Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Foreign Elements Response

China’s problems in Xinjiang just got worse. With riots in the restive region of Xinjiang, China issued their standard argument blaming ‘foreign elements’ as the cause of the troubles. That is a joke because even Chinese officials believe that the problems in Xinjiang are domestic in nature.

However blaming ‘foreign elements’ is standard procedure in China as China's domestic politics make it impossible to blame themselves for the mess (just look at Tibet), so it’s no surprise that China do it again this time. However I don’t think they thought ‘foreign elements’ will response to them.

In a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy, Al-Qaeda is threatening for the first time to attack Chinese interests.

Osama bin Laden's group has not previously threatened China, but now there are calls for retaliation against China for the deaths of Muslims in the restive region of Xinjiang. If you are going to get blame for something, you might just as well be guilty of it.

The big danger is that Al-Qaeda's central leadership would affiliate the various Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang and start to arm and train Uighurs in terrorist tactics. If that happen, China’s standard argument blaming ‘foreign elements’ will really come true and the world will all regret it.

No comments: