Muslim executed for trying to "split" China - Page 3

Zeng · 02-20-2007, 21:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeng_xinren

The Tibetans are not very aggressive probably because their Tibetan Buddhism practiced by the ordinary Tibetans is not aggressive although the Tibetan Buddhism practiced by the elite Tibetan Lamas is very brutal. In 1950, it was documented that the elite Tibetan Lamas practiced their highest Tibetan Buddhism tricks in order to defeat PLA’s advancing into Tibet. During that practice, 64 Tibetans were sacrificed and their bodies and bloods were taken as gifts to their gods for help.

Sorry, I made a mistake on the number that Tibetans were sacrificed in 1950 when PLA is marching to Tibet. It was 21, not 64. I am making a correction here. Sorry for the mistake again.

**astralis** · 02-24-2007, 21:35 PM

from "The China Blog", hosted by Time Magazine.

http://time-blog.com/china_blog/

----

February 24, 2007 5:14
Al Qaeda and China...
Posted by Bill Powell

China's role in the "War on Terror" (WOT) has been among the murkier subjects of the last five years--not a lot of facts known about it. People tend to break into two camps: 1) China has used the WOT as an excuse to further clamp down on the beleaguered Uighers. 2) No, there's a real issue there, just look at the geopgraphy and where Islamic fundamentalist groups are active. (For what it's worth I've spent a fair bit of time in Cental Asia and tend to lean more toward camp two...) Martin Wayne, of the National Defense Institute in the U.S. , is one of the more knowledgeable foreigners who have tried to look into this in depth and has a book coming out on the subject. The following is a recent essay of his....

Al Qaeda’s China Problem by Dr. Martin I. Wayne

Al Qaeda has a China problem, and no one is watching. Despite al Qaeda’s significant efforts to support Muslim insurgents in China, the Chinese government has succeeded in limiting popular support for anti-government violence. The latest evidence came on Jan. 5, when China raided an alleged terrorist facility in the country’s Xinjiang region, near borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. According to reports, 18 terrorists were killed and 17 were captured, along with 22 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and material for thousands more. Chinese reportage on terrorism is notoriously problematic, at times imprecise, or simply fabricated. For the skeptics, photos of the policeman killed in the raid were also released, showing emotional relatives amid a sea of People’s Armed Police paying their final respects. Ironically, China’s ability to successfully kill or capture militants without social blowback demonstrates the significant degree to which China has won the population’s “hearts and minds,” however begrudgingly.

China’s successful efforts to keep the global jihad from spreading into its territory present a real challenge for al Qaeda. The organization reportedly trained more than 1,000 Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group that is predominantly Muslim, in camps in Afghanistan prior to 9/11. In late December, al Qaeda’s number two, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for action against “occupation” governments ruling over Muslims, including reference to the plight of Uyghurs in western China. Yet despite this commitment of resources and rhetorical energy, Uyghurs across Xinjiang’s social spectrum explain that violent resistance is no longer a viable path. Many Uyghurs in Xinjiang believe that insurgents worsen Uyghurs’ plight by making the Chinese more fearful, thereby more repressive. Uyghurs today increasingly participate in the Chinese system as local government and Party officials, educators, informants, and police.

Since the end of the Soviet-Afghan war, China has been confronting the self-described threats of “extremism, separatism, and terrorism” in its Alaska-sized Xinjiang region in the country’s far northwest. Where the region was once predominantly populated by Uyghurs, this group is now a minority in its own “autonomous region.” The perception of economic discrimination as well as resentment at Chinese rule have helped fuel a low level insurgency in Xinjiang for nearly two decades. Local men who traveled to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets returned home with new skills and attempted to ply their trade. Young Uyghurs were inspired by the power of men, armed with Allah and AK-47s, to defeat a superpower.

