Two people were killed yesterday in explosions aboard two public buses in a major Chinese city that were deliberately set off, police said, in an incident likely to heighten Olympic security concerns.
The blasts occurred about an hour apart during morning rush hour traffic in downtown Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, the city’s police department said in a statement.
“According to preliminary investigations, the explosions were cases of man-made, deliberate sabotage,” a spokesman with the Yunnan Public Security Bureau said by telephone, without giving further details.
The incidents add to tensions ahead of next month’s Beijing Olympics, stoked by repeated warnings from the Chinese government about a dire terrorism threat facing the Games.
The government also has expressed deep concern about social unrest marring its efforts to portray the country as “harmonious and stable” ahead of the Olympics, amid recent violent protests in Yunnan and elsewhere.
The first blast occurred at about 7am when the vehicle was at a bus stop, killing one woman and injuring 10 other people, the statement from Kunming police said.
“The glass on both sides of the vehicle was all shattered and some of the seats were warped,” it said.
The second blast came about an hour later on the same road and killed one man, injuring four others, the statement said.
Footage broadcast on state-run television showed a large hole blown in the side of one of the buses and extensive damage to its interior.
Photos posted on the Yunnan Daily Web site showed one of the vehicle’s windows blown out by the blast and shattered glass on the road.
Following the blasts, police cordoned off some streets in the area and carried out identity checks in a search for any “suspicious” persons, the Yunnan Public Security Bureau said in a statement.
Kunming has a population of just over 6 million people and is about 2,100km southwest of Beijing.
China has dramatically tightened security in Beijing and throughout the country ahead of the Olympics — which begin on Aug. 8 — amid concerns over terrorism and social unrest.
Also See: Beijing moves traffic controls into gear
Also See: FEATURE: Chinese dissidents watched, arrested as Games near
Also See: Shanghai tightens security at stations ahead of Olympics
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the