China’s Murky Olympic Terror Threats

The Ministry of Public Security announced this morning that it had foiled alleged terrorist plots to disrupt the Olympics and kidnap foreigners. From Time Magazine:

Officially, the revelations sound ominous. One of the groups was allegedly headed by a terrorist sent into China by “East Turkestan” separatists from overseas, said the ministry spokesman Wu Heping. East Turkestan is the name given to China’s huge Xinjiang province by separatists belonging to the Uighur ethnicity. (It was used by a couple of short-lived republics in the area during the period of China’s civil wars in the first half of the 20th century.) The group, Wu said, had “carried out 13 explosion experiments inside China, and was to carry out attacks in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai to disrupt the coming Olympics.” The other group, apparently apprehended by the Chinese authorities less than a week ago, “made plans last November to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists, as well as Olympic athletes during the Games to cause an international sensation and disrupt the Beijing Olympics.” This group, said Wu, had also been looking for members who were willing to carry out “jihad” in the capital city of Xinjiang Province, Urumqi, and in Chinese cities in the interior.

But observers have expressed concern over the lack of hard evidence backing up their claims. The Time report continues:

The suspicion is not unfounded. Conflicting official accounts of previous terrorists attacks in Xinjiang have left many confused, and details of such terrorist attempts are always vague. “It’s hard for me to imagine China manufacturing fake evidence for non-existent terrorist attacks from scratch, but I do not exclude the possibility of the facts being overblown,” said Bequelin, “China has deliberately confused terrorists with ordinary criminals, political organizations, and dissidents before, and has used it as an excuse for repression.”

See also reports from Shanghai Daily, AFP, and the Washington Post.

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