• Burmese
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
32 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

China Train Station Attack Risks Driving Ethnic Wedge Deeper

The Irrawaddy by The Irrawaddy
March 4, 2014
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
China Train Station Attack Risks Driving Ethnic Wedge Deeper

Paramilitary policemen run as they patrol along a street after a knife attack near Kunming railway station in Yunnan province March 3

4.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

KUNMING/BEIJING — Police swept a Muslim Uighur district of the Chinese city of Kunming hours after knife-wielding assailants killed 29 people in a crowded station, underscoring the risk of ethnic tension spilling over from the remote Xinjiang region.

China has vowed to crack down on what it says are militants bent on transforming Xinjiang into an independent state called East Turkestan, but it has also emphasized ethnic unity after what it described as a terrorist attack on Saturday.

Xinjiang, in China’s far west, is home to the Uighur people, many of whom say they chafe at Chinese restrictions on their culture and religion.

RelatedPosts

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

July 9, 2025
53
Myanmar’s regime has a malfunction

Myanmar’s regime has a malfunction

July 9, 2025
126
Myanmar Junta Trains Staff on Electronic Voting Machines Across the Country

Myanmar Junta Trains Staff on Electronic Voting Machines Across the Country

July 8, 2025
420

In Kunming, capital of the southwestern province of Yunnan, many hundreds of miles from Xinjiang, members of the small Uighur community said they felt they were under suspicion.

“I alone have already been checked three times. The police point their guns at us. We don’t know what really happened,” Uighur restaurant worker Aniwar Wuppur told Reuters.

Residents of Kunming’s Dashuyin district, where many Uighurs live, said police came through the neighborhood hours after the attack, rounding up dozens of people for questioning.

Several Uighur men said they had been interrogated for hours but not harmed.

One family from Xinjiang, grilling skewers of mutton over charcoal at a streetside stall, said police had stormed into their home pointing guns.

“It’s very tense now. You can feel it,” said the 24-year-old man running the stall, who declined to be identified. “Even though people don’t say or do anything, they’re staring at us all the time.”

Shocking Images

Saturday’s violence was the first major attack blamed on people from Xinjiang at such a great distance from the region since October, when a car ploughed into tourists in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing the three people in the vehicle and two bystanders.

Police found banners bearing slogans for an independent East Turkestan near the scene of Saturday’s attack, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a briefing on Monday.

The East Turkestan Islamic Movement—which claimed responsibility for the Tiananmen incident—is a major separatist force, the official Xinhua news agency said. The ETIM is listed by the UN Security Council as a terrorist group.

Before these two incidents, violence had largely been confined to Xinjiang, which borders former-Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, where more than 100 people have been killed in the past year.

Chinese media criticized foreign news organizations for their coverage of the Kunming attack, saying they glossed over the danger of extremism in China by instead finding fault with government policies for spurring dissent.

The government says Uighurs are granted wide religious, cultural and linguistic freedoms.

With shocking images of slashed victims on the Internet, the high death toll and the distance from Xinjiang, the Kunming attack will provide a ready example for government leaders who stress the growing threat they say China faces.

Experts say militant ideology does in part fuel the violence, but the level of organization has long been disputed.

“It certainly is the case that there is continued dispute of what exactly is the nature of the physical or armed conflict between separatist forces and the Chinese state,” said Barry Sautman, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology.

“This may change some minds about the existence of terrorist organizations in China.”

‘Hateful’

Xinhua said a “terrorist gang of eight members,” with a leader identified as Abdurehim Kurban, was responsible for the attack.

State television said earlier a female suspect was wounded and captured in the attack. Xinhua reported on Monday that three suspects, including another woman, had been caught. Four were shot dead.

“My impression is that ethnic polarization is the driver behind this, not only religion,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Religion is the vehicle, the ready-made ideology that allows some people to embark on plans that are inhuman and brutal.”

Zhu Weiqun, chairman of the ethnic and religious affairs committee of the top advisory body to parliament, which meets this week in Beijing, told the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, that such violence should not be linked to specific ethnic groups.

“If we end up taking our anger about this incident out on a particular ethnic group and equate one ethnic group with violent terrorism then that is completely incorrect, this is exactly what the separatists want,” Zhu said.

There have been no signs of reprisals against Uighurs in Kunming, but some Han Chinese residents voiced their anger.

“They should just send them all back, and not let them come to Kunming anymore,” said Yang Jing at her sewing shop across the street from a Uighur restaurant. “They’re hateful.”

Others said the attack would change attitudes.

“You can’t blame all Xinjiang people for this,” said Li Baochang, passing through the Dashuyin district. “But suspicions are growing and sometimes, even if we don’t want to, the feelings in our hearts have changed.”

Your Thoughts …
The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy

...

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
98.5k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public
Burma

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

by The Irrawaddy
February 7, 2024
89.8k

People’s Defense Force says junta troops told every household in the village to send one member to witness the double...

Read moreDetails
Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State
War Against the Junta

Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
November 29, 2023
87.1k

Brotherhood Alliance member says it now has complete control of Kokang’s northernmost section after the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 125...

Read moreDetails
Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks
Burma

Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks

by The Irrawaddy
December 4, 2023
59k

The junta said deserters would not be punished for minor crimes, highlighting the military’s shortage of troops as resistance offensives...

Read moreDetails
As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
47k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.7k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Six Burmese Migrants Rescued From Thai Fishing Industry Trafficking

Six Burmese Migrants Rescued From Thai Fishing Industry Trafficking

Jaguar Land Rover to Enter Burma’s Car Market

Jaguar Land Rover to Enter Burma’s Car Market

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

37 Years and Counting: Why Has Myanmar’s Democracy Struggle Taken So Long?

37 Years and Counting: Why Has Myanmar’s Democracy Struggle Taken So Long?

6 days ago
1.3k
Myanmar Junta Blacklists 200 Firms for Dodging Hard Currency Grab

Myanmar Junta Blacklists 200 Firms for Dodging Hard Currency Grab

7 days ago
1.3k

Most Read

  • Chin Resistance Tensions Boil Over as CNA Seizes Rival’s Myanmar HQ

    Chin Resistance Tensions Boil Over as CNA Seizes Rival’s Myanmar HQ

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Starves Last Rakhine Strongholds as AA Closes In

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • China’s Surveillance State Watches Everyone, Everywhere

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Trains Staff on Electronic Voting Machines Across the Country

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Timor-Leste Hits Back at Myanmar Junta’s Objection to ASEAN Membership

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.