Rumors pin blame on China's Uighurs in Tiananmen Square crash
China's Uighers, an ethnic minority in western China, have long been accused by Beijing of terrorist tactics. Focus has turned to them after an apparent attack in Tiananmen Square.
China's Uighers, an ethnic minority in western China, have long been accused by Beijing of terrorist tactics. Focus has turned to them after an apparent attack in Tiananmen Square.
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The investigation into the fiery crash of a sport utility vehicle in Tiananmen Square Monday 鈥� possibly a suicide attack carried out by ethnic Uighurs 鈥� has cast renewed attention on China鈥檚 fraught relationship with one of its largest minority populations.
Chinese officials have not publicly commented on whether the incident, which killed the vehicle鈥檚 three occupants and two tourists, was an accident or an attack.
But anonymous senior sources told Reuters that the event is suspected of being a suicide attack, and hotel managers in at least two Beijing hotels told foreign journalists that the Beijing police ordered hotel staff to provide information on two 鈥渟uspicious guests鈥� who are Uighurs. 听
鈥淚f the incident is confirmed to have been an attack by Uighur separatists, it would be their most audacious strike yet, hitting the political heart of China's capital. It would likely trigger a security clampdown in usually tense Xinjiang as well as a tightening of preventative measures around potential targets across the country,鈥� The Wall Street Journal reports.
Although Han Chinese make up more than 90 percent of the population, China is home to more than 40 ethnic minorities, including Uighers, who maintain a separate language, religion, and culture from the ethnic Han. The Chinese government accuses the Uighers, who are mostly concentrated in the western Xinjiang province, of using terrorism to bolster a separatist movement.
Monday鈥檚 security breach, in which the SUV plowed through a crowd of tourists for about 400 yards before crashing into the Tiananmen gate, took place while top government leaders, including President Xie Jingping were meeting at the Great Hall of the People about 200 yards away.
While 鈥渢here is no indication that the physical safety of the leaders, who were attending meetings inside the Great Hall of the People, was jeopardized,鈥� the Los Angeles Times reports, 鈥渢he apparent suicide attack so close to the epicenter of power rattled the Chinese government and has raised doubts about the effectiveness of its often-stifling security apparatus.鈥�听
Tensions between the central government and Uighurs are not new, but if the event was meant as a suicide attack 鈥� and one aimed at the most politically sensitive spot in China 鈥� it would represent new development, Barry Sautman, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told Reuters.听
"Certainly there have been a lot of bombings carried out by Uighur groups, but none of them as far as I know have involved suicide," he said.
There were violent Uighur听riots in June and April of this year, with more than 20 people killed in each. 海角大神鈥檚 Peter Ford, writing from Beijing, explains how the dispute simmers on both sides:
Some of the same problems were brewing more than a decade ago. The Monitor's Robert Marquand reported in 2003: