China blames Xinjiang unrest on 'terrorists'

By AFP

Published: August 1, 2011

Kashgar local government said assailants learned explosive-making skills in terrorist-run camps in Pakistan. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

URUMQI: China on Monday blamed Muslim terrorists who had reportedly learned explosive-making skills in terrorist-run camps in Pakistan for deadly unrest in its vast northwest region bordering Central Asia, while imposing heavy security in a bid to ensure no further unrest.
Nineteen people were killed in two separate incidents in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar over the weekend in the latest wave of violence to hit the restive Xinjiang region, home to a mainly Muslim Uighur minority.
The Kashgar local government said in a statement on its website the assailants behind one attack that left six dead learned explosive-making skills in terrorist-run camps in Pakistan.
“The heads of the group had learned skills of making explosives and firearms in overseas camps of the terrorist group East Turkestan Islamic Movement in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang,” the online statement said.
The Chinese authorities have accused the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, (ETIM), which wants an independent homeland for Xinjiang’s Uighurs, of orchestrating attacks in the region on many previous occasions.
The United States and the United Nations have listed the ETIM as a “terrorist” organisation.
Both Washington and Beijing say ETIM militants have received training and funding from Al-Qaeda, although some analysts dispute that.
Many of Xinjiang’s eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs are unhappy with what they say has been decades of political and religious repression, and the unwanted immigration of China’s dominant Han ethnic group.
While standards of living have improved, Uighurs complain that most of the gains go to the Han.
This tension has triggered sporadic bouts of violence in Xinjiang, a resource-rich and strategically vital region bordering eight countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sunday’s restaurant attack came less than 24 hours after eight people were killed and more than 20 others hurt at a night market in Kashgar by two knife-wielding assailants, according to authorities.
Police also reportedly shot dead five attackers.
The Kashmir government statement did not mention the night market attack, but some state media reports on Monday blamed both incidents on “terrorists”.
“These kinds of terror attacks have been increasing recently,” the Global Times said in an editorial published in its English-language edition.
“Overseas extremists have been stirring up conflict between Uighur and Han Chinese while some Western media have shown sympathy for the terrorists. All these factors have contributed to the current discord.”
The Global Times is known for its nationalist stance and is part of the same stable as the People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece.
Meanwhile, residents of Kashgar reported that the streets had reopened after a lockdown on Sunday, but remained quiet with a heavy police presence.
“The street is open, but there are not many people. Last night, just after the attack, shops were all closed,” one shop owner who asked not to be named told AFP by phone.
“We are very worried, this is happening very often. The government should work harder to tackle these problems”
The weekend unrest came after more than 20 people were killed last month in a clash with police in the remote city of Hotan.
State media at the time quoted an official in Xinjiang calling the Hotan clash a “terrorist” attack, adding that four people were killed when a crowd set upon a police station.
But Uighur activists called it an outburst of anger by ordinary Uighurs and said security forces killed 20 people during the unrest.
In the nation’s worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs savagely attacked Han Chinese in the regional capital Urumqi in July 2009 — an incident that led to retaliatory attacks by Han on Uighurs several days later.
The government says around 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in the violence, which further weakened the authoritarian Communist Party’s claims of harmony among the country’s dozens of ethnic groups.
In another high-profile bout of unrest before the Beijing Olympics, two men in Kashgar ploughed a truck into a group of jogging police officers and then launched machete attacks, killing 16.
Chinese authorities blamed that attack on the ETIM.

Dalai Lama says China demonization ‘childish’

The Dalai Lama is giving up his political duties, but one model he doesn't want to emulate is the Queen. - AFP (File Photo)

