Category Archives: China
China’s brutality and Tibetans’ increasing despair
At least 12 Tibetan monks and nuns have set themselves of fire, in acts of self-immolation, this year, in protest against the increasing oppressiveness of the Chinese Government. However, the world has remained virtually silent on the issue.
Speaking from said in Dharmsala, India, Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay of the Tibetan Government in Exile said, “The human rights situation in Tibet has deteriorated so significantly that Tibetans are resorting to desperate and unprecedented Continue Reading →
Muslim militant group claims western China attacks
This is part of the article. For the rest, please click through to Google News:
By CHI-CHI ZHANG, Associated Press – 14 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — A militant Muslim group claimed by video it carried out recent attacks in western China that killed at least three dozen people, a monitoring group said.
The video was purportedly made by the Turkistan Islamic Party, which seeks independence for China’s western Xinjiang region, the SITE Intelligence Group said this week. The militants are believed to be based in Pakistan, where security experts say core members have been trained by al-Qaida.
Xinjiang is home to largely Muslim ethnic Uighurs (pronounced WEE’-gur) who say they have been marginalized by an influx of China’s majority Han to the region. Ethnic riots there two years ago killed at least 197 people.
Security has been raised, but still, dozens were killed in slashings and arson and hit-and-run attacks in the cities of Hotan and Kashgar in July.
The more than 10-minute video released in late August features Turkistan Islamic Party leader Abdul Shakoor Damla, whose face is blotted out, saying those attacks were revenge against the Chinese government.
Ben Venzke, of Washington-based IntelCenter, another monitor of militant groups, said TIP threatened to attack the 2008 Beijing Olympics and should be taken seriously.
“Their profile has been heightened since threats made during the Olympics and videos have shown us that they have even received recognition from senior al-Qaeda leaders recognizing their presence in China,” Venzke said.
In 2008, TIP released videos claiming responsibility for several bus bombings in China and warned Muslims to stay away from any place Han Chinese were, including buses, planes, buildings and trains.
Xinjiang’s top official vows harsh crackdown on religious extremists
From xinhuanet
| URUMQI, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — The top official of far western China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has ordered a harsh crackdown on religious extremists in the latest clampdown on outbursts of violence. |
Zhang Chunxian, secretary of Xinjiang regional committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), made the pledge at a regional government meeting in the wake of a trio of deadly attacks in the region.
Zhang ordered cadres and officials to rely on the public to unswervingly curb illegal religious activities and crack down on the use of the religion to incite violence or organize terrorist attacks, local media reported Monday.
He said the managing of religious affairs should follow the central government’s policy to “protect the legitimate, ban the illegal, fight infiltration, and crack down on crimes.”
Xinjiang — with 41.5 percent of its 21 million population Uygurs, a largely Muslim Chinese ethnic group — is at China’s frontline against separatism, extremism and terrorism.
Two bloody attacks occurred in the city of Kashgar on the last weekend of July, leaving at least 14 civilians killed and 42 others injured. Police shot dead eight attackers in clashes. The Kashgar violence followed a terrorist attack targeting a police station in the city of Hotan that left 18 people, including 14 attackers, killed. Continue Reading →
Beijing “warns” the Uyghurs it’s ready to kill anyone who protests
From Asia News:
(There are some other articles over there on Chinese closing Mosques)
The Chinese authorities the northern province of Xinjiang post pictures of the last two Uyghurs killed in cold blood a few days ago on its website and warns: “They could be taken alive.” Analysts explained: “A clear message: those who rebel will be shot.”
Urumqi (AsiaNews) – Chinese authorities “are sending a clear message to the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang: those who rebel against the domination of Beijing will be unceremoniously killed”, say a number of analysts the day after the disturbing announcement on the website of the government of the autonomous province of Xinjiang, where the authorities have posted a photograph of two Uyghurs (pictured) murdered in cold blood after a being pursued by police and who “could have been taken alive.”
On August 1, Chinese police gunned down the two Uyghurs, suspected of being involved in the July 31 attack that caused the death of six people in a bar in Kashgar, in cold blood. The two – Memtieli Tiliwaldi (29) and Turson Hasan (34) – were killed in a cornfield and left there. Kashgar’s government had put a bounty of 100 thousand yuan (about 10 thousand euros) for their capture.
Before this latest bloody episode there were other violent events in the city of Hotan and in the provincial capital, Urumqi. Since 1949, the ethnic Uyghur – Turkic speaking Muslims- have been under the heel of the Chinese government which has imposed a series of extreme religious and cultural restrictions on them. Several groups claim independence and call for the restoration of East Turkestan, but the majority of Uyghurs are simply seeking greater autonomy. Continue Reading →
Chinese suspect Islamic terrorism on 2 recent occasions
mandag, august 1, 2011
Xinjiang, China Reuter reports that Chinese Government suspects Muslim Extremists behind the Sunday attack in Kashgar City in the west region of Xinjiang, the attack has taken the lives of 11 people. The city and region came under the attack is dominated by Muslim Uighurs, which has been struggling the presence of Han Chinese people and political and religious norms imposed by Chinese government, this attack came within 24 hours two blasts went off of in the same city where Muslims Uighurs dominated.
