The recent attacks may have been acts of revenge by Uighurs against bloody state repression. The Aug. 4 attack was carried out by a taxi driver and a vegetable seller armed with homemade explosives and a homemade gun — hardly a sign of international connections. The facts of the Kucha incident are still unclear.
As to the overseas East Turkestan organizations, even the Chinese government does not believe they were responsible for explosions in Kunming and Shanghai.
The unrest and clashes we are seeing in China today are not all connected with independence movements. Most violent clashes have involved Han Chinese protesting against police and government officials, rather than terrorist incidents. China’s rulers are the ones who are causing a state of terror by arresting and shooting people at will and provoking extreme reactions. The real terrorist group is the Chinese government itself.
Paul Lin is a political commentator based in Taiwan.
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
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