https://www.scmp.com/rss/310504/feed Five people were killed and 38 injured when an SUV rammed through barricades in front of Tiananmen Square’s gate tower in Beijing and burst into flames on October 28, 2013. Amid tight censorship of social media and terse news reports, police launched a manhunt for eight people, mostly members of the Uygur ethnic community living in the restive Western region of Xinjiang. Within ten hours, police detained five members of the Uygur ethnic minority. Two days later, authorities declared the incident... en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Authorities have cut the jail terms of 11 Uygur prisoners serving time in Xinjiang for separatism and endangering state security, Xinhua reported late Tuesday. One of the prisoners, Memet Tohti Memet Rozi, was accused of having close contact with the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the Taliban. He also set up terrorist training camps in Afghanistan, according to Xinhua. The Xinjiang Higher People’s Court cut the life sentences of seven of the offenders to terms of 19½ years or 20... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1908838/chinese-court-cuts-jail-terms-11-xinjiang-prisoners?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1908838/chinese-court-cuts-jail-terms-11-xinjiang-prisoners?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Feb 2016 04:30:30 +0000 China has indicted eight people on terrorism charges in connection with an attack on Beijing’s iconic Tiananmen Gate last year that killed two tourists and three assailants, the government said Saturday. The eight were arrested within days of the October 28 attack, in which a man drove an SUV through a crowd of tourists before stopping in front of the gate and setting the vehicle on fire. A Chinese visitor and a tourist from the Philippines were killed, along with the vehicle’s driver, his wife... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1522490/china-court-try-eight-tiananmen-car-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1522490/china-court-try-eight-tiananmen-car-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 May 2014 03:30:51 +0000 Twice now in the lead-up to key national political meetings that attract international attention, terrorists have targeted civilians not remotely connected with their cause. A shocking suicide car-bomb attack by an ethnic Uygur family in Tiananmen Square last October, killing two tourists, pales in comparison the latest outrage - a mass knife attack that left 29 innocent people dead at Kunming railway station in in the country's southwest. The first came ahead of the third plenary session of the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1439637/no-cause-can-justify-cowardly-attack-kunming?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1439637/no-cause-can-justify-cowardly-attack-kunming?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 03 Mar 2014 20:30:00 +0000 An Islamist militant group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party said a terror attack in Tiananmen Square on October 28 was a "jihadist operation" by holy warriors, the SITE monitoring service said yesterday. The service, which tracks Islamist militant statements, said that the party had released a Uygur-language audio speech from its leader, Abdullah Mansour, in which he said such operations by mujahideen, or its holy warriors, were only the beginning of attacks on Chinese authorities. In... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1364374/jihadist-group-speaks-out-tiananmen-square-car-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1364374/jihadist-group-speaks-out-tiananmen-square-car-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Nov 2013 02:50:07 +0000 Yang Haipeng, a Shanghai-based Chinese journalist, recently decided he would wear a traditional Uygur hat at security checkpoints as a gesture of support for the minority ethnic community, who are often subjected to stringent and even “humiliating” scrutiny in their own country. Yang, who is of Han Chinese roots, has lived up to his pledge. By this week, he has passed through security checks at train stations and airports in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen wearing a ‘doppa’ – as the traditional... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1357661/han-journalist-dons-uygur-doppa-security-checks-act-support?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1357661/han-journalist-dons-uygur-doppa-security-checks-act-support?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Nov 2013 06:45:00 +0000 The central government has blamed a fiery attack in Tiananmen Square on "terrorists" from Xinjiang backed by international militants, but residents say that cultural repression, corruption and police abuses - not jihadism - is driving the violence. The dusty city of Hotan on the edge of the Taklamakan Desert is 3,300 kilometres and a world away from Beijing's Forbidden City, the symbolic heart of the nation's power. Armed guards in camouflage and police vans patrol the streets in the city whose... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1354766/uygurs-blame-religious-and-cultural-repression-xinjiang-violence?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1354766/uygurs-blame-religious-and-cultural-repression-xinjiang-violence?