A Kashgar government report said that a religious extremist group led and trained by overseas Muslim terrorist elements is the cause of the week end attack in the city.Preliminary investigation revealed that some top leaders of the extremist group were specially trained in Pakistan by “Islamic Movement of East Turkestan” on how to make bombs and explosives?. A News Agency from Xinhua has reported that the Police has shot dead five and arrested four after a attack on a restaurant and killed the owner and waiter and then ran on the streets and killed four others.
This is another kind of headache to the ruling Community Party in the course of terrorism. Captured extremists have confessed the recent attacks and their top leader had run to Pakistan to with “Islamic movement of East Turkestan”. Chinese police have started investigations in all its angle to nab the culprits and its gang to bring before the justice as soon as possible.
BBC: China: Unrest in Kashgar, Xinjiang, leaves 15 dead
BBC: China 15 dead
Weekend unrest in Kashgar, in China’s western Xinjiang region, has left at least 15 people dead, state media say.
The violence began on Saturday when two men killed a truck driver, then drove his lorry into pedestrians and attacked them with knives, killing six. One of the attackers also died.
On Sunday an explosion killed three people and police shot dead “four suspects”, the Xinhua agency said.
Xinjiang has a Muslim Uighur minority and has seen serious ethnic tension.
The BBC’s Martin Patience in Beijing says there are reports of further clashes in the city on Sunday.
Migration dispute
A local official was quoted as saying that both of Saturday’s attackers were Uighurs. Continue Reading →
China arrests over 100 Uighurs, declares marshal law in Keshgar
According to a Stratfor SITREP, which they got from Reuters,
July 31, 2011
The entire city of Kashgar, Xinjiang, is under martial law, and authorities have arrested at least 100 Uighurs, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress said, Reuters reported. It could not be confirmed if indeed martial law was ordered. The spokesman said that there is no way to protest peacefully the Chinese suppression and the policy of calculated resettlement in Kashgar.
The Uighur flag is interesting, Reminiscent of the Turkish one.
Chinese Police Search and Arrest Muslim Radicals
Chinese spies hack into Parliament hill, MP’s files.
I have a lot of confidence on Canadian computer security people. I hope they have as much in themselves.
Sophisticated cyber-attack on Canadian Treasury board originates from China
How can you not call this an act of war?
An interesting little info-bit on the history of Islam in China
From Wikipedia with a hat tip to youtube’s, ‘Julianthephilosopher‘
Dungan revolt (1862–1877)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Dungan revolt” redirects here. For the later Hui revolt against the Qing, see Dungan revolt (1895–1896)
Yakub Bek
1862-1877
The Dungan Revolt was a religious and ethnic war in 19th-century China. It is also known as the Hui Minorities’ War. The term is sometimes used to refer to the Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan which occurred during the same period. It was an uprising by members of the Hui and other Muslim ethnic groups in China‘s Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia provinces, as well as in Xinjiang, between 1862 and 1877.
The uprising was chaotic and often involved warring factions of bands and military leaders with no goal or purpose, merely to fight, on the western bank of the Yellow River (Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia (excluding the Xinjiang province)). A common misconception is that it was directed against the Qing Dynasty, but there is no evidence at all showing that they intended to attack the capital of Beijing. When that rebellion failed, mass-emigration of the Dungan people into Imperial Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan ensued.
Bomb attack kills 7, wounds 14 in China’s far western Xinjiang region, government says
By: Isolda Morillo, The Associated Press KBS RADIO.CA
URUMQI, China – A bomb attack killed seven people and wounded 14 Thursday in China’s far west region of Xinjiang, an area beset by ethnic conflict and separatist violence.
The target of the attack wasn’t known, although an overseas activist for the region’s native Uighur ethnic group said the victims included members of the security forces.
The blast went off after a man drove a three-wheeled vehicle laden with explosives into a crowd of people in a suburb in Aksu city in southwestern Xinjiang, said Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government.
“Police say it was an intentional act because the suspect was carrying explosive devices,” Hou told a hastily arranged news conference in the regional capital of Urumqi, about 400 miles (650 kilometres) from Aksu. Continue Reading →
Blast kills seven in China’s Xinjiang
BBC… Seven people have been killed and 14 injured in a bomb blast in China’s Xinjiang region.
The explosion happened in Aksu city in the west of the remote western region.
A local government spokeswoman, Hou Hanmin, said a Uighur [Muslim] man drove a three-wheeled vehicle carrying an explosive device into a crowd.
The man was arrested at the scene and investigations were ongoing, Ms Hou said.
Four of those hurt had suffered serious injuries, she said.
Last year deadly ethnic riots erupted in Xinjiang after tensions flared between the Muslim Uighur minority and the Han Chinese.
There have also been a number of blasts in Xinjiang in the past, which the government blames on Uighur [Muslim] separatists.
Speaking on Thursday before the blast occurred, Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri told journalists that China faced a “long and fierce and very complicated struggle” in Xinjiang.
“Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history, it was there in the past, it is still here now and it will continue in the future,” AP news agency quoted him as saying.
Chinese authorities say a small group of militants are behind attacks in Xinjiang.
But Uighur [Muslim] activists and human rights groups accuse Beijing of using the issue to crack down on Uighur dissidents, who have complained that waves of Han Chinese migrants are undermining their culture.
Chinese general warns govt. China must have US style democracy to survive
A Chinese General has warned his political masters that China will see a Soviet style collapse if it does not adopt US style democracy. Very interesting indeed.
Here is the link to the Stratfor analysis. I believe you have to be a member to see the video, but it’s worth a click to find out.