A police crackdown meant to quell militants in China’s rugged frontier of Xinjiang has failed to prevent a surge of attacks, and analysts say Beijing’s tactics may actually be encouraging more violence among the region’s usually moderate Muslims.
How China deals with Xinjiang is a concern for the rest of the world. The vast area of deserts and mountains borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and several Central Asian republics and is home to a sizable Muslim population that could be a valuable ally in the global struggle against Islamic extremism.
The latest wave of attacks on security forces — the worst in a decade — began last week, just days before the Olympics’ opening ceremony on the opposite end of the country, some 2,800km to the east.
No group has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombings and stabbings, but police have blamed terrorists among the Uighurs — a Muslim ethnic minority of about 8 million people who have long chafed under Chinese rule.
Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, believes the violence is a sign the latest “Strike Hard” campaign is driving more Uighurs toward militant Islam. Human rights groups say what began as a campaign against organized crime, drugs and pornography has become a cover to crack down on Uighurs.
“Although Uighur militant groups in Xinjiang were thoroughly crushed in the 1990s, it seems that a new generation of militants has stepped up to take their place,” Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said about the recent violence.
“The attackers are young, and apparently even included two women in Kuqa — I believe a first in the recent history of violent militancy in the region,” Bequelin said.
“I think following the Olympics, there will be a crackdown in Xinjiang like never before,” said Yitzhak Shichor, a political scientist and China specialist at the University of Haifa in Israel.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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