8 Killed in Aftermath of Bomb Attack in China’s Xinjiang Province
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Related subjects: China, J.E. Robertson, Security & Surveillance Comments (1)
News reports suggest that 7 bomb suspects and at least one security guard were killed after a bombing attack on police and government facilities in China’s far western Xinjiang province. Xinjiang is one of the regions that many believe may attempt to separate from China, if there is any opportunity, political or military to do so.
There are active separatist movements there, a large Muslim population that wants independence from Communist China, and they see the example of former Soviet republics of central Asia as evidence that independence is possible. Bloomberg reports that:
Police shot three suspected bombers dead and four more killed themselves after an attack at 2:30 a.m. local time, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported. Two police officers and two civilians were wounded, Xinhua said.
China’s authoritarian regime has intensified the security environment in anticipation that major protests or even violent strikes could be aimed at disrupting the Beijing Olympic Games. But Wang Wei, vice president of the organizing committee said he believes the Xinjiang bombing will not have any affect on the Games in Beijing, which are literally on the opposite side of the vast country.
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Though no specific group or motive has been identified, the attack follows a 4 August 2008 bombing int he region, that targetted a border patrol station. 16 policemen died in the attack, which has not yet been attributed officially to any specific militant group.
The United States officially recognized in 2002 one of the region’s leading militant groups, considered by China to be the most serious threat to its security, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, as a terrorist organization, though the nature of its funding structure or the real danger posed by its activities to the territorial integrity of China, are not well understood.
China is, through the lens of historical analysis, something more like a multi-ethnic transregional empire, as was the Soviet Union or as was the Roman empire, with its roots in ancient times, but also with a tumultuous modern history. Going back two centuries, the borders of that empire have been in constant flux, with the entire superstructure of China’s nation state at times devolving into regional fiefdoms, foreign-managed colonies and eventually, a 20th century communist empire.
Tibet and Xinjiang are considered to be the two regions annexed by China during this time of consolidation that are most likely to break away, should the current national state come apart. The prospect of a Beijing Olympic Games is thought to have motivated a bold movement of public demonstrations against Chinese rule in Tibet, first in the capital Lhasa, then spreading across the country and into ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan province, earlier this year.
Those demonstrations were met with overwhelming force and the tensions turned violent, prompting worries that Xinjiang could see an upsurge in separatist activity before or during the Games. China’s focus has been to eliminate all probability of such efforts disrupting events in Beijing, and to impose as close to a media blackout on political and security troubles in remote regions like Xinjiang.
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