This New York Times report drips with skepticism, what with its scare quotes around “terrorism,” as if it were inconceivable that China could actually be facing any real trouble in Xinjiang, much less jihad and Islamic supremacism. The Times’s repeated references to “state-run” Chinese media are ironic in light of the fact that the Gray Lady is no less state-run media, or at very least a voluntary mouthpiece for the establishment line, than is the Tianshen news portal. “Explosions and Police Clashes Leave Dozen Dead in Western China,” by Andrew Jacobs for the New York Times, January 25 (thanks to Bill):
BEIJING — A series of explosions and police gunfire have left a dozen people dead in China’s far west Xinjiang region, the latest spasm of violence to shake the vast, strategically vital area that borders several Central Asian countries.
Details of the incident remain murky, but a local government website said on Saturday that the dead included six people gunned down by police Friday evening and another six killed by three explosions in and around a hair salon and vegetable market in Aksu Prefecture.
Another account, posted on the state-run Tianshan news portal, said one explosion occurred after the police “besieged” what was described as a suspicious vehicle. Two of the dead had been sitting inside the vehicle, the report said. The authorities arrested three people and several others were injured, including a police officer.
The clash, which took place in the county seat of Xinhe, not far from the border with Kyrgyzstan, is the latest in a spate of violence in Xinjiang, home to most of China’s 10 million ethnic Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people whose uneasy relationship with the region’s Han Chinese majority has turned increasingly bloody.
Reports in the state-run media did not list the names or ethnicities of those involved in the violence, but such episodes invariably pit Uighurs against Chinese security forces. Over the past two months, at least three dozen Uighurs in southern Xinjiang have been shot dead by police, including three young men gunned down Jan. 15 outside a police station in Yengieriq, another town in Aksu Prefecture.
In that incident, security agents opened fire after the men had been denied entry to a local police station, according to Radio Free Asia. The report quoted local police officials as saying the men were carrying sickles and described them as “separatists.”
In December, the state media said that police in the Silk Road city of Kashgar shot and killed eight people who had attacked a police vehicle with knives and “explosive devices.” Two weeks earlier, another clash in Kashgar left 16 people dead, including six women and two police officers. As with similar incidents, officials described bloodshed as an act of “terrorism.” An exile group, the World Uyghur Congress, said it was an “indiscriminate shooting” by security forces on members of a wedding party. The government blocks independent reporting in the region, making it difficult to learn more details about such clashes.
Over the past year, violent confrontations have been occurring with growing frequency, alarming Chinese leaders and prompting even heavier security in the energy-rich region. Last week Beijing announced that it was doubling Xinjiang’s public security budget, with one regional official vowing “no mercy for terrorists,” according to the state media.
Officials invariably blame the bloodshed on “separatists” seeking to establish an independent homeland for Xinjiang’s Uighurs, whose loyalties to Beijing have been tested by increasingly aggressive government policies. Exile groups and analysts outside China say the discontent is aggravated by intrusive measures, including restrictions on religious practices, as well as uneven economic development that favors ethnic Han Chinese migrants over native Uighurs.
Groups like the World Uyghur Congress attribute many recent Uighur deaths to aggressive policing tactics, and say that many “terrorists” killed by police gunfire were later described as carrying knives or farm implements.

Transmaster says
Some how I don’t think the Chinese gives a Chinese goose turd about what the New York Times thinks.
Transmaster says
By the way very nice redesign 8^)
RM says
Except the fonts – and especially the headlines – are just too large. It could be improved by shrinking the text size of headlines. Thx for considering.
sheik yer mami says
The New York Times, the paper that gave us Walter Duranty and Hussein Obama, the paper that wants you to believe in ‘climate change’ (or is it ‘climate justice’ now?) is sceptical about Islamic jihad in China?
Something stinks.
mah29000 says
Apparently the Epoch Times and the New York Times are running the same kind of language of denial, the Epoch Times is run by the Falun Gong a dissident group trying to lure other dissident groups into a coalition against the mainland government.
I think aligning themselves with “moderates” that are Chinese Islamic supremacists will make matters worse for China:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/411405-chinese-media-coverage-of-latest-xinjiang-violence-tightly-controlled/
ebonystone says
I notice that the victims of the police were “gunned down”, while the victims of the explosion were merely “killed”, as if it might have been an industrial accident or an automobile accident. A bit of a difference in emphasis.
Ron Barak says
Double talk/standards is nothing new at the NY Times: read virtually any article regarding Israel/Jews/Anti-Semitism from the last decades (e.g., http://honestreporting.com/new-york-times-photo-outrage/).
Kepha says
China is in ferment, and not just in its Islamic fringes. There’s labor unrest that much of the outside world doesn’t hear about; a village in Guangdong called Wukan where the Communist Party’s monopoly on power was successfully challenged after a shady official land deal, and who knows what else. A paper in Sydney reports that Xi Jinping’s bro-in-law has been setting up companies in overseas tax havens–indeed, China’s new capital was starting to leak out of the country even in the 1990’s, some of it out of fear that economic reforms wouldn’t last, or the system wouldn’t be able to sustain them. Is it any surprise that China’s colonial subjects are getting restless?
