Details are still murky, but clashes have erupted in the western city of Kashgar, China, with reports of 21 people killed, including six police and six ethnic Uighurs, who Chinese media described as either “mobsters” or “terrorists.”
Chinese officials report that the fighting began when “community workers,” apparently ethnic Hans, raided a private Uighur home and claimed it was filled with “rioters,” attempting to confiscate their knives.
Officials say that raids on ethnic Uighur homes are commonplace, and that this was “a regular check,” which they said meant the people inside planned it and it was a “terrorist attack.”
It was the deadliest fighting in the region since 2009, when ethnic clashes between Hans and Uighurs killed around 200 people in Urumqi. The area is remote, but considered hugely important to China’s economic future because of its large energy deposits, meaning ethnic unrest could be a serious concern going forward.
from what I have read…the US and israel are big supporters of the Uighurs..using them to terrorize china
as with using the chenchynains to terrorize russia…
Those social workers are not "apparently ethnic Hans", Jason. Out of the 15 social workers and cops killed by the "Jihadists", only 3 were ethnic Han, the rest were Uighurs (10) and Mogolian (2). And of these 15, nine were killed in the initial attacks by those who were in that house before authorities sent armed police to regain control of the situation.
It's rather telling that you put quotes on "community workers", "regular check", "terrorists", and "rioters", but not on the word "raided" in your description of the nature of the initial visit by the social workers.
Yes, details are still murky, we don't know for certain how this specific fight broke out and whether there was any truth to the authorities' claim that the occupants of that house were "Jihadists" who were stockpiling weapons, so why create an impression that this was an ethnic clash?
Have we not learned that advocates for "rebels" and "freedom fighters" in faraway places are not always the most reliable truth-tellers? The War Party loves to paint China as our next big enemy, surely Antiwar.com should not be helping their cause by jumping on the China-bashing bandwagon, already laden with members of our mainstream media?
There are many things wrong with China; its relationships with its neighbors and its own past are convoluted and often dificult. However, this doesn't mean that whenever there is a conflict involving the Chinese, regardless of the circumstances, they are automatically to blame. You, of all people in the media sphere, should know better than that!
Justin's editorials consistently show that he is skeptical of the many China-phobic memes that permeate media reports on the subject, but for whatever reason, his skepticism is rarely present in the news selection and blogs here; which is quite a shame.
Apparently Jason you are not qualified to write because you are an idiot. The police did not carry guns while searching the premise but were shot at which is why most of the killed were police whom mostly were Uighur. And these were not knives that killed them but guns which are illegal to possess in China. By the way, 6 + 6 does not equal 21.