Exactly, All members end the off topic discussion as of now. Any more off topic discussion and suspensions/bannings will take place.
You have been warned.
So it is written, so it shall be done.
bd popeye super moderator
27 dead, in Kunming railway station attack
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Exactly, All members end the off topic discussion as of now. Any more off topic discussion and suspensions/bannings will take place.
You have been warned.
So it is written, so it shall be done.
bd popeye super moderator
There is a disturbing trend of Uighur terrorists operating outside of their historic range lately (Tianmen, Yunnan, etc.). The recent shipment of knives and other weapons were sezied in Fuzhou. That is as far away from Urumuqi as New York is from Los Angeles. I wonder if this means the police will be given more powers and weapons everywhere across the country.
In the US, the local police level, the police are of course armed. And because of terrorism and heavy drug traffickers, most local Police Departments, particularly in larger cities now have Special Weapons and Tactics Teams (SWAT).
This is understandable, although one of the almost unavoidable down sides of this is that there have been incidents where these teams and the Departments have abused their authority or made mistakes and caused the loss of innocent life themselves. However, when used appropriately, they are needed because of the types of threats terrorists and drug traffickers pose.
Outside of that, the US States at the State levels have their own departments of criminal investigation and their own State Troopers. These people also have access to heavier weapons if necessary, in addition to their normal side arms.
Then in the US, at the Federal level, for crimes that cross state lines, you have the federal Bureau of Investigation who also has their own crisis teams and the ability to call in Homeland Security.
If a terrorist crisis becomes large enough, at the local and state level the Governor can call up his National Guard units, who are Armed just like the regular US Military. At the Federal level the President can either nationalize the National Guard from the states, or use the regular military to defend the US at the national level.
I would be surprised if China did not have Provincial level forces and of course, regular military forces that could and would respond in the event of larger crisis. With this incident, it sounds like the local police responded and killed the attacking terrorists with gunfire.
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Uh, those knives must have been made of some special Uighur steel if they decided to transport it from point A to point B instead of buying 'unregistered' knives before the attack...
I'm withinking what you think Jeff. Arming normal policemen is usally for 'other purposes' than terrorist attack.
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plawolf
Lieutenant General
Powers, yes, I'm not sure about weapons.
The Chinese have the People's Armed Police, which is almost like the US national guard in terms of equipment and organisation. Their members are often issued with Type 95s, and have access to APCs and heavy machine guns, and have their own special forces units which specialise in counter terrorism.
Most large Chinese city police departments also have their own SWAT (which I always thought stood for Special Weapons and Tactics) Teams, which are often even better equipped than the PAP since they usually have bigger budgets per head, and are not constrained by PAP procurement rules (which seem to be largely similar to the PLA's), so you often see these city SWAT teams sporting western assault weapons with all the bells and whistles.
Regular best cops might be required to carry their sidearm as standard now while on duty, but the PAP and Chinese City SWAT teams are more than well equipped and armed enough to deal with this new terrorist threat with the weapons and tools they already have.
I think the biggest change will be mentally. I have often worried at how relaxed Chinese security is compared to in the west, and unfortunately this vulnerability has now been horribly exposed and exploited.
This attack is like 9/11 in many ways, not least of which was to dispel the sense of complacency that was prevalent before. I think all police forces and other homeland security will be far more on guard now and going forwards, so if anyone tries this sort of thing again, the police response will be far swifter and better prepared.
I think Chinese "people's armed police" is a little bit like former soviet union's KGB border troops.
Swat teams and PAP can't take up routine patrol duty. At best they can only be deployed to meet location specific threats that came with some advanced warning. Against the type of threat that attack essentially random targets, only a serious upgrade in the training and capability of normal patrol police can help.
Blackstone
Brigadier
The Chinese authorities must make a solid case, so taking measured steps is the right thing to do. Also, the process needs to be transparent and just, otherwise it could do more harm than good.
Putin is your run-of-the-mill Russian autocrat, so what do you expect?
Blackstone
Brigadier
In PPP terms, the Soviet Union's GDP, at its height, was about half of US GDP.
No. That was an erroneous estimate made by the CIA. At height of USSR the CIA estimated the soviet union's GDP was about half that of the US. This was based on extrapolations from known levels of soviet capital investment in the previous decades, and assuming Soviet Union can translate capital investment into productivity gain with similar degree of efficiency as the west.
Soviet Union herself in Gorbachev era admitted soviet economy at its relative peak was really only 1/4 the size of American economy. Soviet Union's large capital investment in the previous two decade had been poorly allocated and much wasted, and did not translate to anything like the productivity gain that the US had forecasted. So at the end of two decades of massive investment the soviet economy was still much smaller than it appeared.
It does...I was in a hurry and wrote down the politically-incorrect version. It is "and Tactics".
So, the PRC does have it covered at all levels, from the local cities up to the national level.
I would have expected as much.
Understandable.
When you are used to going about your life without having to worry about abject enemies infiltrating your society and brutally killing you or you loved ones, friends, neighbors...it is a shock to the system to have these animals commit their terror right in your midst.
I pray that all civilized people everywhere will be able to respond to these terrorist attacks...and not politicize them...and be able to put them down so well that it drives them back into the darkness where they come from.
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