Political challenges in Xinjiang took many forms: some Uyghurs worked for greater autonomy, others for greater political freedom or democracy, and still others sought secession from China. As in many similar situations with Muslims fighting against local regimes, al Qaeda reportedly attempted to lend support by training fighters and funding a local affiliate, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Uyghur groups fighting against Chinese rule assassinated local officials and engaged in bombing campaigns that reportedly included a 1997 explosion outside Zhongnanhai, the enclosed compound in Beijing where China’s top leaders work. This period was separatism’s high-water mark. The massive 1997 Yining riot involving over 1,000 Uyghurs, in which over 150 reportedly died from security force excesses, has not been repeated. While there has been ongoing low-level violence in Xinjiang since 9/11, Chinese government claims that this is the result of Uyghur separatists are suspect.

China’s initial actions were brutal, and credible reports of security force excesses and torture persist. However, success came as China reduced the brutality of its repression and pulled the military out of direct confrontation with society. China built up more restrained, effective, and specialized police forces and tactics and reinvigorated political and educational projects in Xinjiang. The Chinese government purged separatist sympathizers from local governments and attempted to remove political dissent from religious worship. At the same time, availability of Uyghur language education was broadened and Beijing sought to expand economic development in Xinjiang, which was viewed as the key to success. Uyghurs in Xinjiang repeatedly explained in interviews that these changes made participation in the Chinese state more attractive, despite perceptions that economic opportunities primarily benefited the Chinese.

After an initial period of repression, China has used political means to keep the insurgency in Xinjiang to a remarkably low level. Beyond simply killing or capturing suspected insurgents, China has created a path for young Uyghurs – one achieved through participation in the system rather than fighting it. China’s proactive approach, reshaping society from the bottom up, has been so successful that much of the current debate centers on whether China really confronts a serious threat of terrorism in Xinjiang.

Zawahiri’s call to arms in late December and the People’s Armed Police raid in early January highlight what some China-watchers miss in reading the latest Chinese defense White Paper: despite China’s more confident role on the world stage, its primary concern is still internal security. The English language China Daily argued that the January raid in Xinjiang is a “wake-up call that the threat of terror is not only clear and present but more dangerous than ever.”

The raid in Xinjiang upon a group taking mining explosives and building IEDs represents a threat similar to the attacks of Madrid and London: home-grown individuals, radicalizing, building weapons with supplies at-hand. Yet the most important fact is that China was able to stop this group before it acted. According to government reporting, security forces have repeatedly interdicted arms and disrupted plots in this county, while insurgents have not recently been able to carry a single plot to fruition. This success is partly due to China’s ability to provide an alternative path for Uyghurs which limits their willingness to support or tolerate violence.

The contrast between China’s project in Xinjiang and U.S.’s actions in Iraq is stark: where China realized that local politics was a key factor for strategic effectiveness, the U.S. has focused on targeting an ever-growing pool of insurgents and terrorists. China’s ultimate success in frustrating al Qaeda’s designs on Xinjiang rests upon its recognizing and responding to the political nature of the threat.

Dr. Martin I. Wayne is the China Security Fellow at the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies. The opinions expressed in this article are his own and do not represent the views of National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the United States government. In 2005, Dr. Wayne conducted extensive fieldwork in Xinjiang; his book, “Understanding China's War on Terrorism” is forthcoming.

Ray · 02-24-2007, 23:04 PM

Astralis and Zeng,

Very balanced and pragmatic opinions expressed.

Must to glean from both your comments.

Thank you. I have benefited.

As far as India is concerned, freedom of speech sometimes become licence. It is only after terrorism struck India in a big way is the problem aggravated. More so, since organisations like SIMI etc are actively trying to subvert in connivance with the ISI.

Clinically looking at the issue, it is not surprising that ISI is doing what is is doing because that it is it within charter. It is implementing the same,

Ray · 02-25-2007, 13:45 PM

Zeng,

Comments please.

Quote:

GUNS AND STEEL ON THE SILK ROAD

High Noon in China's Far West

By Wieland Wagner

China is sending more troops to the mostly Muslim province of Xinjiang in the far west of the country. Concerns are rising in Beijing of ethnic unrest in the border region. Its plans for economic development there may be in trouble.

Mao Tse Tung defies the icy wind blowing from the Pamir Mountains across the city of Kashgar. Beijing is worlds away from this spot on the historic Silk Road, not far from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Which is perhaps why the Chairman Mao needs such a tall base for his statue, perched 24 meters (79 feet) above the "Square of the People." But Mao is strikingly alone -- the square is practically devoid of people.

It is time for prayer. A few blocks away, locals are streaming into the Id-Kah Mosque, the largest Muslim house of worship in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, home to the Uighur minority in northwestern China.

The faithful wear their fur turbans pulled down over their faces. It's bitterly cold, but it is also to disguise their identities. Many are afraid of being recognized.

Muslims are the majority in Kashgar, giving this ancient city bordering the Tarim Basin the air of an Arabian oasis. Uighurs, Kyrgyz and Tajiks bring their dates, nuts and pomegranates to the market on donkey carts. Instead of Peking Duck, the air smells of roast lamb and flatbread.

Veil of suspicion

But a veil of suspicion hangs over the region. Unlike in other parts of Central Asia, the muezzin in Kashgar is not permitted to use a loudspeaker to call the faithful to prayer from the minaret. His voice sounds ****-led as it emerges from the interior of the mosque. Civil servants are essentially barred from taking part in Muslim prayers, evidence of fears among China's atheist leadership that Islam could develop into the core of an independence movement.

In January Chinese police attacked a base used by fighters of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in western Xinjiang. The organization supposedly has ties to the al-Qaida terrorist network. It was the bloodiest battle between Chinese government forces and Uighur resistance fighters in a decade. A Chinese police officer was killed, and Beijing has since celebrated the man as a martyr of the revolution. The police shot and killed 18 of the alleged terrorists and arrested 17 suspects.

Since then military transport aircraft and helicopters have been making regular landings at the Kashgar airport, as China builds up its forces in its mountainous border regions. Neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan are seen as the principal hideouts for the region's Islamists.

Since the battle at the ETIM camp, anyone in Kashgar who is unable to show identification is considered a suspect. The police search vehicles on arterial roads and security forces, uniformed or in civilian clothing, lurk in the city. "We stay home at night," says Mohammed, a 26-year-old Uighur who operates a clothing stand near the "Street of the Liberation." The police keep a watchful eye on Kashgar's crowds, even at events as seemingly harmless as the opening of a new supermarket across the street from the mosque.

Massacre in the mountains

In some ways the heightened surveillance runs counter to the Chinese government's aims in the region, where it welcomes every new business, factory or apartment building -- any building to displace the city's traditional earthen structures. Beijing is spending billions of Yuan to develop a modern-day Silk Road in this border region, complete with new pipelines, railroad lines and roads. China plans to use the new infrastructure to bring oil and natural gas from Central Asia to the Chinese heartland and export its electronics and textiles in the other direction.

Beijing's strategists are pinning their hopes on new wealth to pacify the troubled Xinjiang region. But the recent massacre in the mountains could scare away investors, as China wages its own war on Islamist terrorists.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has long believed that his country is already a "victim of terrorism." He is referring primarily, though, to forces fighting for regional independence, or at least for greater autonomy from the central government far to the east.

The government has charged Uighur dissident Rebiya Kadeer with "violent terrorist activities." Two years ago Beijing forced the prominent local businesswoman to emigrate to the United States and imposed prison sentences on her sons in Xinjiang for alleged tax evasion. In quoting an angry Internet user who called Kadeer a "separatist monster," the official China Daily expressed one of Beijing's greatest fears: that the dissident, who was elected president of the World Uighur Congress last year, could be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The "war on terror" doubles as a convenient fig leaf for the Chinese leadership. In 2001 Beijing used its concerns over alleged terrorist activities as the impetus to establish the Shanghai Organization for Cooperation, which also counts Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as members. The dangers of terrorism were also used to justify joint military exercises with the Russians in 2005. Three years earlier China gained US support for its campaign to have the United Nations classify the Islam independence movement ETIM as a terrorist organization. But little in fact is known about ETIM's goals, and Beijing has yet to produce clear evidence of the organization's alleged ties to al-Qaida.