WASHINGTON: The Dalai Lama said that Chinese leaders show through their strident denunciations of him that they are “childish” and lack their full brains, but voiced hope that China will change in time.
Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader enjoys widespread global popularity, speaking to arenas full of thousands during a recent visit to the United States. But he is demonized by China, which has called him a “wolf in monk’s clothing.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone magazine, the Dalai Lama said that China’s rulers were hoping to convince both Tibetans and Chinese that he was a negative force but lacked any sense of nuance.
“They want 100 per cent negative. So they use these words. They actually disgrace themselves,” the Dalai Lama said in the magazine’s current edition. “I mean, childish! Very foolish! Nobody believes them.
“Usually, with human beings, one part of the brain develops common sense.
But with those Chinese leaders, particularly the hardliners, that part of their brain is missing,” he said.
“When I met with President (Barack) Obama last year, I told him, ‘You should make a little surgery. Put that part of brain into the Chinese,’” the Dalai Lama, who met again with Obama on July 16, said with a laugh.
The Dalai Lama, who fled China’s rule of Tibet for exile in India in 1959, says he is seeking greater rights for Tibetans and accepts China’s rule.
Beijing insists that he is a “splittist” trying to divide the country.
Vice President Xi Jinping, who is widely expected to take over as China’s leader, attacked the Dalai Lama as he visited Lhasa on Tuesday to mark 60 years since China cemented control over the Himalayan region.
“We should fight against separatist activities by the Dalai group… and take measures to address root causes, and smash any attempt to undermine stability in Tibet and the national unity of the motherland,” Xi said.
The International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group that works closely with the Dalai Lama, said that Chinese authorities imposed stringent security for Xi’s visit, with reports at least 100 people were rounded up and that Tibetans not involved in official events were told to stay at home.
In the Rolling Stone interview, the Dalai Lama said he was hopeful that China would change with time. He praised Premier Wen Jiabao for his calls for political reforms.
“Chinese intellectuals and artists, more and more say they want political change, more freedom. So therefore, it is bound to change,” the Dalai Lama said.
“In the next 50 years, I think it is almost certain things will change whether I live the next 50 years or whether I don’t.” At age 76, the Dalai Lama appears to be in good health.
But he has devoted attention to his succession, fearful about China’s insistence it has to approve the next Dalai Lama – presumably to groom the boy to be pro-Beijing.
The Dalai Lama recently said he was ending his political role, with Tibetans in exile electing their own prime minister. The monk said the reforms would make life easier for his successor, who will be the 15th Dalai Lama.
“By my resignation, I already made the role separate from the political world. So it will be much safer for the next Dalai Lama,” he said.
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he wants to return to Tibet. In the interview, however, he played down the issue.
“The Tibet issue is not an issue about the Dalai Lama. It is about six million Tibetans and their culture. So unless the Chinese government addresses the real issues, talks about my return to Tibet are irrelevant,” he said.
The Dalai Lama said he was not concerned about whether he can be buried at the Potala Palace in Lhasa.
“If the airplane I’m on crashes, then finished! Follow bin Laden!” he said, referring to the September 11 attacks.

China fans blast ‘Transformers’ brand placements

Michael Bay's big budget action film starring Shia LaBeouf focuses on alien robots in a quest to save the world. - File Photo

BEIJING: Despite thrilling to its 3D visual effects, Chinese moviegoers on Friday blasted the Hollywood blockbuster “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” for clunky product placements of Chinese brands.
The Hollywood robot action movie hit screens in China on Thursday, crashing ticket-booking websites as fans scrambled to get a seat for the film’s national debut, the Beijing News reported.
Analysts expect the box office for the day, once tallied, will break the 60 million yuan ($9.3 million) one-day record for China created by DreamWorks Animation’s “Kung Fu Panda 2” on its debut in May, Friday’s Beijing News report said.
Four Chinese brands enjoy prominent exposure in the third instalment of the “Transformers” franchise — the most in any Hollywood film — in a sign of a push by Chinese firms to raise their global profiles, the Financial Times said in a report Wednesday.
However, viewers complained that the product placements were forced and “stiff” and did not blend with the script as naturally as those involving foreign labels, said Friday’s Modern Express newspaper.
“I can handle Adidas and Lenovo, but why give a part to Shuhua Low Lactose milk? I’m crying. I hate such product placements,” said a posting on the popular microblogging service of leading Chinese portal Sina.
Lenovo is China’s largest personal computer maker while Shuhua Low Lactose milk is a product of major Chinese dairy producer Yili.
“You can’t remember the protagonist, or the story, or any fighting scenes. But you can definitely remember Lenovo, TCL and Yili Shuhua milk,” said web user Jingang Daodan.
TCL is a Chinese maker of television sets. The other Chinese brand name with a cameo in the film is Meters/bonwe, a clothing line targeted at youths that also made its way into the second film in the series, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”