Death toll in Xinjiang riot rises to 140

The overriding priority of the CCP is the maintenance of stability. Any senior official that is seen as falling short of taking the effective measures required to maintain stability or deal with a problem that is threatening it, is always going to be liable for the chop. The difference nowadays is that the PRC is open about it, while before it was more....... er...... discrete.

The timing of all this is interesting though as it raises the temperature in Xinjiang back to boiling just as matters over the border are coming to a head. Its the kind of thing that is perfect cover for moving even more thousands of troops into the far West of the country.

pla101prc said:

i was quite puzzled by the removal of the key officials in Xinjiang as well becauseit will give others the impression that the government of Urumuqi (and subsequently the government of China) "screwed up" during the Xinjiang unrest. maybe it has something to with politics in Beijing

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They're getting desperate. Things were tense and the unrest wasn't going away. People wouldn't listen to them. So they hope by firing a few officials they'll convince them that they're taking note of complaints.

Of course if they were serious they'd fire Wang Lequan. He makes policy for the region so the buck should stop with him. But he's too powerful so he won't go unless the whole province burns.

Mr T said:

They're getting desperate. Things were tense and the unrest wasn't going away. People wouldn't listen to them. So they hope by firing a few officials they'll convince them that they're taking note of complaints.

Of course if they were serious they'd fire Wang Lequan. He makes policy for the region so the buck should stop with him. But he's too powerful so he won't go unless the whole province burns.

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Wang Lequan already lost control, he is just there as a figurehead now. Beijing is in direct control of Xinjiang government via the police chief Meng Jianzhu who is there right now. its actually pretty clear to me now, the firing of the officials is a way to take power away from Wang Lequan so that Beijing can have there own ppl in key positions. so if the situation gets better within the next week or so, Meng Jianzhu will score HUGE for his future political career. and Wang Lequan is prolly done.

pla101prc said:

Wang Lequan already lost control, he is just there as a figurehead now.

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So why keep him there? People were calling for his head - why not give it to them? Might satisfy those protesters more than giving them the city chief and some copper.

I think he's just too important. Firing a member of the Politburo would be too big a step for Beijing at the moment. That said it would send a message that the government really does care - enough to fire a really big cheese. Anyway best we not go into politics too much, eh?

Mr T said:

So why keep him there? People were calling for his head - why not give it to them? Might satisfy those protesters more than giving them the city chief and some copper.

I think he's just too important. Firing a member of the Politburo would be too big a step for Beijing at the moment. That said it would send a message that the government really does care - enough to fire a really big cheese. Anyway best we not go into politics too much, eh?

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but politics is all there is to it. the problem is the terrorist side wants him out as well. i am pretty sure this is as far as Wang would get in terms of his political career, but firing him would allow the terrorist side to declare victory and create a huge fuss, he would also be the highest ranking member to be ousted since Chen Liangyu. by firing Wang Lequan you are basically telling every single bureaucrat in Xinjiang that their job is no longer secure, who is gonna trust Meng Jianzhu? in the end its gonna come back and bite Beijing in the foot.

i believe beijing is beginning to take the issue into even more serious matter now(including the approach to 10/1)
while people accuse china of not transparent enough and all that totalitarian shit, what i noticed is that as china is now starting to loosen up a bit the recent years,the entire nation is at debate of whether that is a good idea or not. while the goods we all know..all the freedom and stuff, the cons are already showing and will serve as a pursuading reason why china is still not ready to loosen up further.
give slight freedom and these riots start to happen all the sudden like given air to burn. whether they are externally-provoked or esponiage activities or not, we see now beijing is working in their head in trying really hard to settle this problem. they have to deal with that now they have chosen this path, how to manage in order to tie up all the lose ends. as china is approaching the "loosening up" path, suddenly tightening too much will give the west a chance to accuse china of "tiannanmening" the issue again, while loosening too much will give the mob an actual leverage as well as sabotage groups what they can do. if this problem drags on longer it will really begin to deteriorate the stability of the region and ccp's control. the sinister west are also really seziing all this chance to grab negativity and report on it towards the world and to the chinese populations in strong desire to demonize china and disarray the chinese people themselves.
"normally" if one is granted more freedom, the person will make good use of it, not make the worst out of it. the western media was proven to be the latter during july
and of course again, the sudden uniform attacks of using syringes shows it's another organized attack towards the people and the authorities.

to me i believe that beijing will/should ignore all the crap the west are saying and spend the effort to fix the problem
they should work on the problem and avoid negotiating because these sabotage groups (perhaps the same people from july), imho, are terrorism-minded

opinions can be voiced by protests and demonstrations at most, but terrorism strictly intends for instability and fear. random killings and syring attacks are one of them.

while many may be upset with the ccp, but most of them and the majority do not/will not support such activities and certainly the government have the people and most of the local's support on their side in trying to solve this matter

the governemnt should kill off the terrorism, then work on core problems after. no one's gonna sit down and talk if there's someone with a syringe out there

Indeed ravenshield the problem with a ´loosening up´ strategy is that unintended consequences eventually occur.

