China's internal troubles (not the Far West)

[Bill Moore]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-01-13-30-50

China: Train station attack an act of terrorism

BEIJING (AP) -- China's official Xinhua News Agency says authorities consider the attack by a group of knife-wielding assailants at a train station in southwestern China in which at least 27 people died to be an act of terrorism.

Xinhua did not identify who might have been responsible for the Saturday evening attack at the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province. But the news agency said authorities considered it to be "an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack."

[davidbfpo]

That is a shocker. I had to check Kunming's location, it is near the Vietnamese border and a very long way from the known, occasional flash point in Xinjiang Province - where knives have been the preferred weapon in attacks. This maybe a repeat of the jeep attack in Tienanmen Square last year.

[Bill Moore]

That is a shocker. I had to check Kunming's location, it is near the Vietnamese border and a very long way from the known, occasional flash point in Xinjiang Province - where knives have been the preferred weapon in attacks. This maybe a repeat of the jeep attack in Tienanmen Square last year.

I guess it could be tied to the Uighers, but I think there are quite a few other possibilities. Heck, it could be a Green Peace like movement on steroids. If you Google unrest in Kunming you'll find several articles going back a few years.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ce-baha-attack

Chinese villagers attack factory after reports of polluting

Environmental protests are on the rise in China, with the public becoming increasingly critical of the fouling of the country's air, soil and waterways during decades of breakneck development. The unrest poses a serious political challenge to the Communist party – anger over the party's response, or lack thereof, to environmental crises has fuelled wider dissatisfaction with corruption and a lack of official accountability.

Most protests have taken place along China's developed coastal region, reflecting the area's heavy pollution from industry as well as the rising demands of the country's well-off. But the latest unrest was in rural Yunnan, indicating the protest has now spread further inland.

Yunnan's provincial capital, Kunming, was the site of large protests last year against a planned petroleum refinery that were largely peaceful despite minor scuffles between demonstrators and police.

Maybe more to the point, is the rail road itself?

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/201.../#.UxJds42Ybug

Railroading debt into Laos

The construction of an ambitious rail link between Kunming and Vientiane reflects China's growing economic clout in Southeast Asia

However, the plan sparked surprisingly vocal protests from Lao villagers whose rural communities would be at threat of being bulldozed away.

Now, both governments involved have become more determined in their bid to push ahead, and one-party states are not known for being listening for too long to the voices of those opposing bureaucratically ordained projects.

Then again terrorist attacks are not unheard of in Kunming, in the run up to the Olympics in 2008....

http://ww4report.com/node/5818

China: Kunming blasts signal growing unrest in countdown to Olympics

BEIJING — Two public buses exploded during the Monday morning rush hour in the city of Kunming, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others in what the authorities described as deliberate attacks as China is tightening security nationwide and warning of possible terrorist threats in advance of next month's Olympic Games.

While it is difficult to cease speculating, I don't claim to have a clue on what actually prompted this attack.

[davidbfpo]

I don't dismiss the possibility that the Kunming attack originates locally, but from faraway I'd still go for a link to Xinjiang - which is of course what the (official) Chinese media are indicating.

There is a thread on the violence in China's Far West, which includes Xinjiang Province:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...read.php?t=246

Normally I'd post this report there, today it is here:

Police in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on Friday shot dead six attackers, while another six died in an explosion, local authorities revealed Saturday.

Two explosions took place in a beauty salon and a grocery market in Xinhe county, Aksu prefecture at around 6:40 pm Friday. A group of terrorist suspects threw explosives at police, who were making arrests, and police opened fire and gunned down six, the Xinjiang government announced on its official website ts.cn.

Link:http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/83...l#.UxMeDuN_vk9

It is noteworthy that I've yet to see any foreign reporting from Kunming, where I'd be surprised foreign reporters are based. In the past far better, non-orchestrated reporting has come from non-Chinese sources, e.g. a visiting BBC World Service reporter in Lhasa, Tibet a few years ago.

[Bill Moore]

It is noteworthy that I've yet to see any foreign reporting from Kunming, where I'd be surprised foreign reporters are based. In the past far better, non-orchestrated reporting has come from non-Chinese sources, e.g. a visiting BBC World Service reporter in Lhasa, Tibet a few years ago.

Not surprisingly there is no additional news coming from China, what did sort of surprise me is the lack of social media reporting from Kunming. In an article I read yesterday it stated China's government effectively removed most SM comments related to the attack. That could have been done for good reasons, for example, to prevent social rage movement against the Uyghurs who may or may not have been the culprits. It may also have been blocked to cover something up.

As a tactic, the cat is out of the bag. I suspect there will be copy cat attacks in the future globally along these lines. Based on what little I could find on witness accounts it didn't seem the attackers were well versed in the best way to inflict lethal blows with a knife, since more than one witness said they were focused on the striking the head and shoulders. Probably would have been more fatalities if they chose other target areas.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/worl...icle-1.1707232

Sean Roberts, a cultural anthropologist at George Washington University who has studied Uighurs and China for two decades, said the Kunming violence would be a new kind of attack for ethnic Uighurs — premeditated, well-organized and outside Xinjiang — but still rudimentary in weaponry.

“If it is true that it was carried out by Uighurs, it’s much different than anything we’ve seen to date,” Roberts said by phone.

If it was Uyghurs this particular group doesn't seem to be tied to Al-Qaeda (some are, and we captured and killed a few in Afghanistan over the years), because they probably would have access to explosives and other weapons. I wouldn't rule out a martial art cult either.

[omarali50]

Kunming apparently has a Uighur slum that has even been the site of some Chinese "hearts and minds" efforts. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/artic...loody-massacre
This level of dedication to hopeless causes takes Muslims, so i personally dont have any doubt that it was Uighurs.
The CCP will surely crack down hard, but they are also trying NOT to ignite a major domestic media storm. It doesnt look good for the state to have such problems in the first place. Raises doubts about the mandate of heaven. http://shanghaiist.com/2014/03/03/ne...ront-pages.php
btw, Pakistani conspiracy theorists are convinced its CIA trying to destabilize China.

[AdamG]

Riots in southeastern China after brutal police-inspector killed a man with a hammer in broad daylight. People smashed several police cars and were attacked with tear gas.

At least 4 Chengguan, the most hated police-inspectors in China, were beaten to death by angry people in Cangnan County of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province (located in the industrial southeast), after they killed a man with a hammer. The police-inspectors hit the man with a hammer until he started to vomit blood, because he was trying to take pictures of their violence towards a woman, a street vendor. The man was rushed to hospital, but died on the way.

Thousands of angry people took to the streets, surrounded the police-inspectors in their van, attacked them with stones, bats, and beat them to death. People were shouting that the police-inspectors be killed on the spot for what they did: “Kill them! Kill them!”

Read more at http://libertycrier.com/china-violen...BoAjq41imth.99