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 12 Nov 2013 15:30:45 +0000 The second attack in less than two weeks targeting a prominent government symbol occurred in Shanxi province yesterday - just days ahead of a key party meeting in Beijing. The series of explosions that left at least one person dead and at least eight injured near the provincial Communist Party headquarters in the capital Taiyuan was caused by "homemade bombs", Xinhua quoted local police as saying. The initial police investigation found that "the blast was a deliberate act" as "metal ball... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1349390/symbols-chinese-government-bombed-second-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1349390/symbols-chinese-government-bombed-second-time?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 06 Nov 2013 20:00:15 +0000 Uygurs in China have questioned the central government's claim that a militant separatist group drawn from the Muslim minority was responsible for last week's suspected terrorist attack in Tiananmen Square. Uygurs interviewed said they doubted that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) had the capacity or support to pull off even a crude attack like the fiery car crash that killed two tourists and three suspected Uygur attackers. An ethnic Uygur scholar in Urumqi , who requested anonymity,... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1346225/uygurs-doubt-xinjiang-militants-had-any-role-tiananmen-square-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1346225/uygurs-doubt-xinjiang-militants-had-any-role-tiananmen-square-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Nov 2013 22:41:46 +0000 The country's security chief has blamed a Uygur militant group for Monday's suspected terrorist attack in Tiananmen Square and called on the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) to help combat the threat. Meng Jianzhu , head of the Communist Party's Central Politics and Law Commission and a member of the decision-making Politburo, said on the sidelines of an SCO meeting in Uzbekistan on Thursday that the fatal car crash was orchestrated by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM). The... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1345178/beijing-says-uygur-militants-behind-suspected-tiananmen-terrorist-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1345178/beijing-says-uygur-militants-behind-suspected-tiananmen-terrorist-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Nov 2013 03:45:30 +0000 After the Tiananmen terror attack on Monday, Xinjiang has returned to the centre of political debate in China. The Chinese Minister for State Security has singled out the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, active in the region, as the organziation that orchestrated the attack, which left 5 people dead and 42 injured. News quickly transpired that the three people in the car that rammed through barricades and exploded in flames on Beijing's Tiananmen Square were Uygurs, prompting concerns over a... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1344539/life-restive-xinjiang-through-eyes-russian-traveller?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1344539/life-restive-xinjiang-through-eyes-russian-traveller?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Nov 2013 03:15:30 +0000 Beijing's Uygur communities fear the fallout from this week's suspected terrorist attack in Tiananmen Square could disrupt their daily lives, damage their businesses and increase mistrust with members of the capital's Han majority. In the three days since a jeep occupied by a family of three Uygurs ploughed into a pedestrian walkway in front of the square's famed tower gate and exploded, killing themselves and two tourists, police have stepped up identity checks in neighbourhoods populated by... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1344896/uygurs-beijing-fear-backlash-over-tiananmen-square-vehicle-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1344896/uygurs-beijing-fear-backlash-over-tiananmen-square-vehicle-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Oct 2013 20:15:30 +0000 The particular grievances of the ethnic Uygur family that drove through a fence into Tiananmen Square, ploughing through crowds of tourists before setting the vehicle ablaze remains unknown. A police investigation is continuing, and at least five arrests have been made in what is believed to be a terrorist plot. Whatever the perceived injustice was, though, it is now of no consequence. Those who target the lives of innocent people for the sake of a cause do not deserve a fair hearing; their... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1344865/terrorism-should-have-no-role-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1344865/terrorism-should-have-no-role-dissent?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Oct 2013 16:00:15 +0000 The mother of the Philippine tourist who died in the terror attack at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Monday has yet to be told that her daughter has died. Dr Rizalina Bunyi, 55, along with a man from Guangdong province, was killed when a light-coloured SUV ploughed through pedestrians and police on China’s most prominent square, before bursting into flames. The three occupants of the car were also killed in what state media have since called a terrorist attack. