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[Updated] Xinjiang riot leaves scores dead
The Xinjiang Riots: What's happened so far
Around Shanghai: No more airplane temperature checks, but we're getting a Wall St. Bull and Linkin Park!
"Oracle Bone" essayist fails gaokao, but gets into Sichuan University
Friday: NOT ME opening!
It seems that even in China, Americans cannot escape the strong arm of Osama bin Laden. According to the US Embassy in Beijing, "Chinese police advised hotels that Islamic extremist elements could be planning to attack four and five star hotels in China sometime over the course of the next week." And Shanghaiist thought that the local Xinjiangren only pawned assorted dried fruits and yangrou chuan down on the street corner. How can we have been so naive?
Even if you do not share the paranoia of the Bush administration, you might be relieved to learn the Chinese police are hot on the case. "Chinese authorities have assured the Embassy that they are taking appropriate security measures and investigating the possible threat thoroughly. American citizens visiting Chinese four and five star hotels should review their plans carefully, remain vigilant with regard to their personal security, and exercise caution." And those who needed an excuse to save money, Shanghai's fabulous three star hotels are completely terror-free and eager to please.
Should you observe suspicious activities in the vicinity of your favorite four or five star hotel, you are advised to contact the local police.
UPDATE: Suicide bombers kill 53 at Jordan hotels (AP)
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they've arrived!!!! be afraid... be very afraid!!!!
Hotels in Jordan just got bombed.
And yet... A British colleague called the UK Consulate, only to be told that they contacted the police themselves, and nobody was aware of any terrorist threat against Shanghai hotels.
The remark above about Xinjiangren is completely inappropriate. I'm sincerely disappointed to see such racist drivel disseminated on what I had considered to be a fairly open-minded website. Perhaps it was not your intention to be offensive, but I believe it's exactly that kind of casual ignorance that fuels many tensions between Muslim and non-Muslim people.
To even suggest that locally based Xinjiangren vendors are connected to al-Qa'ida is wrong and damaging. Do you know why those vendors sell dried fruit and lamb kebabs in Shanghai? Because they're poor. Bravo, you've taken an undeserved cheap shot at some poor people.
Will Shanghaiist be making more racist remarks in future posts? I doubt it would fly if you took aim at Jews or Black Americans...
I'm pretty disappointed by this post too, for the reasons stated above. Please don't help out the CN gov on this one.
Just got this from the Canadian Consulate...
Chinese authorities have advised that four and five star hotels in China, particularly in Shanghai and Hong Kong, have been targeted as possible venues for terrorist attacks in the weeks to come. We have been assured by the local authorities that they are taking appropriate security measures and investigating all possible threats thoroughly. Canadians in China should maintain a high level of personal security awareness at all times, particularly in commercial and public establishments.
Canadian government officials and colleagues from other diplomatic missions are in regular contact with representatives of the Chinese government, and we are taking every opportunity to stress the importance remaining vigilant with regards to your personal security and exercise caution whenever possible. While at present we have no information indicating the timing off these possible attacks, we are closely monitoring the situation as a precaution.
During the next few weeks, we are asking all Canadians to be particularly vigilant regarding security issues. We recommend monitoring local media for current information and you may also wish to check Foreign Affairs Canada's travel website http://www.voyage.gc.ca for more general information.
I'm still skeptical at the actual level of threat this represents; but there you have it.
I am sorry if my post has offended anyone. The reference to xinjiangren within a post about terrorism was intended to be sarcastic, but I understand that some may consider the reference offensive. Maybe even a tad racist. For this, I sincerely apologize.
Just to be clear, I know that xinjiangren sell dried fruits and lamb kebab because they are poor and they have few employment opportunities in Shanghai. While we all should be aware that a very small number of xinjiangren had been arrested in al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan and others involved in Xinjiang separatist movements, I do not believe nor did I intend to associate all xinjiangren or all Muslims with terrorist activities or al-Qaeda.
Again, my apologies.
i don't understand how some of you missed the obvious sarcasm intended in this piece. i don't know everyone who writes for this site, but somehow i believe that most of us are above at least the crudest, basest forms of bigotry, and that furthermore, we know how to read for sarcasm and irony in sentences like "how could i have been so naive". Political correctness in language not only signals to most people that you have no sense of humor, but also that basically you think that a good way of creating a more just world is by policing language and emptying it of potentially degrading and offensive language. There's a Chinese idiom for such behavior--牵强附会 which means stretching and even distorting someone's words to make points and reach far-fetched conclusions. I don't endorse making offensive statements in public, but I strongly dislike the whole PC thing because it smacks of someone on a moral high horse, telling people what is right and what is wrong to say. Has humanity already reached some kind of consensus about the values that we hold in common, like that we are all equal and therefore we should never make remarks about the intelligence or moral character of certain races? Even if that ideal exists in the abstract, how many of you really live up to it, and if you don't aren't you a hypocrite? Have you ever laughed at racist or sexist jokes? Never, ever, ever? Then you're perfect, and i congratulate you. Personally, I'm far from it, but I'm better than i was before, and perhaps the point is in the sincerity of one's striving--but you have no patience for that now, do you? Instead you demand contrition for imagined offenses. Don't think that you've won some kind of battle for human dignity, despite what your ego tells you. Human phoniness will also last just a little longer, thanks to you.
