Yesterday a Chinese man hijacked a bus of ten Australian travel agents and their translator in Xi’an. A police sniper killed the man after a three-hour standoff in the city, one of China’s most popular sightseeing areas. Only one hostage as slightly injured and the hostages are all flying home today.
The Foreign Ministry said today that the bomb-strapped man is not an embarrassment to China as the Olympics approach, the AP reports.
“Such things happen to every country and what matters is how you handle such cases,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Thursday at a regular briefing.
Qin expressed sympathy for the Australians and said China would “definitely carry out more effective measures” in tourism, but did not give details.
“Compared with other countries, China is a safer destination for foreign tourists,” Qin added.
The government has apologized to one woman who was held longer than the other hostages along with the translator.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said that he does not believe the attack was aimed at Australians, according to AFP.
“This is an unusual event for China and the Chinese authorities are no doubt putting their minds to the motivation behind it.”
Australians planning to travel to China for the Olympic Games later this year should consult the travel advice on the ministry’s website, Smith said.
“But in general terms China is at the lower end of the scale when it comes to our travel advisories and our travel warnings,” he said.
The highjacker, Xia Tao, was upset about his debts, the Sydney Morning Herald said.
A neighbor said the man, Xia Tao, paid 60,000 yuan ($9000) for a car he intended to use as an informal taxi. Most of the money for the car purchase came from his retrenchment payout.
But police frequently pulled him over and fined him 1000 yuan each time for operating as an unlicensed taxi. The fines were so crippling that he had to borrow thousands of yuan from family and friends to cover the fines.
The neighbor described him as a simple, good and honest family man who was prone to extreme obsessions. “I can’t believe that our neighbor and the man in the Xian newspaper reports is the same person. I am shocked that he would do something like this.”