Of course internal security could get undermined by separatists and terrorist groups but this is probably more or less controllable as long as PLA and PAP remain an effective force. (...thats the big ´if´! Though ´if not´ Tibet and large parts of Xinjiang will be gone in a year or two.)

Nevertheless even more dangerous would be the impact of irregular ´loosening up´ on party coherence since after a phase of faction building the process of CPC's disintegration would certainly begin. The introduction of ostensibly competitive multi party elections would then accelerate the already progressing break up of the rump PRC into two or even three new states being supported vigorously by their new protector powers like the US, Russia and Japan. So much for the nightmare scenario...

Violet Oboe said:

Indeed ravenshield the problem with a ´loosening up´ strategy is that unintended consequences eventually occur.

Of course internal security could get undermined by separatists and terrorist groups but this is probably more or less controllable as long as PLA and PAP remain an effective force. (...thats the big ´if´! Though ´if not´ Tibet and large parts of Xinjiang will be gone in a year or two.)

Nevertheless even more dangerous would be the impact of irregular ´loosening up´ on party coherence since after a phase of faction building the process of CPC's disintegration would certainly begin. The introduction of ostensibly competitive multi party elections would then accelerate the already progressing break up of the rump PRC into two or even three new states being supported vigorously by their new protector powers like the US, Russia and Japan. So much for the nightmare scenario...

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I think that's all pretty hyperbolic. I am completely confident in the PLA and PAP's absolute loyalty to the political leadership of China, and they are far more than capable of handling any internal security threats China faces. The Tibetan independence movement has never engaged in organized violence at a very high level, certainly not a level that could actually threaten Chinese control of the area, and to call the Xianjiang separatists "terrorists" is a stretch; they're so weak and inept that it is an insult to to the IRA and Hamas and Hezbollah, who make the East Turkestan Liberation Front or whatever they're called look like slow kindergarteners.

Yet their plan is working. The terror created by their syringe attacks is already causing many migrant Chinese to consider leaving XJ or deterring them from going there. It is actually a very brilliant plan, in many respects.

There is historical evidence that this method of terrorizing were used in Xinjiang since years gone by.





Wearing Japanese-styled cassock, Yasutaka Kojima, a prominent Buddhist monk from Japan told this reporter in fluent Chinese: "Xinjiang is my second home. I will very much like to have my ashes buried in the Taklimakan Desert."

Those who get to know Yasutaka Kojima won’t feel surprised by his belief. Since 1982, the Japanese monk has visited Xinjiang, in northwest China, for more than 120 times. He is proud to be lauded as "the person who has witnessed the prosperity and progress of Xinjiang region".

In 1982, Kojima came to Xinjiang for the first time to do jewelry business. "However, I was deeply fascinated by this land even though my business venture failed," he said.

Kojima said that Xinjiang had been part of the territory of China since ancient times. He proved it in 1995 when he financed and directed a Sino-Japanese joint research team to do archaeological study in the Taklimakan Desert.



Yasutaka Kojima


The team’s greatest discovery was a color-embroidered brocade with lavish patterns that have eight Chinese characters (Wuxing Chu Dongfang Li Zhongguo), which literally means "China will rise when the five stars appear together in the East."



The brocade


The place where Kojima found the brocade is what was known later as the "Pompeii of the Silk Road", Niya. It is called "Jingjue State" in China's Han Dynasty.

According to Han Shu which recorded the history of Han Dynasty, Jingjue State was governed by Western Regions Frontier Command, which was established by the central government of Han Dynasty.

Kojima and other archaeologists estimated that Jingjue State had been attacked by foreign invaders which destroyed the magnificent civilization there, because they found many scattered household articles surrounded by piles of corpses.
Kojima said that the brocade with the words of "China will rise when the five stars appear together in the East" reflected historical fact of Chinese people wishing for peace.

He said that the most important reason for Chinese civilization having existed for thousands of years to this day, is that Chinese people have been longing for peace and unification. History shows that only peace and unification would make China prosper and thrive, while separation make people suffer.

"Except for the Silk Road, foreigners know little about Xinjiang. They are so far away from Xinjiang," Kojima said. "There are plenty of rumors about Xinjiang riot circulating in foreign countries, because they still have mis-understandings about this region. I will do my best to tell the world a true Xinjiang and the progress over the past 60 years that Xinjiang has achieved."

Background:
In the past 30 years, Yasutaka Kojima has donated over 30 million yuan to Xinjiang, and supported to preserve the Kizit Thousand Buddha grottoes and to research on historical relics of Niya and Dandanwulike.

He has set up 5 Sino-Japanese friendship schools in Xinjiang and established scholarship for Xinjiang University, which has awarded more than 3400 students.

He has been rewarded by China's Ministry of Culture for making prominent contribution to Xinjiang's culture, historical relic and education, as well as Sino-Japan cultural exchanges.