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Terrorism in China

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Terrorism in China as of 2011 often involves Muslim separatist militants in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and other locations with large Muslim populations. To a lesser extent, terrorist acts have occurred in Tibet in disputes between clergy.[1]

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has identified four "Eastern Turkistan" organizations as "terrorist".[2]

History

Terrorism in China is rare and mainly attributed to Xinjiang separatists including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Turkestan Islamic Party.[citation needed]

Banned organizations

The Ministry of Public Security issued a list of banned terrorist organizations on 15 December 2003. Organizations the government has banned[citation needed] include the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, the World Uygur Youth Congress, and the Eastern Turkistan Information.

The eleven terrorists the ministry identified are Hasan Mahsum, Muhanmetemin Hazret, Dolkun Isa, Abudujelili Kalakash, Abudukadir Yapuquan, Abudumijit Muhammatkelim, Abudula Kariaji, Abulimit Turxun, Huadaberdi Haxerbik, Yasen Muhammat, and Atahan Abuduhani.[2]

Incidents in China

1992

On February 5, 1992, among the four bombs set in public buildings in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China, the two on the buses of line 2 and line 30 exploded. The incidents led to at least the death of 3, and injury of 23.[citation needed]

1996

Lhasa bombings

In 1996, there were a series of bombing incidents in Lhasa, capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Four major attacks were acknowledged, although unofficial sources reported more. The attacks generally targeted and successfully wounded people, while Tibetan bombs in 1995 targeted buildings, such as the obelisk on the Qinghai-Tibet highway.[3] On January 13, a Tibetan Buddhist monk exploded a homemade bomb at a shop owned by Han Chinese.[4] Five days later on January 18, the house of Sengchen Lobsang Gyaltsen, the head lama of the Panchen Lama's Tashilhunpo Monastery, was bombed.[5] Gyaltsen had opposed the 14th Dalai Lama to ordain Gyaincain Norbu in the 11th Panchen Lama controversy. He was out of his house at the time of the explosion, but a person nearby was "seriously injured", according to the South China Morning Post.[3] No group claimed responsibility for the bombings, but China blamed forces loyal to the Dalai Lama.[5] On March 18, a bomb exploded at the regional government and local Communist Party compound. The government temporarily shut down tourism in Tibet in response.[6] China initially denied all of the blasts, but later attributed them to separatists.[7] The final blast of the year was detonated by remote control at 1:30 AM on Christmas day, in front of the central Lhasa municipal government offices. Five people were injured, including two night watchmen and three shopkeepers.[8] The official Radio Tibet called the blast "an appalling act of terrorism", and the Chinese government offered a $120,000 reward for the perpetrator. Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region Gyamco called on residents to "heighten our alertness and strengthen preventive measures".[4]

1997

Urumqi bus bombs: On 25 February 1997 three bombs exploded in Urumqi. The bombs were set on the three buses (line 10, line 44, and line 2), and made the death of 9, (including the death of 3 children at least[citation needed]), and injury of 74. [citation needed]

Another bomb in the south railway stationTemplate:Name? (the main station in Urumqi) didn't explode.[citation needed]

2007

Xinjiang raid

Main article: Xinjiang raid

Chinese police raided a suspected East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) training camp in Akto County in the Pamirs plateau near the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan on January 5, 2007.[citation needed]

A spokesperson for the Xinjiang Public Security Department said that 18 terror suspects were killed and 17 captured. The raid also resulted in the death of one Chinese police officer and the injury of another. Authorities confiscated hand grenades, guns, and makeshift explosives from the site.[9][10]

March

On March 9, 2008 Chinese officials [who?] told the state-run Xinhua News Agency that they had successfully thwarted a terrorist attack targeting the 2008 Summer Olympics by Muslim separatists from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.[citation needed]

A China Southern Airlines plane was forced to land on March 9, 2008 because "some people were attempting to create an air disaster". The flight had taken off from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The militants' aircraft hijacking attempt was foiled by the flight attendants. [11]

August

On August 1, the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) posted a video on the internet, named "Call to the Global Muslim Ummah", calling on Muslims to "choose your side", not travel with Chinese, and support the TIP. Chinese officials downplayed the threat of terrorism.[12] In the 2008 Kashgar attack on August 4, suspected ETIM militants drove a truck into a group of jogging policemen, got out of the truck, and then lobbed grenades at the officers, killing 16 people.[13]

