CHINA:THE COMMUNIST Party leader of China's restive far-western region of Xinjiang has warned of a "life or death struggle" against terrorism, following a spate of attacks that raised fears of a terror attack at the Olympics.
The oil-rich region, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, has been hit with three separate attacks on government posts in the past two weeks. Authorities blame the violence on Muslim separatists seeking to use the Olympics to "amplify the effects" of their attacks.
Wang Lequan, secretary of the provincial Communist Party, was quoted in the Xinjiang Daily saying "leaders at all levels must deeply understand that the struggle against the 'three forces' is one of life or death". The three forces are terrorism, separatism and religious extremism, which China sees as the chief threats to its overall security within its borders and to national unity.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said this week there was evidence linking them to East Turkestan forces.
The assaults in the mountainous desert region, which makes up one-sixth of China's land area, began on August 4th and have killed 31 people. They started when two men rammed a group of jogging policemen, then attacked them with knives and homemade bombs, killing 16 officers.
Six days later, bombers struck in the west-central Xinjiang county of Kuqa, targeting a police station, government building, bank and shops owned by Chinese. Police said they killed 10 of the attackers, while a security guard and a bystander died.
On Tuesday, attackers jumped from a vehicle at a roadside checkpoint near Kashgar and stabbed civilian security guards, killing three of them. The assailants escaped.
"In Xinjiang, the fight against separatist forces is long-term, arduous and complex," Mr Wang told a leadership meeting, adding that security forces must "stick to a strategy of seizing the initiative to strike pre-emptively, closely guard against and attack separatist sabotage by the three forces, and never allow our enemies to gain strength".
It accuses extremists in Xinjiang, more than 3,000km from Beijing, of seeking a separate state of East Turkestan, but critics saysuch threats have been exaggerated by a regime bent on controlling the culture and religion of the minority ethnic Uighurs.
Some analysts, aware of the strategic importance of the region, believe the Uighurs would settle for better treatment by the Chinese.