"Robbing us of our livelihood"

Despite its successes, the Chinese leadership remains seriously concerned, fearing a reprise of the bloody unrest of recent decades in Xinjiang. According to official figures, the resistance movement's activities cost 162 lives and caused 400 injuries between 1990 and 2001. Out of an apparent fear of attacks, China imposed restrictions on passengers carrying liquids onto airplanes as far back as 2003 -- well before similar rules were enacted in Europe and the United States. With a view toward the 2008 Olympic Games, security has already been tightened in and around the capital.

China's strategy of using the blessings of capitalism as one of its tools in fighting terrorism tends to have the opposite effect among Uighurs. More and more ethnic Chinese are immigrating into Xinjiang; their share of the population has grown to at least 40 percent since 1949.

The change in the region's ethnic makeup has widened the gap between rich and poor, and social decline tends to affect Uighurs like textile vendor Mohammed first. "The Chinese are the ones running businesses here today," he says angrily. "They are robbing us of our livelihood."

In addition, with Xinjiang having evolved into a virtual military base, even the most peaceful of Uighurs are deterred from staging demonstrations. Tens of thousands of Chinese troops, for example, are stationed in Shule, a garrison town near Kashgar.

Fighting, though, isn't the only reason the soldiers are there. Many have also been sent to the region to develop their own farms and factories. According to one soldier, whenever they encounter unrest the troops simply change into the uniforms of the armed People's Police.

As if that weren't enough, the Chinese government also controls the clocks in Xinjiang. Although the capital is almost 3,000 kilometers (1,865 miles) away, Xinjiang runs on Beijing time.

Despite the official mandate, clocks at the mosque in Kashgar are set, in quiet protest, to the real local time, which is two hours earlier than Beijing time -- exactly the way nature would have it in Xinjiang.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

Guns and Steel on the Silk Road: High Noon in China's Far West - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

smilingassassin · 02-26-2007, 22:12 PM

Oh those evil Americans, persecuting Muslims!!! Oh wait its the chinese, wheres Xerces?

xerxes · 02-27-2007, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smilingassassin

Oh those evil Americans, persecuting Muslims!!! Oh wait its the chinese, wheres Xerces?

Good god,... lol ,, who is Xerces ... my God mr assassin, this thread has been seating here for a while, did you just stumbled upon it.

when did i ever even mentioned America persecuting Muslims? you got to be kidding me. infact I wrote you an entire paragraph about what was IMO US descision to invade Iraq, and none had to do with neither muslims nor religions.

I dare you or anyone on this board, to find a quote of me either praising A-jad or complainig about America persecuting Muslims ... infact it is the Americans on this board who dont stop nagging with their anti-semetic BS, whenever someone remotely critized israel or other people nagging about Muslims imposing Sharia in Great Britian .. which actually sounds very funny.

Ray · 02-27-2007, 05:12 AM

Smiling,

I think you are baiting Xerxes.

His posts are very balanced and I hardly find anything that indicates fanatic Islamism.

Don't push him to the wall.

smilingassassin · 02-27-2007, 06:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xerxes

Good god,... lol ,, who is Xerces ... my God mr assassin, this thread has been seating here for a while, did you just stumbled upon it.

when did i ever even mentioned America persecuting Muslims? you got to be kidding me. infact I wrote you an entire paragraph about what was IMO US descision to invade Iraq, and none had to do with neither muslims nor religions.

I dare you or anyone on this board, to find a quote of me either praising A-jad or complainig about America persecuting Muslims ... infact it is the Americans on this board who dont stop nagging with their anti-semetic BS, whenever someone remotely critized israel or other people nagging about Muslims imposing Sharia in Great Britian .. which actually sounds very funny.

I think you are both gravely mistaken, I wasn't baiting, though I'll admit the first sentance was sarcasm and a very poor attempt. As for the second, if you construe that as baiting well I honestly don't know what to say...

I do find it amazing though that this post would be noticed for some time and no scathing critisism against the Chinese?

