The Asahi Shimbun, 2 November 2013

A vehicle plowed into a crowd at Tiananmen Square in Beijing before crashing and bursting into flames on Oct. 28. The incident occurred near Tiananmen Gate in front of a gigantic portrait of Mao Tse-tung, the founding father of modern China.

Chinese police and state-run media blamed the Uighurs, an ethnic minority, for what was apparently a deliberate attack against the Chinese Communist Party’s authority.

Three suspects in the vehicle were a married couple and the husband’s aging mother. Given the circumstances, it is highly likely that the incident was politically motivated.

But was it an act of “organized terrorism” as the police say?

How are the five people who were immediately detained after the attack involved? Many questions remain unanswered.

Whatever the background, such an action that killed and injured many people, including tourists, must not be tolerated. Violence and terrorism cannot be justified no matter what form they take.

It is a fact that the Uighurs are being oppressed in China. We need to turn our attention to the Chinese climate that is apt to give rise to such incidents.

The Uighurs, a Turkish people who believe in Islam, live in Xinjiang in northwestern China. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Uighurs aimed to establish an independent state under the name of East Turkestan. Although the independence movement became active again during the 1990s, it was eventually suppressed.

The Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region comprises a border area and is rich in natural resources, including oil. Major cities such as Urumqi have attained remarkable growth thanks to development in recent years.

However, Uighur residents believe that most of the wealth is going to Han Chinese immigrants.

Although the Chinese government advocates “ethnic equality,” Islamic customs have been trampled on in the region.

Pilgrimages to Mecca are prohibited. Government employees and people who work for state-owned companies are unable to offer prayers on a regular basis. And restaurants are forced to operate during Ramadan, the fasting month.

If the attack was motivated by a long-held resentment for such affronts to ethnic dignity, we may view it as an outburst of public sentiment of the Uighurs as a whole.

Unlike with the Tibetan problem, the U.S. government, which is usually sensitive to human rights issues, is slow to speak about the Uighurs. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Washington designated an organization calling for Uighur independence as a terrorist group in exchange for China’s cooperation in fighting terrorism.

However, the international community must not ignore the reality that the human rights of an ethnic minority are under oppression.

The Chinese government has already placed the region under heavy security and strengthened surveillance of the Uighur people. Uighur organizations outside China fear the incident at Tiananmen Square will serve as a catalyst for Beijing to strengthen its oppression.

We urge the Chinese government to respect Uighur culture and think again about how to advance Uighur reconciliation with the Han Chinese. Most Uighurs are peace-loving people who want to lead a stable life.

–The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 1

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/views/editorial/AJ201311010036