WebProNews

Tag: Xinjiang

  • China Explosion: President Xi Vows “Decisive Action”

    Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed action against the terrorist strike yesterday. His visit to the region, focused on combating terrorism, coincided with the attack.

    China’s Xinjiang province was rocked by an explosion yesterday at a train station. Assailants attacked civilians with knives, then set off explosives. The coordinated nature of the attack left officials to believe it was motivated by terrorism. Casualties were placed at 79 injured and three dead.

    The events occurred just after President Xi Jinping’s visit to the region. The Associated Press quoted President Xi saying: “Local police stations are the fists and the daggers. We must work hard at the grass-roots level of the police stations. We must take care of our front-line offices. You need to protect yourselves and make achievements at tasks such as better serving the people in the future and safeguarding social stability.” The president’s visit was largely concerned with promoting stability in the region after a long history of ethnic disunity.

    The visit was Xi’s first since coming to power in 2012, calling the four day event an “inspection tour”, according to Time Magazine. His “strike-first” rhetoric against terrorism was balanced by him donning traditional prayer caps and chatting with locals.

    After the attack, AFP reported that President Xi officially stated “The battle to combat violence and terrorism will not allow even a moment of slackness, and decisive actions must be taken to resolutely suppress the terrorists’ rampant momentum,” returning to his familiar strong rhetoric. China’s Xinhua News reported he authorized the People’s Liberation Army to assist local police in any and all investigations.

    President Xi also acknowledged the region’s Muslim minority during the visit. During the visit the Sydney Morning Herald reported the president visited a mosque in Urumqi: “The long-term stability of Xinjiang is vital to the whole country’s reform, development and stability; to the country’s unity, ethnic harmony and national security as well as to the great revival of the Chinese nation.”

    It is believed Chinese Muslim separatists may be behind the attacks.

    Image via CCTV News, YouTube

  • Explosion At China’s Xinjiang Train Station Leaves Three Dead

    A large explosion shook a railway station in Xinjiang located in the far-western region of China. Reports say that 79 people were injured and three were killed during the attack. The incident happened on Wednesday, just after President Xi Jinping visited the area.

    Based on CCTV records, assailants attacked a crowd with knives then set off the explosions at the train station. With these acts caught on surveillance video, the media is calling the incident a premeditated terrorist attack.

    The train station was closed for around two hours after the attacks, and later reopened under the watchful eyes of armed authorities.

    A woman, who was working her shift at a convenience store near the station, said that the explosion happened a little after 7 pm.

    Photos of the damaged train station circulated on Chinese websites. The photos showed luggage spread out near the train station’s exit. Authorities are yet to find the perpetrators.

    Xinjiang is an area where tensions between Uighurs and the Chinese have been brewing for years. The violence in Xinjian is often blamed on the separatists and Uighurs – Muslims that mostly reside in the northwestern part of China.

    One of the professors at the Loyola University in New Orleans, Rian Thum, said that the explosives were used in order to target civilians. Thum specializes in Uighur history and said that they used a different tactic this time in order to deviate “from previous patterns of Uighur political violence.”

    According to the government’s critics, the Uighurs feel excluded from Xinjiang’s economic growth by the local government’s use of discriminatory practices.

    As a precaution, China has provided Xinjiang with more security. They have also restricted the travel rights and the religious practices of Uighurs, saying that they are the ones responsible for the increased level of violence in the region.

    Uighurs In China Feel Persecuted

     Image via YouTube

  • China Earthquake: A 6.9-Magnitude Shakes the Hotan Province

    On Wednesday, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck one of China’s most abundant northwestern regions of natural resources.

    The Xinjiang region endured several tremors within a two-hour timespan. Twenty of them were recorded as a series of aftershocks.

    The earthquake mainly occurred in southeast Hotan, a county-level city known for its terrestrial mountains.

    A report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) shows that the magnitude of the quake occurred 12.5 kilometers deep, south of Hotan.

    According to the survey’s tectonic summary:

    The February 12, 2014 M 6.9 earthquake south of Hotan, China, occurred as a result of shallow strike-slip faulting in the tectonically complex region of the northern Tibetan Plateau. Preliminary mechanisms for the event indicate slip occurred on a steeply dipping fault, either a left-lateral structure oriented northeast-southwest, or a right-lateral structure oriented northwest-southeast…

    The February 12, 2014 earthquake most likely resulted from movement along the Altyn Tagh fault system or an adjacent structure.

    Witnesses say that the earthquake lasted but a minute.

    There are reportedly no deaths or injuries, but officials are more than certain that homes and buildings in the area have suffered damage from the earthquake.

    It comes to no surprise that an earthquake has yet again hit China. Its mountainous regions are usually main targets of strike-slip fault systems.

    The tectonic summary also reported:

    The northern portion of the Tibetan Plateau itself is largely dominated by the motion on three large left-lateral, strike-slip fault systems; the Altyn Tagh, Kunlun and Haiyuan.

    Since last year, two earthquakes have occurred in other areas of the country.

    Last July, Gansu, a neighboring province of Xinjiang, succumbed to 95 local fatalities due to two earthquakes of the same magnitude.

    However, quakes in the town of Hotan appear to be common.

    “A previous 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck the same county in March 2008, affecting 40,000 people, destroying 200 homes and causing an overall 10 million yuan (US$1.7 million) in damage,” Channel NewsAsia said in a report.

    The USGS says that the 2008 earthquake happened “approximately 120 km further west-southwest” of Wednesday’s event.

    Image via Youtube

  • Rioting In Western China Leaves 27 Dead

    Rioting In Western China Leaves 27 Dead

    Rioting in western China’s Xinjiang province has left at least 27 dead at the hands of “knife-wielding mobs” according to Chinese authorities. The province, which is home to a significant Uyghur minority, and is among the poorest provinces in the country, has been seen numerous outbreaks of violence over the years, but this is the worst rioting since 2009.

    The reasons for the unrest remain unclear. According to the government-controlled media, however, eight civilians and nine police or security personnel were killed by the rioters before police opened fire, killing ten of them. Chinese authorities reported that the rioters were setting police cars on fire and stabbing people. A construction site, local government building, and several police stations were also reportedly attacked.

    The Uyghur (alternatively Uigur or Uygur) are a Turkic people and are predominantly Sunni Muslims. There have been numerous reports of oppression of the Uygur at the hands of the Chinese government and, as noted above, the region has seen regular outbreaks of violence over the years. The worst was in 2009, when over 200 people were killed. Twenty-one people were killed in what the government called terrorist attacks in April.

    According to a statement by the World Uyghur Congress, communications with the region have been locked down by the Chinese government. The WUC called the official version of events into question. They say that the violence is the result of continued oppression of the Uyghur people by the Chinese government.

    It is unclear whether any violence is still ongoing in the region, or whether Chinese authorities have the rioting under control.