By the way harping on typo's really is a waste of effort no?

xerxes · 02-27-2007, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smilingassassin

I think you are both gravely mistaken, I wasn't baiting, though I'll admit the first sentance was sarcasm and a very poor attempt. As for the second, if you construe that as baiting well I honestly don't know what to say...

Dont worry about it, only a Canadian can bait another Canadian

.. so regardless of wether you were baiting, it is no problem with me ...

btw have you noticed how bring BSG has become in the past four weeks, it is untolerable

Quote:

Originally Posted by smilingassassin

I do find it amazing though that this post would be noticed for some time and no scathing critisism against the Chinese?

Because as a great man said once in another thread, "It is safer to blame the Americans".

Quote:

Originally Posted by smilingassassin

By the way harping on typo's really is a waste of effort no?

I agree ...

smilingassassin · 02-27-2007, 18:45 PM

While it may be "safer" to blame Americans it certainly isn't consistant with whats going on in the rest of the world. It would be refreshing to see the double standard ditched from time to time no?

Yes BSG has become rather boring, its just filler shows right now.

xerxes · 02-27-2007, 23:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smilingassassin

While it may be "safer" to blame Americans it certainly isn't consistant with whats going on in the rest of the world. It would be refreshing to see the double standard ditched from time to time no?

ehhh .. actually no ...

it wouldnt be refreshing at all. One double standard deserves another. What .. you think Bush's rhetoric is consistant with whats going on in the rest of the world??

smilingassassin · 02-28-2007, 00:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by xerxes

ehhh .. actually no ...

it wouldnt be refreshing at all. One double standard deserves another. What .. you think Bush's rhetoric is consistant with whats going on in the rest of the world??

Two wrongs don't make a right and please elaborate on "Bush's Rhetoric", do tell....

Zeng · 02-28-2007, 21:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ray

Zeng,

Comments please.

Ray Sir,

The author called the killing of those terrorists who had IEDs and massive explosives the "Massacre in the mountains". Then, you know the stance of this author.

We understand that Uighur are proud people who have their distinguished language, culture, life style, history and religion just like the rest of us. Also, they have around 15 millions of people. Giving the option, they would like to get their independent country.

As those ***stans got independence from USSR, the Uighur become the only major race in the region that has no independent country.

It is impossible to make all of them forget independence and love to be Chinese. We wouldn’t set an impossible goal for ourselves. The goal is to make them feel that it is OK living with China in stead of fighting with China. Make best efforts to give them decent life and most of them will give up their determination to fight hopeless wars with us.

Most of them love their lives and the lives of their kids more than hate us. For those who hate us more than they love their lives and the lives of their kids, fighting is the only option.

About the Beijing time vs. Xinjiang time, I mentioned that in the last section of my comment #24. China has only one official time in entire China, the Beijing Time whereever you are. But it is OK to let Uighur to get a little bit sentiment. We don’t feel that it is a big deal and respect their sentiment. No one goes to their Mosque to ask them to change their clock. The author tried to make a deal of it.

Most pro-independence Uighurs organizations are located in Germany, some of them located in Turkey.

A web-link for pro-independence Uighurs:
HUNMAGYAR.ORG - TURAN - EASTERN TURKESTAN - UYGURISTAN

bigball · 02-07-2008, 08:58 AM

Most Taiwanese are frogs at the bottom of well,they know very little about the outside world.

**astralis** · 02-07-2008, 21:28 PM

bigball,

Quote:

Most Taiwanese are frogs at the bottom of well,they know very little about the outside world.

i agree. they are indeed the 井底之蛙-- exactly like most chinese.