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1344495/mother-tiananmen-terror-attacks-philippine-victim-still-dark?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1344495/mother-tiananmen-terror-attacks-philippine-victim-still-dark?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Oct 2013 07:01:36 +0000 Chinese state media demanded severe punishment on Thursday for those behind what China has said is a holy war aimed at Beijing, which it has blamed on Islamist militants from the restive Xinjiang region. The exiled leader of Xinjiang’s Muslim Uygur minority called for an independent probe into a crash on Monday when an SUV burst into flames after being driven into a crowd in Tiananmen Square, one of China’s most closely guarded areas. The three occupants of the vehicle and two bystanders were... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1344491/chinas-state-media-calls-strong-action-tiananmen-attack?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1344491/chinas-state-media-calls-strong-action-tiananmen-attack?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 31 Oct 2013 06:54:00 +0000 Five suspects have been detained in connection with the car crash and explosion in Tiananmen Square on Monday, which authorities described for the first time as a "terrorist attack". The suspects are all Uygurs from various parts of the restive Xinjiang region, according to an earlier police notice. The notice, which was sent in the hours after the fiery crash and reviewed by the South China Morning Post yesterday, warned authorities to look out for seven people. Video: Scenes from the Tiananmen... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1343790/five-held-tiananmen-square-terror-attack-all-uygurs-xinjiang?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1343790/five-held-tiananmen-square-terror-attack-all-uygurs-xinjiang?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Oct 2013 10:20:00 +0000 A leading figure of the exile Uygur community has expressed her concern over a “fierce state crackdown” by Beijing on China’s ethnic Uygurs as police investigate a possible suicide attack in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Monday. Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uygur Congress, an overseas exile group which has been condemned by Beijing, spoke of her concerns that the Chinese government could impose “repressive measures” on Uygur people after police linked Uygur suspects to the fatal car... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1343573/exiled-uygur-group-warns-political-persecution-wake-tiananmen?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1343573/exiled-uygur-group-warns-political-persecution-wake-tiananmen?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Oct 2013 04:59:53 +0000 Beijing police are searching for at least eight people believed to be linked to the apparent suicide car crash in front of the Tiananmen Square gate on Monday afternoon that left five dead and 38 injured. Police set up a special team to investigate the case yesterday. Hotels in the capital have been asked to be on the lookout for the suspects, according to a notice seen by the South China Morning Post and staff at several hotels. The suspects include a 21-year-old Sichuan-born male named Liu Ke.... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1343155/chinese-police-launch-manhunt-eight-after-tiananmen-jeep-crash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1343155/chinese-police-launch-manhunt-eight-after-tiananmen-jeep-crash?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Oct 2013 20:45:15 +0000 Police in Beijing are seeking information on at least eight suspects and five licence plates, the South China Morning Post has learnt on Tuesday. While most of the suspects appear to be Uygurs, one man bears an ethnic Han name. The request for information circulated among Beijing hotels by police on Tuesday is believed to be linked to the fatal car crash in Tiananmen Square on Monday that killed five, including the three people in the vehicle. There has been no official word on whether the... https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1342554/eight-suspects-mostly-uygurs-sought-deadly-tiananmen-crash?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1342554/eight-suspects-mostly-uygurs-sought-deadly-tiananmen-crash?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 29 Oct 2013 04:17:42 +0000 Five people were killed and 38 injured when a jeep rammed through barricades in front of Tiananmen Square's gate tower and burst into flames yesterday. Three people inside the vehicle died, along with two tourists, who were identified by police only as a Filipino woman and a man from Guangdong. The explosive crash at the symbolic heart of Beijing - just under the massive portrait of Mao Zedong - led some to speculate whether it was an accident or an attack. The incident comes at an especially... https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1341820/five-killed-38-hurt-jeep-crashes-and-burns-tiananmen-square?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1341820/five-killed-38-hurt-jeep-crashes-and-burns-tiananmen-square?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 28 Oct 2013 05:35:45 +0000