Results tagged “terrorism”

• China says seven "terror cells" found in Kashgar [Reuters] "China uncovered seven "terror cells" in the western frontier city of Kashgar in the first four months of 2009, the China Daily said on Wednesday, citing the city's party secretary."
• Chinese groups protest Dalai honor [China Daily]"Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said yesterday that Beijing remains opposed to "foreign political figures having official exchanges with the Dalai Lama". Qin said "any irresponsible moves taken by whatever country on this issue will constitute gross intervention in China's internal affairs and will certainly seriously damage China's relations with the relevant countries"."

• Graduates retreat to rural China [Financial Times] "The Communist party has a long tradition of sending young intellectuals into China’s vast rural hinterland, often causing terrible suffering and disastrous economic consequences. But Chinese officials and analysts insist that, this time, things are different."
• Taxi agents threatened with violence [Shanghai Daily] "Wu Runyuan, a spokesman for the Shanghai Traffic Law Enforcement Team, said illegal taxi drivers had bribed janitors and the owners of small stores near the watchdog's office to tip them off when the traffic law enforcement team was going out on a raid. 'We even found a makeshift GPS system had been installed by a worker under one of our cars while it was in for routine repairs, so illegal drivers knew where the vehicle was at all times,' Wu said. 'Again, he was paid to do it.'"
• Chinese airline chief goes missing [Financial Times] "The head of a privately owned Chinese airline has disappeared after takeover talks with flag-carrier Air China broke down and Beijing grounded its fleet. The case is raising fears of a trend towards renationalisation in some sectors in China as state groups use their clout to swallow struggling private competitors."

We pass this billboard (almost) every day, between Shanghaiist headquarters and the gym. For a long time it featured Barack Obama on the cover of the Chinese version of Men's Health. Recently a Twitter user named Shaquille O'Neal has taken the president elect's place. It's an ad for Li Ning basketball shoes, Shaq's brand of choice for a couple years now. (You might remember the real Li Ning from such Olympic opening ceremonies as Beijing 2008.)

Last month, we reported that Chinese-made grenades were found to have been used by the terrorists that launched the deadly spate of attacks in Mumbai. This time, Israel is saying that whereas previously Palestinian terrorists used predominantly home-made rockets, now they're using more sophisticated rockets, some made in China. Said Brigadier-General Avraham Ben-David of the Israeli Defence Forces to YNetNews:

The army official said the rocket that struck the school in Beersheba was manufactured in China, is heavier than the Qassam and can "potentially cause much greater damage." He said the rocket contains metal pallets that can spread out across a radius of up to 100 meters (about 328 feet) from the point of impact.

The New York Times reports:

Police officials say that a man who died Christmas Eve after trying to plant a bomb at a coffee shop in the southwestern city of Kunming was also responsible for a pair of bus bombings there in July that killed two people and wounded 14, state news media reported Sunday.

Continue reading "The mysterious deathbed confession of the Kunming bomber"

Scary news just in from our friends at GoKunming:

This morning at 10:30 the bustle of Wenhua Xiang's cafes and restaurants was violently interrupted by an explosion at Salvador's Coffee House.

Continue reading "Cafe bombed in Kunming"

    

Last Friday, the Xuhui District PSB was reported to have received a "threatening message" claiming there was a bomb in the Ikea store located on the corner of Caoxi Lu and Sanhui Lu. Acting on the news, a team of about 50 policemen was dispatched to the store to evacuate everyone. Patrons were only told there was a "mechanical problem" and within half an hour, the store was empty. Police then combed through the store with the help of the special service unit of the fire department and ascertained that there was no bomb in the store. The case remains under investigation.

Photo from fateless_gypsy

Chinese-made grenades have been found to be used by the terrorists that launched the deadly spate of attacks in Mumbai that has now been dubbed by the media as India's 9/11.

The Chinese Consulate-General in Mumbai is located less than 100 metres away from the Oberoi Hotel, one of the luxury hotels that were bombed by terrorists yesterday, but no casualties have been reported as yet. In what appeared to be a highly coordinated effort supposedly by a little-known Islamic group called the Deccan Mujahideen, teams of heavily-armed gunmen unleashed at least seven attacks across the city, including the landmark Taj Hotel, a popular tourist attraction and a train station, killing at least 100 people and injuring another 200. In an interview with the Legal Evening Post 《法制晚报》, Vice Consul Wang Zhenhua (王振华) has said the consulate-general was "very fortunate" to emerge from the blasts relatively unscathed. Wang was sleeping in the consulate when he heard a huge blast that rattled the building that housed the consulate. Since then the consulate-general has been working nonstop — making and receiving calls related to the safety of Chinese nationals and organisations, liaising with hotels and police departments, and beefing up security at the consulate-general. On hearing that the Oberoi Hotel had been attacked and hostages held there, Wang's top concern was for the general manager and employees of Sinopec's Hong Kong subsidiary which had its office located in the hotel. Fortunately they are all safe and no reports of Chinese casualties or hostages have been made yet.