Maybe you just need to be from New Jersey to understand the sarcastic humor. I've been misinterpreted many a time before.
Sometimes I truely hope the Chinese government would catch Osama Bin Laden.
U.S. government has spent too much time pussy-footing around.
How could you be so naïve? I don't know which is worse: racist epithets flung at people who've suffered tragic ethnic marginalisation and religious suppression or a flippant apologist who calls them an imagined offense and denounces any objectors as phonies. I'm not the PC language police, I believe it really was an offensive and degrading statement!
Maybe you've never been the object of prejudice in New Jersey. Perhaps you could chat with your local Xinjiang vendor here and ask him how he feels about the hanhua colonisation of his homeland? If he enjoys the forced assimilation of his people and denial of all means of self-expression? Or if he minds that the majority of economic development in Xinjiang has mainly gone to the Chinese settlers?
I don't know about humanity, but my personal consensus is that all people are equal, and I am above making remarks about the intelligence or moral character of an entire race. You sound a bit unsure.
Just to moderate this argument here, a little advice for both Peijin and Paxil...
Peijin: I completely agree with you, but perhaps toning down the anger and inflammatory language would better prove your point
Paxil: I appreciate your support of the Xinjiangren's plight, but a sense of humor wouldn't hurt
"This news was fabricated by a certain foreign national," spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters....
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK77127.htm
U.S. Embassy has retracted the warden message. See http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/shanghai/acs/linkfiles/wardenthreat.htm
Man I feel sorry for Jason now.
He is now obligated to apologise for nothing. His words were a clear joke at those racists who actually suspect people based on race and background. I do not believe you should apologise Jason just because there is the over-arching tone of "if someone says you are racist, then you might lose your job" (though of course this isn't your job).
As the joke is actually against racists, if anyone was offended by it then tough. That's your choice. Jason has NOTHING to apologise for. Like if he said "the weather is sunny today" and someone said "that's offensive to me!' just for the little atention of feeling "right" and "just".
Our old friend PC. Is there anything it can't do?
And here is the text of the retraction ... still is coincidental that three Chinese nationals were killed in the bombings of three Jordanian four or five star hotels the day the warning was issued ...
"The Chinese Ministry of Public Security informed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing on November 10 that Chinese security authorities have determined that the source of a reported threat against four and five star hotels in China is not credible. The United States Government is not aware of any other information of any threat against hotels in China, including Hong Kong."
I'm sure every single reader caught that it was sarcastic humor. Just, it wasn't at all funny and came off as wildly boorish, the same as most racist jokes you hear. I'm not sure there's much humor potential in terrorism in the first place - although that Gilbert Gottfried joke about the Empire State Building was pretty funny.
Yes, it's sarcastic humor. Racist sarcastic humor. Think about it, would anyone approve if the author had made similarly derogatory stereotypical jokes about black americans, jews, or other commonly defended minorities? No way. I think many Westerners have no grasp of the painful negative prejudice ordinary Muslims are subjected to in the post 9/11 world.
The author's apology was dignified, the idea that "the joke was actually against racists" is dumb. He didn't say "the weather is sunny today," Nick, he implied (even if jokingly) that Xinjiangren, who we all know to be Muslim, could be planning to
bomb hotels. Racist and wrong, let's not defend it, but rather learn from it and move on as it seems the author has. I'm done.