On August 8, another video was released showing "a masked man with a rifle" threatening further attacks and advising Uyghurs to "avoid public transport during the Olympics".[13] On August 10, Muslim separatist suicide pipe bombers made a dozen coordinated[13] attacks on police stations, government offices, and businesses in Kuqa, Xinjiang, killing 11 people.[14] The attacks began at 2:30 a.m. when five assailants drove taxis into the local public security and industry and commerce buildings.[13] The Communist Party chief in Xinjiang called the attack a "terrorist act" and suspected ETIM responsible.[15]

On August 12, Uyghur separatists killed three security officers in a stabbing in Yamanya[citation needed], near Kashgar in Xinjiang. With the latest attack, the cumulative death toll during the Olympic Games was 31.[16] On August 13, public security authorities in Hubei foiled an attempted bus bombing. According to the BBC, explosives are difficult to regulate in China because of the small coal mines around the country.[17] On August 17, 2008, a truck suddenly exploded and caught fire at the Baimiao Security Checkpoint in Beijing. 20 people were rushed to hospital and state media and officials have refused to comment, although possibility of a terrorist attack "has not been ruled out".[17]

On August 29, 2008, police investigating a violent crime were ambushed and stabbed in the corn fields of Jiashi, Xinjiang. Two police died and five were injured.[18] One day later in the city of Harbin, a public bus suddenly exploded, wounding two people. Although officials confirmed the incident to BBC Monitoring, no Chinese media reported the story, leading the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy to accuse the Chinese government of suppressing information about terrorist incidents.[19]

2010

Aksu bombing

On August 19, 2010, three people drove a three-wheeled vehicle into a crowd in the city of Aksu, Xinjiang, killing 8 and wounding 15. Officials categorized this attack as falling under the "three forces" of separatists, extremists and terrorists.[20]

2011

Hotan attack

18 people died when 18 young Uyghur men stormed a police station in the city of Hotan and killed two security guards by stabbing and lobbing molotov cocktails. They occupied the police station, took eight hostages, and smashed and set fire to the police station. Shouting slogans and unfurling banners with Jihadi writing, they refused to peacefully negotiate and engaged in a firefight with police. The attack ended within 90 minutes when police shot 14 attackers dead. Authorities detained four attackers and rescued six hostages, but were unable to save two.[21] A regional spokesperson called the incident "a long-planned, unprovoked, terrorist attack" by "religious extremists".[22] Authorities have discovered the membership of two of the 18 men in an ETIM-led group[23] and the ETIM later claimed responsibility for the attack.[24]

Kashgar attacks

23 people died in additional terrorist attacks in the city of Kashgar on July 30 and 31. On the first day, two Uyghur men hijacked a truck, ran it into a crowded street, and started stabbing people, killing nine, until they were overpowered by the crowd, who killed one attacker. On the second day, the premature explosion of two car bombs intended for a dapanji restaurant killed four people. The 12 would-be car-bombers abandoned their original plan and instead stormed the restaurant with knives, killing 13 people. A firefight ensued with police capturing the group and killing seven attackers.[25] ETIM later claimed responsibility for the attack,[24] confirming that one of the suspects who escaped (but was later shot by police) had received training in ETIM camps in Pakistan.[26]

Border cooperation

The Chinese and Kyrgyz governments increased security along their borders with each other and Tajikistan on 11 January 2007 after Chinese government officials expressed concern that "international terrorists" were traveling through Xinjiang and Central Asia to carry out attacks. The warning followed a high-profile raid on a training camp in Akto County, Xinjiang run by East Turkestan Islamic Movement members. General Sadyrbek Dubanayev, deputy chief of Kyrgyzstan's border guards, said, "After the announcement of the special operation by the Chinese side, we briefed everyone [security authorities on the Kyrgyz side] and then Kyrgyzstan and China decided to increase security along the border."[27]

Cooperation with other countries

Afghanistan

Chinese Communist Party leader Jia Qinglin said on 22 January 2007, "China appreciates Afghanistan's valuable support on such issues concerning China's core interests as Taiwan, human rights and fighting 'East Turkestan' terrorists." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao said, "There should not be double standards in counterterrorism. At the same time, no country wants to see another Al Qaeda in China."[28]

Kazakhstan

The Government of Kazakhstan has consistently extradited Uyghur terrorist suspects to China[29] and in 2006 participated in a large-scale, joint counter-terrorism drill.[30]

