Posted on 08/03/2008 9:19:49 PM PDT by RDTF
BEIJING (Reuters) - A police station in China's restive Xinjiang region was attacked on Monday morning, four days before the Beijing Olympics begin, killing 16 officers and wounding 12, state media reported.
"Rioters drove two vehicles to break into the border patrol armed police division" near Kashgar and threw two grenades, Xinhua reported.
The brief report did not describe the attackers. But the Xinjiang region in the far northwest has been at the heart of China's security fears leading up the Olympics, which begin in four days.
Xinjiang is home to a large Uighur Muslim population, many of them discontent under strict Chinese rule. Some Uighur groups are campaigning for an independent homeland for their Turkic-speaking people.
Kashgar in Xinjiang's south is dominated by Uighurs, many of them pious Muslims.
China says it has foiled terror plots targeting this month's Beijing Olympics and in the first six months of the year police detained 82 people in Xinjiang for plotting to sabotage the Games, according to state media.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Stay safe, folks.
Oh, man. Another one of them there conundrums. Who to root for, the muslims or the chinese. It makes my head hurt.
I thought the ChiComs were being a little too aggressive with security measures. Maybe the natives are more restless than I thought?
The radical Islamists SAID they would terrorize China, and they will do more, if they can.
I visited those areas in the early 90s. It was quite evident that a conflict was brewing and I guessed then that there would eventually be an open conflict between the Han Chinese and the minority peoples (Uighurs, Tibetans, Tadjics etc) in the western part of China.
What sucks the most is that my folks back home will worry their hearts out when they hear about this on CNN.
They attacked a police station.SO it is not terrorism, it’s revolution.
By the way, when 2 “terrorists” came into a police station and killed 16 armed cops and wounded 16 heavily . What will come to your conclusion?
Sure,the cops of China are good at killing tibetans and oppressing normal citizens, but they are definitely not competent for their natural duty.
In the 90’s you were there? But Mao launched a major attack against the Muslims in the area around the early 70’s.
I have no problem deciding whose side I’m on in this. Crush the Islamic savages.
It’s not just police they’re after, not just “revolution.” It’s terrorist seperatism—they’ve already announced their intention to launch attacks at the Olympic sites.
I would have to agree. Attacking military or police personnel is just a good old fashioned attempt to gain independence. What else are they supposed to do against the Chinese government? March? Protest? To give the PLA tanks a wider target to run over?
The folks in the west part of China are not Han Chinese, and don't want to be ruled by the Han Chinese. Since the PRC government isn't about to entertain peaceful protests and dialogs, either violent resistance or subjugation are pretty much the only options.
Ergo, not terrorism.
Except for the fact that they’ve also already bombed busses carrying civilians and have announced an intention to bomb Olympic sites. If we had American Indians or Hawaiians doing this kind of thing, we’d call it terrorism and that’s what I call it.
So, what would be the best way for the Uighers and other Xizang folk to attain their independence? I know that Xizang he Xinjiang dou shi Zhongguo de yi bu fen and all that, but they don't want to be ruled by China any more than China wanted to be ruled by the Japanese or European colonials.
So, everyone wants to be free. How should the xiaoshu minzu go about it?
You’re may not like my response, but I’ll tell you that they’re already as “free” as anyone is in China. They can, work, practice their religion, send their kids to school, save money, start a business, all kinds of things that were forbidden or restricted in China’s recent past. But like many “minorities” around the world (even in the US) they seek seperatism as a way of “preserving their culture,” and in this case that means forcing women to wear burqas, not go to school, and all that other Islamic crap.
And don’t assume for a moment that this violent extremist group represents most people living in those western regions of China.
Hawaiian, Indian, Hispanic, black, and regional separatist groups of all stripes have been around for all of our nation's history. Since they can peacefully assemble and demonstrate, people are free to hear their ideas and reject them. Which they do.
So, they don't really need to resort to violence to make their point, and Americans don't care to have people with failed ideas force them upon us.
As opposed to China, where people with failed ideas are the ones holding the guns. I don't really care two hoots about a bunch of central Asian Muslims trying to get their own country, but since they don't have any options of doing it peacefully, my sympathy for the Chinese plight is about zero.
I agree with you 100%, although you've chosen a high form of backhanded compliment to bestow upon the PRC. I'd be as supportive of any Han Chinese insurgent as I am of the Uighers. If there was no venue to protest peacefully against my own government, I'd be an insurgent myself. Who wouldn't?
I wish I had time to stay and explore this a little more, but work calls. I'll check in later. ;-)
Might want to read the actual story in detail Sherlock. Apparently these were customs/border police on their morning constitutional, i.e. something you won’t see very many paunchy American cops doing, when they were rammed by a dump truck followed by the assailants tossing grenades. They were neither heavily armed nor even inside the police station but rather jogging on the streets outside of a hotel.
You know,that’s pretty much the same excuse dhimmis use when Al Qaeda turns some U.S. soldiers in Iraq into pink stains on a road. Then again, people do like their double standards.
Attacking military targets is attacking military targets. If al-Qa'ida stuck to fighting the U.S. military and not blowing up women and children, I'd have a lot more respect for them. That's not a double standard. It's one standard. It's why we're different than they are, and better than they are. People who intentionally blow up women and children to make a point are cowards. We don't do it. They do.
Having almost been shot, blown up or otherwise ventilated on more than one occasion, I won't say that I'm glad for it, but I see differently enemies who would fight armed soldiers, and people who would kill helpless civilians.
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