Security stepped up in China after Tiananmen attack
In China, Tiananmen Square is seen as symbol of the Communist party’s power, which is why the authorities feel they have to take decisive action after the attack there.
If you were to only read Chinese state media over the last week you could be forgiven for believing that China is in the midst of a holy war, writes Channel 4 News Beijing producer Danny Vincent.
On 28 October, a 4×4 jeep ploughed through a crowd of tourists, killing five and injuring dozens before bursting into flames inside Tiananmen Square.
State media said the attack was orchestrated by Chinese Islamic militants in an act of jihad. Authorities said they found what they called “extreme religious content”, “long knives” and “jihadist flags” in the homes of the suspects, all of whom were from China’s Muslim Xinjiang region.
Xinjiang is China’s most western border, home to ethnic Uighurs who, until 1949, formed the majority of its population. In recent years it has seen the mass migration of Han Chinese, who make up the largest ethnic group in China.
War on terror
The government says Uighur groups, spurred on by external forces, are waging a war of terror on China in an attempt to turn Xinjiang into an independent Muslim state called East Turkestan. It’s a threat that observers say is overplayed.
“In spite of what might appear to be overwhelming evidence that the violence in Xinjiang is essentially the result of local issues and is the current phase of a longstanding historical conflict, the Chinese government insists that it is caused by external forces hostile to China,” said Michael Dillon, author of Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Far Northwest.
In 2009, nearly 200 people were killed after violence erupted between the Turkic-speaking Uighur and Han Chinese in Xinjiang. Shortly after, I travelled to the far-flung region.
A small group of Uighurs had stormed a restaurant attacking Han Chinese inside. Blood was still splattered across the floor as we arrived at the scene.
Most Uighurs were too afraid to talk to media. Those that did speak off camera complained not about religion, independence or even racial inequality, but of the Communist party.
Abuses of power
They spoke of local unresolved conflicts, abuses of power, an arbitrary legal system; essentially symptoms of the same problems that are present across many parts of China regardless of religion or race.
China has seen an increase in reported violent acts from ordinary citizens, desperate to bring attention to their grievances.
In July, a wheelchair-bound man named Ji Zhongxing detonated a home-made bomb in Beijing Capital airport. Last month the 34-year-old was sentenced to six years in prison for “intentionally causing an explosion”.
He had travelled to Beijing to seek redress for police brutality eight years earlier, which had left him disabled. Friends told reporters that he felt he had no other way to bring attention to the injustice he had suffered.
Brutal crackdown
To the international community, Tiananmen Square will forever be synonymous with the brutal crackdown of the student democracy movement in 1989. But inside China, Tiananmen is seen as a political centerpiece, synonymous with the party’s power.
Security has been stepped up across Beijing and in Xinjiang following the attack. This week the government dismissed Xinjiang’s top military commander, most likely as a punishment for not preventing the latest attack.
But China must find a political solution to the grievances in the region, not one that relies on policing and the military.