Chinese President Hu Jintao led a 150-person delegation to Kazakhstan on 2 July 2005 after visiting Moscow, Russia for four days. The Chinese Government issued a press release saying the Chinese-Kazakh energy and security "relationship deepens constantly." Upon arriving Hu met with President Nazarbayev in an official ceremony. They discussed anti-terrorism, energy, and transportation.[31]

The Governments of China and Kazakhstan held an anti-terror drill, known as the "Tian-Shan-1-2006" drill, from 24 -26 August 2006, starting in Almaty, Kazakhstan and ending in Xinjiang, China through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The drill is the first time China and Kazakhstan have held anti-terrorism maneuvers.[32] The Collective Security Treaty Organization held exercises in the Caspian Sea simultaneously.[30]

The simulation lasted for three days and involved Kazakh forces from border patrol, the Interior Ministry, and the Emergency Situations Ministry, and Chinese law enforcement forces and security services. 700 police officials used armed helicopters and anti-riot vehicles to force the 'enemy' into a narrow valley along the border of Kazakhstan and Xinjiang, China after rescuing 'hostages'.[33][34] About 100 observers from other SCO nation-members attended the exercises.[35] The first day of exercises began in Almaty and ended in Yining, a city in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture. When officials of Radio Free Europe contacted the Foreign and Defense Ministries of both nations, inquiring about the exercises, Islam Dosmailuly, a spokesman for Kazakhstan's National Security Committee, told them he did not "know if [the exercises] will [take place] or not. I'm waiting for information. If [the information] gets here, we'll certainly comment on it. But, for now, I have no information." Xinhua reported that the policemen practiced freeing hostages.[32]

Some analysts said the simulation practiced securing the Atasu-Alashankou pipeline, which sends petroleum from Kazakhstan to refineries in Xinjiang. Kazakhstan sends about 3.5 million tons through the pipeline annually and wants to increase output to 20 million tons.[30]

Konstantin Syroyezhkin, a senior analyst at Kazakhstan's Strategic Studies and Research Institute, said "there are many common threats and these are [well-known] already. There is drug trafficking, [illegal] immigration, and religious extremism and political extremism. There are a number of threats. And these are counter-terrorism exercises, [against] international terrorism. Why should they not hold them? Look, there's a mess in Afghanistan; there must be some mutual cooperation in that matter. And anyway, it is not the first time they have held such exercises. Last year, or before last year, it was organized as a planned maneuver, there is nothing suspicious about that." Kazakhstan has held joint counter-terrorism exercises with NATO under the Partnership for Peace program and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.[32] Meng Hongwei, Chinese Vice-Minister of Public Security and commander of the Chinese troops for the drill, warned that the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism and increasing cross-border drug trafficking were affecting the region. Vice-Minister Hongwei said, "the exercise will help establish the SCO's active role in maintaining regional security and stability." SCO nation-members plan to hold another another series of anti-terrorism exercises in Russia in 2007. Vladimir Boshko, first vice-chairman of the Committee of the National Security of Kazakhstan, said the drill would improve anti-terror cooperation among SCO nation-members.[35]

India

Main article: 2007 Delhi security summit

The Delhi summit on security took place on February 14, 2007 with the foreign ministers of China, India, and Russia meeting in Hyderabad House, Delhi, India to discuss terrorism, drug trafficking, reform of the United Nations, and the security situations in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and North Korea.[36][37]

The Indian Foreign Ministry released a statement on behalf of all three governments saying, "We shared our thoughts on the political, economic and security aspects of the global situation, the present world order and recent developments in various areas of mutual concern. We agreed that co-operation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs. There was coincidence of views against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and on the need to address financing of terrorism and its linkages with narco-trafficking."[36]

