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August 9, 2005
Looks like we spoke too soon . . .
Yesterday, I linked to a Lebanese blogger asking the question, "why isn't there a jihad against China?"
Well, something interesting is making out of the People's Republic despite efforts of the Chinese government to supress the information. A suicide bomber apparently has blown up a bus in China.
The Jawa Report has links to Chinese bloggers that are getting the information out.
Should this prove to be the work of Islamic extremists, and if it continues, I'd expect that the Chinese reaction will be swift and brutal. It's one thing when you have to fight a war in the full view of a free press and have dissidents and activists working against your efforts to defeat terrorists, but it's quite another when you're a totalitarian regime that controls the media and doesn't tolerate any criticism of the state's activities.
The Chinese won't play around with terrorists, and it's unlikely that if they get their hands on those responsible that anything close to humane treatment will be meted out. I doubt their interrogation techniques include Harry Potter and "proximity to females".
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at August 9, 2005 10:35 PM
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Comments
According to the end of the article, the guy blew himself up because of societal problems, not religion.
You sound envious. Don't.
Posted by: William at August 9, 2005 11:29 PM
Yes, the China Daily article does say that is was "societal problems", but if you follow The Jawa Report link, you'll see that bloggers are reporting something slightly different, and point to 1000's of bombings last year across China and detail the rise of Islamic extremism in the Communist state.
While I don't expect the Chinese government to announce that it has a problem with terrorism within it's borders, and I do expect that as more and more Chinese are getting access to the internet and begin blogging, we will hear more reports come out about unrest of all sorts in China.
You sound very willing to buy the Chinese Communist Party line, don't.
--Jason
Posted by: Jason Coleman at August 10, 2005 12:32 AM
I'm not familiar with the source, thus don't trust the credibility, but I doubt it's portraying the communist line.
I gave "societal problems" as a summary of the whole he got into debt, saw no way out, thus blew himself up, a problem brought about by the way the society is structured over there (something that does not reflect nicely upon the state).
I also doubt the bloggers. Seeing as we've only had one terror attack in the last 5+ years, a police state like China is probably telling the truth when it says it's safe. Not to say that we should trust them, but it makes logical sense that in a country where you can be arrested for saying the wrong thing, and that has not taken a strong stance on the WOT, terrorism would be kept at below US levels (at unacceptable costs, of course).
I have also heard many (credible, NYT with photos) stories of unrest within rural China; various villages revolting because of their putrid conditions, and they could possibly be spawning bombings.
The main hope is that China fixes things (those society problems, main solution: democracy) top down before the bottom up gets real nasty (Russia, 1912-1920). Really we lack credible information on this topic to draw any conclusions or lessons for ourselves, except that it is essential to be open and transparent to get things fixed.
Posted by: William at August 12, 2005 12:50 AM