yeah, i wouldn't know anything about the plight of the xinjiang people because i am ill-educated, oblivious, and possibly heartless on top of all that. i'm not going to argue that the original piece's humor was in good taste, but it's like being at those parties when you make a slightly risque remark that raises the hackles of some, causes others to roll their eyes--it happens, and if it's actually "racist drivel", perhaps it deserves some kind of rebuff. I agree with most people that this joke was perhaps in bad taste, and perhaps did not manage to convey the punchline as well as it ought to have--but "racist drivel", no. Furthermore, the apology made it worse because despite everyone's good intentions, we begin re-enacting this whole PC police business. I said "phoniness" because when someone makes a mistake in their writing or diction, you warn them, tell them that they made a mistake, but you give the writer the benefit of the doubt in terms of their *intentions*--and consider the mistake one of writing. The problem is that "racist drivel" is no less problematic a phrase because it's so loaded and imputes motives to the writer (ie that he's a racist, because normal people who aren't racists don't write racist drivel). Therefore, the situation becomes one where you use bad (ie muddied, loaded, ambiguous, angry) language in order to rectify a problem created by bad language. I have some level of tolerance for people who've said something or written something that was misinterpreted because it didn't "sound like that in my head". I've done it, and i don't see how anyone could be above making that mistake, it's a very human mistake to make. I'm not an apologist for hate speech, I'm trying to be an apologist for human beings that make mistakes despite their intentions.
I just think there are better jokes to be made.
Also, I think Shanghaiist should have waited for the retraction to post something intelligent about this. Or at least included some kind of snide comment directed at the government in the original post. I think the BBC caught the reason to be skeptical of these warnings:
Didn't we know that?
"I think Shanghaiist should have waited for the retraction to post something intelligent"
Micah, did you anticipate a retraction when the warning was issued? Are you a psychic?
Is it wrong to pass on information about a terror warning? And to try to do it with a sense of humor?
Or is it better to wait until innocent people die in order to spread news that there may in fact have been a threat? Even if nothing happens, is it not the responsibility of the government and any caring individual to educate others?
Even though the threat of terrorism has been exaggerated in China, perhaps spending some time in a country where threats of terrorism are a fact of daily life will teach you the absurdity and danger of your statement.
Since you ask... at the least I was expecting *somebody* with influence to point out the game that the Chinese government plays in Xinjiang and the emptiness of their warnings. What I didn't expect was that the pointing out of this would come from sources in this order: 1) the Chinese gov't, 2) the BBC, and 3) Shanghaii... well, I'm still waiting for Shanghaiist to admit that terrorism in China is very different from, say, terrorism in Israel or Jordan, where, as you rightly point out, it's something you actually have to worry about.
I think I addressed the humor issue above.
1) Is terrorism in China different from terrorism in israel or Jordan or Iraq or India or Indonesia, etc. These places are not too far from the Chinese mainland and the spread of SE Asian terrorism into other parts of Asia is a concern shared by the East Asian community. And just because there has yet to be a devastating terrorist attack in China, does not mean that there will never be, and that there cannot be the threat. Did Americans expect to see terrorism on American soil on the scale of 9-11?
2) Regarding the "game the Chinese government plays in Xinjiang," we all know about it. Perhaps studying too much Chinese politics and hearing too many Chinese government officials has resulted in self-sensorship, especially regarding a sensitive topic such as Xinjiang or Tibet. We must remember that we are guests of the Chinese government and if we say something that really really hurts their feelings, they can send us home. So while we are here, there is a line we must not cross in public.
Heh. Never mind.
a different terrorism in china?
sounds very ridiculous. not matter what motivate those xinjiang terrorists, they blow up buses in beijing and a number of other cities, in which civilians were murdered.
what's the difference? don't tell me thier motivation makes their murder valid.
Some people, Americans included, have a hard time catching sarcasm and irony in humor. I wonder how many of you were also offended by Monty Python's "Never Be Rude To An Arab" song which was clearly mocking racist ideologies and was never intended to be a datribe against people of other ethnicities, and ends with the singer (and the studio he is in) getting bombed.
Classic humor, by the way. You can't make fun of anything anymore.....
Paxil thinks I am dumb. So take my words with a pinch of salt.
Well, I do not think it was racist. I do think it was a joke AT racists. Paxil was offended by it. Therefore ... we all have to be? I am glad the regulations of shanghaiist do state that he and he alone can determine what is racist and what deserves 'apologies'. Bravo.
And Rick, you can make fun of people. They just have to be white people. You can make every stereotypical joke about English people, accuse me of being a murderer, bring up past wars, and I could never accuse you of being racist and would never accuse you of "generalising" and "labelling" me.
In fact, all races laugh at jokes about them. I have heard jokes about Chinese people that Chinese people laugh a lot at. (as I have heard jokes about americans that Americans laugh a lot at etc.)
It's this "indirect offense" that is a joke. People like Paxil saying "you are being racist towards people from Xinjiang" when those Xinjiang people would most likely laugh at the joke themselves.
But then -- again -- I am dumb, eh Paxil. Why don't you just tell me what to say from now on, OK?
Sense-of-humour failure alert! Lighten up guys, it was humourous.
And remember terrorism is a matter of definition. War is the terrorizing of the poor by the rich, Terrorism is war waged against the rich by the poor.