02-24-2007, 21:35 PM	#32 (permalink)
astralis *Foreign Service* Moderator Lei Feng Protege Join Date: 08-23-05 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 2,948 Country:	from "The China Blog", hosted by Time Magazine. http://time-blog.com/china_blog/ ---- February 24, 2007 5:14 Al Qaeda and China... Posted by Bill Powell China's role in the "War on Terror" (WOT) has been among the murkier subjects of the last five years--not a lot of facts known about it. People tend to break into two camps: 1) China has used the WOT as an excuse to further clamp down on the beleaguered Uighers. 2) No, there's a real issue there, just look at the geopgraphy and where Islamic fundamentalist groups are active. (For what it's worth I've spent a fair bit of time in Cental Asia and tend to lean more toward camp two...) Martin Wayne, of the National Defense Institute in the U.S. , is one of the more knowledgeable foreigners who have tried to look into this in depth and has a book coming out on the subject. The following is a recent essay of his.... Al Qaeda’s China Problem by Dr. Martin I. Wayne Al Qaeda has a China problem, and no one is watching. Despite al Qaeda’s significant efforts to support Muslim insurgents in China, the Chinese government has succeeded in limiting popular support for anti-government violence. The latest evidence came on Jan. 5, when China raided an alleged terrorist facility in the country’s Xinjiang region, near borders with Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. According to reports, 18 terrorists were killed and 17 were captured, along with 22 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and material for thousands more. Chinese reportage on terrorism is notoriously problematic, at times imprecise, or simply fabricated. For the skeptics, photos of the policeman killed in the raid were also released, showing emotional relatives amid a sea of People’s Armed Police paying their final respects. Ironically, China’s ability to successfully kill or capture militants without social blowback demonstrates the significant degree to which China has won the population’s “hearts and minds,” however begrudgingly. China’s successful efforts to keep the global jihad from spreading into its territory present a real challenge for al Qaeda. The organization reportedly trained more than 1,000 Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group that is predominantly Muslim, in camps in Afghanistan prior to 9/11. In late December, al Qaeda’s number two, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for action against “occupation” governments ruling over Muslims, including reference to the plight of Uyghurs in western China. Yet despite this commitment of resources and rhetorical energy, Uyghurs across Xinjiang’s social spectrum explain that violent resistance is no longer a viable path. Many Uyghurs in Xinjiang believe that insurgents worsen Uyghurs’ plight by making the Chinese more fearful, thereby more repressive. Uyghurs today increasingly participate in the Chinese system as local government and Party officials, educators, informants, and police. Since the end of the Soviet-Afghan war, China has been confronting the self-described threats of “extremism, separatism, and terrorism” in its Alaska-sized Xinjiang region in the country’s far northwest. Where the region was once predominantly populated by Uyghurs, this group is now a minority in its own “autonomous region.” The perception of economic discrimination as well as resentment at Chinese rule have helped fuel a low level insurgency in Xinjiang for nearly two decades. Local men who traveled to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets returned home with new skills and attempted to ply their trade. Young Uyghurs were inspired by the power of men, armed with Allah and AK-47s, to defeat a superpower. Political challenges in Xinjiang took many forms: some Uyghurs worked for greater autonomy, others for greater political freedom or democracy, and still others sought secession from China. As in many similar situations with Muslims fighting against local regimes, al Qaeda reportedly attempted to lend support by training fighters and funding a local affiliate, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). Uyghur groups fighting against Chinese rule assassinated local officials and engaged in bombing campaigns that reportedly included a 1997 explosion outside Zhongnanhai, the enclosed compound in Beijing where China’s top leaders work. This period was separatism’s high-water mark. The massive 1997 Yining riot involving over 1,000 Uyghurs, in which over 150 reportedly died from security force excesses, has not been repeated. While there has been ongoing low-level violence in Xinjiang since 9/11, Chinese government claims that this is the result of Uyghur separatists are suspect. China’s initial actions were brutal, and credible reports of security force excesses and torture persist. However, success came as China reduced the brutality of its repression and pulled the military out of direct confrontation with society. China built up more restrained, effective, and specialized police forces and tactics and reinvigorated political and educational projects in Xinjiang. The Chinese government purged separatist sympathizers from local governments and attempted to remove political dissent from religious worship. At the same time, availability of Uyghur language education was broadened and Beijing sought to expand economic development in Xinjiang, which was viewed as the key to success. Uyghurs in Xinjiang repeatedly explained in interviews that these changes made participation in the Chinese state more attractive, despite perceptions that economic opportunities primarily benefited the Chinese. After an initial period of repression, China has used political means to keep the insurgency in Xinjiang to a remarkably low level. Beyond simply killing or capturing suspected insurgents, China has created a path for young Uyghurs – one achieved through participation in the system rather than fighting it. China’s proactive approach, reshaping society from the bottom up, has been so successful that much of the current debate centers on whether China really confronts a serious threat of terrorism in Xinjiang. Zawahiri’s call to arms in late December and the People’s Armed Police raid in early January highlight what some China-watchers miss in reading the latest Chinese defense White Paper: despite China’s more confident role on the world stage, its primary concern is still internal security. The English language China Daily argued that the January raid in Xinjiang is a “wake-up call that the threat of terror is not only clear and present but more dangerous than ever.” The raid in Xinjiang upon a group taking mining explosives and building IEDs represents a threat similar to the attacks of Madrid and London: home-grown individuals, radicalizing, building weapons with supplies at-hand. Yet the most important fact is that China was able to stop this group before it acted. According to government reporting, security forces have repeatedly interdicted arms and disrupted plots in this county, while insurgents have not recently been able to carry a single plot to fruition. This success is partly due to China’s ability to provide an alternative path for Uyghurs which limits their willingness to support or tolerate violence. The contrast between China’s project in Xinjiang and U.S.’s actions in Iraq is stark: where China realized that local politics was a key factor for strategic effectiveness, the U.S. has focused on targeting an ever-growing pool of insurgents and terrorists. China’s ultimate success in frustrating al Qaeda’s designs on Xinjiang rests upon its recognizing and responding to the political nature of the threat. Dr. Martin I. Wayne is the China Security Fellow at the National Defense University's Institute for National Strategic Studies. The opinions expressed in this article are his own and do not represent the views of National Defense University, the Department of Defense, or the United States government. In 2005, Dr. Wayne conducted extensive fieldwork in Xinjiang; his book, “Understanding China's War on Terrorism” is forthcoming. __________________ Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

