Ethnic Tension Spreads in China

In what local authorities are calling “an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack,” 10 assailants dressed in black and wielding long knives stormed the train station in the southern city of Kunming, indiscriminately slaughtering thirty-three people and wounding 130. Police fatally shot four of the assailants , arrested one and are still searching for the remaining five. Municipal authorities were quick to blame Xinjiang separatist forces — on Chinese television, authorities displayed what they said was a black flag recovered at the scene calling for independence for the region, which some Uighurs refer to as East Turkestan.

Recent terrorist acts in China have typically been limited to the western province of Xinjiang, where a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority population called Uighurs complain of restrictions on their culture and religion by the ethnic Han majority.

The attack, which one newspaper affiliated with the Communist Party called “China’s 9/11,” was the latest indication the conflict may be spreading to other regions, as Saturday’s assault took place more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) to the southeast. An earlier attack occurred in November, when a jeep ran over pedestrians at Beijing’s Tiananmen Gate, killing the three Uighurs in the vehicle and two pedestrians while injuring 40 others.

Previously, the conflict was limited to the province of Xinjiang, where riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi in 2009 resulted in Uighurs storming the streets and randomly killing Han women and children. A few days later Han vigilante mobs armed with sticks and bats retaliated, with over 200 people killed.

The violence in Kunming comes at a sensitive time as President Xi Jinping prepares to deliver his first one-year work report in Beijing on Wednesday at the National People’s Congress. The violence may have also been triggered by last month’s detention of Ilham Tohti, a professor who has championed the rights of Xinjiang’s large Muslim Uighur minority and was recently charged with separatism.

Xi’s has called for “all-out efforts” to capture and bring the culprits to justice, and local police will crackdown on crime, but these actions alone will not be enough. The seriousness and location of this latest act of terrorist violence means the Chinese authorities need to develop a two-pronged approach. In addition to greater and more focused policing efforts, the minority Uighur population needs to have a larger role and more input into local government policy making and development projects. Many Uighurs feel marginalized since majority Han Chinese have flocked to their towns and cities in recent years, setting up businesses and competing for jobs. Without greater autonomy for the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, any increased pressure on the minority Uighurs will continue to spill over into violence.