See also

References

  1. ^ Chung, Chien-peng (2006). "Confronting Terrorism and Other Evils in China: All Quiet on the Western Front?" (PDF). China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly. 4 (2). Stockholm: Institute for Security and Development Policy: 75–87. ISSN 1653-4212. Retrieved 2010-01-02. [...] in China,[...] any premeditated and violent criminal act against any person or property with the intent of spreading fear or causing harm for a political purpose, whether executed individually or by a group of people, would count as terrorism. The PRC government is working on an Anti-Terrorism Law, which when promulgated, might provide an exact definition of terrorism. In any case, terrorism in China is usually identified with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and other Uighur separatist cells in Xinjiang, and to a lesser extent, militant members of the Tibetan Buddhist clergy agitating for independence.
  2. ^ a b "China identifies Eastern Turkistan terrorist organizations, terrorists". GlobalSecurity.org. 2003-12-16. Retrieved 2010-01-02. BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- China's Ministry of Public Security Monday issued a list of the first batch of identified "Eastern Turkistan" terrorist organizations and 11 members of the groups. [...] This is the first time China issued a list of terrorist organizations and terrorists.
  3. ^ a b "Tibetan Newspaper Sabotaged; Lama's House Bombed". TibetInfoNet. 1996-01-28. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  4. ^ a b "Bomb at Government Offices Wounds 5 in Tibetan Capital". The New York Times. 1996-12-30. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  5. ^ a b Hilton, Isabel (2001). The Search for the Panchen Lama. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 295.
  6. ^ "Bomb Explodes outside Lhasa Party Headquarters". Tibet Information Network. 1996-03-22. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  7. ^ Buckley, Michael (2006). Tibet. Bradt Travel Guides. p. 133.
  8. ^ Poole, Teresa (1996-12-30). "Tibetan activists set off Lhasa bomb". Beijing: The Independent. Retrieved 2011-01-15.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference LOCATION was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ China 'anti-terror' raid kills 18 BBC
  11. ^ Report: China thwarts two terrorist attacks CNN
  12. ^ Nagpal, Sahil (2008-08-08). "Terrorists issue new Olympic threat, US analysts say". Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
  13. ^ a b c d Moore, Malcolm (2008-08-10). "China beefs up security in Kuqa after new terror attack". Urumqi: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  14. ^ Parry, Richard Lloyd (2008-08-11). "China's Uighur rebels switch to suicide bombs". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
  15. ^ "Blasts, gunfire kill at least eight in China's far west (2nd Roundup)". Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 2008-08-10. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  16. ^ "Three dead as unrest flares in Xinjiang". Daily Times. 2008-08-13. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
  17. ^ a b "Truck explosion injures 20 at Beijing security checkpoint 17 Aug". BBC Monitoring. Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
  18. ^ "Two policemen killed in Xinjiang attack". Sina.com. 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
  19. ^ "Hong Kong rights group reports bus blast in China's Harbin 30 August". BBC Monitoring. Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy. 2008-09-01. Retrieved 2011-04-22.
  20. ^ "Xinjiang continues to face threats of terrorism". Urumqi: China Daily. 2010-09-11. Retrieved 2010-11-05.
  21. ^ Olesen, Alexa (2011-07-19). "China says 14 extremists killed in Xinjiang attack". Associated Press. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
  22. ^ Shao, Wei (2011-07-21). "Attack on police station was 'long-planned". China Daily. Retrieved 2011-07-25.
  23. ^ Rajan, D.S.; Tiku, Ashok (2011-07-29). "Understanding the Hotan (Xinjiang) Riot in China". Chennai: Sri Lanka Guardian. Retrieved 2011-07-29.
  24. ^ a b "Islamic militant group 'behind Xinjiang attacks'". BBC News. 2011-09-08. Retrieved 2011-10-08.
  25. ^ Cheng, Yongsun; Yu, Xiaodong (2011). "The Bloody Weekend". News China: 23–25. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Zenn, Jacob (2011-09-02). "Catch-22 of Xinjiang as a gateway". Kashgar: Asia Times. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
  27. ^ China: Border security tightened amid 'terrorist infiltration' warning RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
  28. ^ Terrorism a 'core' issue for China New Kerala
  29. ^ Kazakhstan exacerbates "religious threat" by maneuvering between Beijing and Washington Jamestown Foundation
  30. ^ a b c Kazakstan Joins China on Counter-Terror Exercise Uyghur American Association
  31. ^ China's Hu Arrives In Kazakhstan To Talk Terrorism Space War
  32. ^ a b c China/Kazakhstan: Forces Hold First-Ever Joint Terrorism Exercises Uyghur American Association
  33. ^ China and Kazakhstan hold war games Global Research Center for Research on Globalization
  34. ^ China, Kazakhstan hold anti-terrorism drill The Boston Globe
  35. ^ a b Anti-terror drill targets '3 evil forces' Uygur American Association
  36. ^ a b 'Big three' hold key Delhi talks BBC News
  37. ^ Foreign Ministers of India, China, Russia meet to take forward strategic ties New Kerala


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