02-24-2007, 23:04 PM	#33 (permalink)
Ray Postmaster General *Military Professional* Join Date: 08-20-03 Posts: 26,149 Country:	Astralis and Zeng, Very balanced and pragmatic opinions expressed. Must to glean from both your comments. Thank you. I have benefited. As far as India is concerned, freedom of speech sometimes become licence. It is only after terrorism struck India in a big way is the problem aggravated. More so, since organisations like SIMI etc are actively trying to subvert in connivance with the ISI. Clinically looking at the issue, it is not surprising that ISI is doing what is is doing because that it is it within charter. It is implementing the same, __________________ "Some have learnt many Tricks of sly Evasion, Instead of Truth they use Equivocation, And eke it out with mental Reservation, Which is to good Men an Abomination." I don't have to attend every argument I'm invited to. HAKUNA MATATA Last edited by Ray : 02-24-2007 at 23:17 PM.

02-26-2007, 22:12 PM	#35 (permalink)
smilingassassin *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 12-12-03 Location: Vancouver Canada Posts: 2,719 Country:	Oh those evil Americans, persecuting Muslims!!! Oh wait its the chinese, wheres Xerces? __________________ Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman. -- Larry Elder

02-27-2007, 18:45 PM	#40 (permalink)
smilingassassin *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 12-12-03 Location: Vancouver Canada Posts: 2,719 Country:	While it may be "safer" to blame Americans it certainly isn't consistant with whats going on in the rest of the world. It would be refreshing to see the double standard ditched from time to time no? Yes BSG has become rather boring, its just filler shows right now. Last edited by smilingassassin : 02-27-2007 at 18:47 PM.

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02-27-2007, 05:12 AM	#37 (permalink)
Ray Postmaster General *Military Professional* Join Date: 08-20-03 Posts: 26,149 Country:	Smiling, I think you are baiting Xerxes. His posts are very balanced and I hardly find anything that indicates fanatic Islamism. Don't push him to the wall.

02-07-2008, 08:58 AM	#44 (permalink)
bigball Banished Join Date: 02-07-08 Posts: 2	Most Taiwanese are frogs at the bottom of well,they know very little about the outside world.

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