head of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry said the first secretary at the Chinese embassy was shot dead with a second man as they travelled in a car in the city centre late on Saturday.
He named the dead diplomat as Van Dzhan Pin and the second victim as Omar Nurmurkhamed, a native of China's northwestern Xingjiang province which borders Kyrgyzstan.
Tyablin refused to discuss possible motives for the slayings. Itar-Tass news agency quoted unnamed Interior Ministry sources as saying radicals fighting for an independent Uighur state on Chinese territory may have been behind the killings.
Two years ago, Uighur separatists opened fire on a Chinese government delegation visiting Bishkek, killing two people.
Uighurs in the Central Asian state, who say they fled to escape Chinese mistreatment, have been active in supporting the province's secessionist bid.