There’s also been an interesting evolution in the NYSlimes regarding China. In the 1970’s, Scotty Reston was all gaga over Mao’s little red paradise; later, after US-PRC relations were established and more reporters got in, Fox Butterfield came out with _China: Alive in the Bitter Sea_ revealed that the supposedly succeeding Communist experiment wasn’t really working that well , etc. Maybe now they don’t want to look too closely at China’s ferment lest they lose access to the country (China’s more than willing to do that with foreign observers who get too trenchant).
I suspect the take reported above comes from the NYSlimes betting on Han demographic advantages over the Uighurs and the Communist Party’s willingness to do what it takes to maintain power (whether with uppity minorities that ought to be d–ned grateful for being liberated from feudal oppression, even if it meant everything they ever held dear being trashed, turned into 2d class citizens, etc., or weird Buddhist or Christian upstart cults in the central provinces).
As for Falun Gong, if it really does have the organization it claims, it won’t be the first time in China’s history that some clown claiming to be a god, more specifically the Maitreya Buddha/Mi Le Fo has lit the fire that burned down an ailing dynasty.
fair_dinkum says
the Chinese have none of the issues we have to face, no PC, no care for foreign opinions. no guilt.
i am looking to them and the Russians to show us how its done.
Jim says
Stick around long enough and BarryO will show you in his “transformation” of the U.S.
Norman says
I live in China and the Chinese don’t give a rat’s arse about what the west thinks. In China social order is there number one priority. Here, people feel safe walking the streets at night.
exsgtbrown says
with one regional official vowing “no mercy for terrorists,”
a single smart guy in China…
Gregory Smith says
Pretty brazen mixing it up w/Chinese military.
dumbledoresarmy says
That is the worrying thing.
It is, to me, a very telling indication of just how emboldened the Ummah has become, of late, that they should even be attempting jihad raids within China.
gravenimage says
This New York Times report drips with skepticism, what with its scare quotes around “terrorism,” as if it were inconceivable that China could actually be facing any real trouble in Xinjiang, much less jihad and Islamic supremacism.
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The New York Times has generally engaged in the most sickening apologia for Communist China, just as they did with the Soviet Union—but then when it comes to their facing Jihad terror—one of the *very few things we should support them on*—they are “skeptical. “New Duranty Times”, indeed.
More:
BEIJING — A series of explosions and police gunfire have left a dozen people dead in China’s far west Xinjiang region…
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Once again, Jihad terrorism and defense against Jihad is presented by the MSM as morally equivalent.
More:
Details of the incident remain murky, but a local government website said on Saturday that the dead included six people gunned down by police Friday evening and another six killed by three explosions in and around a hair salon and vegetable market in Aksu Prefecture.
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As another poster mentioned, just look at the phrasing here—Jihadists are “gunned down”, but victims of the original Jihad terror explosions are merely “killed”, as though this were an accident or natural disaster. *Ugh*.
More:
Another account, posted on the state-run Tianshan news portal, said one explosion occurred after the police “besieged” what was described as a suspicious vehicle.
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Well, it *was* suspicious, since it subsequently exploded. This is not reasoned skepticism on the NYT’s part—it is attempting to cast doubt on the presence of Jihad in China when it is literally blowing up in their faces.
More:
The clash, which took place in the county seat of Xinhe, not far from the border with Kyrgyzstan, is the latest in a spate of violence in Xinjiang, home to most of China’s 10 million ethnic Uighurs, a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people whose uneasy relationship with the region’s Han Chinese majority has turned increasingly bloody.
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Since when can Jihad bombings be described as a “clash”? Good God—witless moral equivalence.
More:
Reports in the state-run media did not list the names or ethnicities of those involved in the violence, but such episodes invariably pit Uighurs against Chinese security forces.
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More moral equivalence…
More:
In that incident, security agents opened fire after the men had been denied entry to a local police station, according to Radio Free Asia. The report quoted local police officials as saying the men were carrying sickles and described them as “separatists.”
…………………………………..
I am not much of a fan of the Chinese Communist authorities, but this was clearly an armed mob attacking a police station. ‘Denying them entry’ is just common sense.
More:
In December, the state media said that police in the Silk Road city of Kashgar shot and killed eight people who had attacked a police vehicle with knives and “explosive devices.” Two weeks earlier, another clash in Kashgar left 16 people dead, including six women and two police officers. As with similar incidents, officials described bloodshed as an act of “terrorism.”
…………………………………..
More dripping sarcasm. Muslims? Terrorism? Who every heard of such a thing? sarc/off
More:
Officials invariably blame the bloodshed on “separatists” seeking to establish an independent homeland for Xinjiang’s Uighurs, whose loyalties to Beijing have been tested by increasingly aggressive government policies
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More projection—as though waging Jihad wasn’t *already* an indication that Muslim Uighurs have little loyalty to Infidel Beijing.
Now, the Chinese Communists *do* oppress minorities—but Muslims have no more loyalty to democratic authorities. The fact that they are “filthy Infidels” is enough.
More:
Groups like the World Uyghur Congress attribute many recent Uighur deaths to aggressive policing tactics, and say that many “terrorists” killed by police gunfire were later described as carrying knives or farm implements.
…………………………………..
If this is a mob using them as weapons and attacking a police station, then this is typical Jihad behavior—and the sneer quotes around “terrorists” is pretty clearly unwarranted.
The fact is that this is Muslim behavior all over Dar-al-Harb—that this should happen in China should in no way surprise.