NTDTV speaks to Natan Galkovitch, one of 100 victims of terror in Israel who are now suing the Bank of China for not preventing money that was transferred to the Hamas, and Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, an attorney for the plaintiffs. Among the claims of the suit:

...beginning in July 2003, the Bank of China executed dozens of wire transfers for the terrorist groups totaling several million dollars. Many of the transfers were initiated in the Middle East, sent to branches in the U.S. then to an account at a bank branch in Guanzhou, China, the suit said.

Continue reading "More on the Bank of China terrorism case"

According to the Wall Street Journal, a lawsuit against the Bank of China has been filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that Bank of China transferred millions of dollars for terrorist groups bent on attacking Israel, ignoring demands by Israeli counterterrorism officials to halt the practice. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of more than 100 victims of terrorism in Israel and alleges that the money was transferred for the militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Iran and Syria, and processed through Bank of China's branches in the U.S. and China. "I don't know about the matter," Wang Zhaowen, spokesman for the bank, told Dow Jones Newswires. According to one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Bank of China now has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit under U.S. legal procedures.

This time security guards were stabbed to death outside of Kashgar in Xinjiang. [Source]

Early this morning in southern Xinjiang's Kuqa County police killed five men who had allegedly thrown homemade bombs at a police station in a drive-by attack. Two police cars were destroyed and two policemen were apparently wounded (initial reports said they had been killed). Less than a week ago, 16 policemen were reportedly killed in another attack in Xinjiang. [Source]

The Turkestan Islamic Party which a fortnight ago claimed to have been responsible for a series of China bombings has just released a new six-minute video entitled “Call to the Global Muslim Ummah” (or brotherhood). With his face covered and a black turban, and armed with a Kalashnikov, the speaker urged Muslims in the Uyghur language to "choose your side". And for those attending the Games, he had this word of advice:

“Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are.” [Translation by SITE Intel Group]

Shanghai Daily reports that a morning raid on a border patrol police division in Kashi, Xinjiang Province today left 16 armed policemen dead and another 16 injured. Two men smashed two trucks into the police station at around 8am, got out of their vehicles, stabbed several policemen and then ended the attack by throwing grenades at the police. They have since been arrested. [AFP] [Al-Jazeera] [Bloomberg]

Six years ago, when we first arrived in China, we thought this would be the last place on earth to be hit by Islamic terrorism, but this latest video issued by a certain Turkestan Islamic Party not just changed our minds, it sent a tingle down our spine. In it, a Commander Seyfullah claims credit for the following, according to an AFP report:
• the May 5 Shanghai bus explosion which killed three;
• another Shanghai attack (not sure which one exactly);
• an attack on police in Wenzhou on July 17 using an explosive-laden tractora bombing of a Guangzhou plastic factory on July 17

    

In an article about official Olympic protest areas, the Wall Street Journal linked to some scanned pages from Olympic Security English, a training manual for Olympic police. We have reproduced those pages for your enjoyment.

Important elements for any anti-terrorism drill — great staging, great scenery and a great location where lots of people can see you. Yesterday's "terrorist" act was effectively countered by the highly efficient security forces in under an hour.

The three consecutive bus explosions in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, and nearby Minshan that killed three people and injured 14 this morning were "cases of man-made, deliberate sabotage", according to a spokesman from the Yunnan PSB. According to Reuters, the Kunming blasts "came two days after Yunnan police opened fire and killed two rubber farmers in the province's Menglian county in a clash that also saw 41 police officers injured" and so there is the possibility that the explosions were related to the clash. Meanwhile, Mr Li Jiheng, deputy party chief of Yunnan, has been flown in to investigate the clash. More updates to be available by our friends from GoKunming.

A guest at Tomorrow Square on People's Square has alerted us to this document entitled "Safety measures for the tenants of Tomorrow Square for the Olympic period" posted in the building. The document starts off quite innocently like this:

Recently, while the security situation has become of great concern both internationally and domestically, anti-China movements have become increasingly bold, with Tibetan and Uyghur separatist groups openly declaring war, proclaiming that they will use violent measures to achieve their purposes. The United Kingdom and the United States have already issued safety warnings to citizens travelling to China. With the 3.14 Tibet Riots, the 3.7 Southern Airlines terrorist act, the 5.5 bus explosion on line 842 in Shanghai, the 7.1 Zhabei police station attack and the appearance of numerous reactionary slogans everywhere, Tomorrow Square needs to tighten up its safety measures since it is a landmark building on People's Square located next to the Municipal Government building. This is to ensure the safety of the building and all its tenants and to prevent any unforeseen circumstances. It is with this in mind that we have established the following "Safety measures for the tenants of Tomorrow Square for the Olympic period" which will be enforced during the Olympic period (July 16th 2008 to October 31st 2008). These measures will be updated in accordance to any extraordinary event occurence or new safety warnings issued by government authorities.

