{"id":3463,"date":"2017-02-28T22:59:10","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T22:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2017\/02\/28\/china-anti-terror-rallies-thousands-troops-streets-urumqi\/"},"modified":"2017-02-28T22:59:10","modified_gmt":"2017-02-28T22:59:10","slug":"china-anti-terror-rallies-thousands-troops-streets-urumqi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/china-anti-terror-rallies-thousands-troops-streets-urumqi\/","title":{"rendered":"China &#8216;anti-terror&#8217; rallies: thousands of troops on streets of Urumqi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than 10,000 forces gather in capital of violence-stricken region of Xinjiang for second time in just over a week<\/p>\n<p>Tom Phillips in Beijing<br \/>\nTuesday 28 February 2017 05.07 EST<\/p>\n<p>Thousands of troops have poured on to the streets of one of west China&rsquo;s most important cities for the second time in just over a week, as a senior Communist party leader heralded an &ldquo;all-out offensive&rdquo; against terrorism in the violence-stricken region.<\/p>\n<p>More than 10,000 rifle-toting forces gathered at the heart of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, for the latest in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2017\/feb\/20\/chinese-troops-stage-show-of-force-in-xinjiang-and-vow-to-relentlessly-beat-separatists\">a series of spectacular mass &ldquo;anti-terror rallies&rdquo;<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Chinese media reporting yet another absolutely gigantic anti-terror parade in Xinjiang&#39;s capital Urumqi involving 10,000 troops <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bja0AxCcLv\">pic.twitter.com\/bja0AxCcLv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomphillipsin\/status\/836467339889684480\">February 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\nChen Guoquan, the region\u2019s powerful party boss, called on troops to \u201cbury the corpses of terrorists in the vast sea of the people\u2019s war [on terror]\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nPhotographs published by local media showed convoys of bulletproof vehicles snaking through Urumqi\u2019s streets and a sea of troops assembled beneath a banner reading: \u201cThe people and the army are united as one.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe government-run Xinjiang Daily urged security forces to \u201chold aloft their swords and prepare for battle\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Plane loads of troops being deployed to the &#39;frontline&#39; of China&#39;s &#39;people&#39;s war on terror&#39; in southern Xinjiang <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6uz4fygE0d\">pic.twitter.com\/6uz4fygE0d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomphillipsin\/status\/836470818741841920\">February 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIt is a battle between good and evil, lightness and dark, between progressive and reactionary forces,\u201d the broadsheet said in an editorial.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe newspaper described the parades \u2013 held in at least three other regional cities since mid-February \u2013 as a way of \u201cmobilising the armed forces to fight against \u2026 enemies of the people\u201d.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nPassenger planes packed with armed troops were reported to have been dispatched to three cities in southern Xinjiang \u2013 Hotan, Kashgar and Aksu \u2013 which authorities hailed the frontline of their war on terror.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nXinjiang has experienced repeated outbreaks of killing in recent years, including an explosion of ethnic rioting in 2009 in which at least 197 people died and 1,700 were injured.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nBeijing blames the bloodshed on Islamic extremists but experts believe it is also driven by the harshness with which authorities treat Xinjiang\u2019s native Uighur ethnic minority.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAt least two deadly incidents have been reported since December ending what had appeared to be a period of relative calm.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nNevertheless, James Leibold, a Xinjiang expert from La Trobe University in Australia, said he had been surprised by the authorities\u2019 \u201cdisproportional\u201d show of force.<\/p>\n<p><\n\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Another image from Chinese state media of yesterday&#39;s staggering show of military force in Xinjiang <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/CT2FrZAwAv\">pic.twitter.com\/CT2FrZAwAv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tomphillipsin\/status\/836470313961533440\">February 28, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s safe to say that we haven\u2019t seen this level of public sabre-rattling since the aftermath of the 2009 riots.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cThe two recent attacks were small, minor incidents involving unsophisticated \u2018cold weapons\u2019 \u2013 knives \u2013 that seem to indicate little planning and coordination. There might be something going on behind the scenes in terms of the security situation in Xinjiang but I suspect it\u2019s more a case of political posturing.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\nChina is gearing up for a crucial and highly sensitive political year with the Communist party\u2019s 19th congress \u2013 the midpoint of President Xi Jinping\u2019s 10-year term in power \u2013 scheduled for the autumn.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nA lesser but nonetheless key political event \u2013 the annual \u201ctwo sessions\u201d summit \u2013 kicks off in Beijing on Friday.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nLeibold said he sensed Xinjiang\u2019s party chief was staging the rallies, which have not been widely reported in China\u2019s English-language press, for a domestic audience.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cNot only for the residents of Xinjiang \u2013 Han and Uighur alike \u2013 but also for the political bosses back in Beijing. It\u2019s a form of political theatre of the highest order [that says]: the party is in firm control in Xinjiang and those who seek to resist will be crushed.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\nResidents quoted by Xinjiang\u2019s party controlled media gave the events a predictable thumbs up.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cOur country is so great,\u201d a spectator named as Azat Jusuf told the Xinjiang Daily.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nParaphrasing a 2014 speech by President Xi, he added: \u201cTerrorists are little more than rats scurrying across the street and they must be punished.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAdditional reporting by Wang Zhen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than 10,000 forces gather in capital of violence-stricken region of Xinjiang for second time in just over a week<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3463"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}