What do the digits 25, 35 and 82 have in common? They were all part of China news this week, as journalists, businessmen and government officials counted out and ranked up different individuals and groups related to the PRC. In ascending order:

• Forbes announced China's 25 Most Powerful Celebrities, with the number one spot going to basketball star Yao Ming. To create the ranking, Forbes looked not only at income (Yao brought in 388 million RMB in 2007) but also at celebrity status, measured by examining appearances on print, television and internet media. The 25 include athletes, film stars and media personalities, with Liu Xiang, Jet Li and Yi Jianlian coming in behind Yao as top scorers.
• Thursday's Fortune 500 list brought good news for Chinese companies, 35 of which made it to the top tier of global business, the largest-ever representation for China. Oil refinery Sinopec led the group in 16th place, followed by 25 other mainland companies, three from Hong Kong and six from Taiwan. Oil and energy groups as well as banks made up a big chunk of the big winners, and 19 were government-controlled corporations.
• Earlier this week we reported on the situation with Uygers in Xinjiang, brought into public view after police killed five Muslims in Urumqi who were allegedly planning a “holy war” and Olympic terrorism, but were armed only with knives. The incident comes into sharper perspective following the government’s announcement that it has detained 82 suspected terrorists in the northwest this year, on charges of plans to attack the Beijing Olympics. While exiled Xinjiang Uygurs denied the claim, Urumqi police chief Chen Zhuangwei was adamant that the threat was serious, adding that 41 illegal places of worship had been shut down in the province because they were headquarters for terrorist activity.
  Continue reading "China by numbers"

Trouble with visa renewal is one thing, but forced deportation is quite another. Foreigners whining about the former should take a look at the recent case of Dechen Pemba, a Brit of Tibetan descent who was detained, driven to the airport, and expelled from the PRC for five years when she walked out of her Beijing apartment last Tuesday. The seven plain clothes policemen who escorted Pemba allowed her only time to pack a bag, refusing to let her call her family or the British embassy until she was sitting on an Air China plane.

Urumqi police have raided an apartment which housed 15 ethnic Uyghurs and alleged Islamic terrorists shouting "sacrifice for Allah". A spokesman said they tried to break out when police used tear gas to flush them out, wielding knives and injuring one policeman. Subsequently, police shot dead five, injured another two (which were sent to the hospital) and captured the remaining nine. A Xinhua report says the suspects have confessed that they've been planning for a 'holy war' to kill 'infidel' Han people. [Reuters] [The Telegraph]

The Chinese government has been warning of a new enemy in Xinjiang, Reuters' Ben Blanchard reported Sunday. Hizb ut-Tahrir, also known as the Islamic Liberation Party, is accused by the government of being a "violent terrorist organization" fostering unrest among the 8 million Uighurs living in Xinjiang. "Strike hard against the Islamic Liberation Party" read signs throughout the city of Kashgar, written in Chinese and Uighur's Arabic-based script. Hizb ut-Tahrir and other observers accuse the Chinese government of magnifying the threat as an excuse to further crack down in Xinjiang a month before the Beijing Olympics. The government claims to have handled several Uighur terrorist groups this year, including a plot to sabotage a Chinese passenger jet in March. In April the government raised accusations against Hizb ut-Tahrir of posting reactionary leaflets and calling for people to demonstrate in Urumqi, Hotan, Kashgar, and Kizilsu Kyrghiz Autonomous Prefecture.

To bolster confidence against terrorist attacks in the upcoming Beijing Olympics, Xinhua gives us stills from a CCTV special of the armed police demonstrating anti-terrorist tactics in Jinan, capital of Shandong Province.

Swimming just got a whole lot safer. State media reported on Friday that all Shanghai public swimming pools will now have "specially trained staff" smelling the shampoo and body wash of all swimmers before entry is allowed in an effort "guard against explosions or other "terrorist attacks". Recently "some 400 of the city's more than 450 pools had passed safety examinations", but what of the remaining 50 pools? Well they may be "oblivious of the new rule". Bomb sniffing dogs in the airport, security checks in the metro stations, people smelling your shampoo. We feel so much safer already. See the full Reuters story

As a country that has largely distanced itself from the clusterf*ck we call 'The International War on Terror' back in America, China has generally been considered one of the safer places in the world in terms of not getting blown up. While we hope that this doesn't change any time soon, recent developments have given us some cause for concern.

Well no he isn’t, but this recent AFP report has some Beijing kids getting their sugar fix on confectionery inspired by the cave dwelling terrorist rock star to welcome in the new year among the drums and dragons in Long Tan Park: