27 dead, in Kunming railway station attack

siegecrossbow

siegecrossbow

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Mr T said:
I wonder, are/were the attackers terrorists as we understand the term? Lots of people carry out random attacks in China because they're angry and want to take "revenge". They're not actually trying to inflict terror or bring about political change, even if what they do is horrible. It's conceivable they could congregate to carry out attacks together.

There's no point in demanding "action" from the Chinese government if it's not clear who carried out the attack or why.
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Well, I don't think this is the right line of thinking. If you have grievances against the Chinese government, don't go around attacking people who probably had no relations to it. There is a word for attacking the defenseless civilian population in hopes of achieving political goals, and I think the word is probably familiar to most people on this board - terrorism.

Also, people with grievances against the government usually acts alone. Take the farmer with the makeshift rocket launcher or the crippled guy who brought explosives to the air port, or even the guy who crashed the plane into the IRS building in '10 here at Austin Texas. Those guys who are fed up with the government due to real or perceived injustice aren't usually stable enough to bring a bunch of their buddies together and launch coordinated assaults.
 
Blitzo

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Mr T said:
I wonder, are/were the attackers terrorists as we understand the term? Lots of people carry out random attacks in China because they're angry and want to take "revenge". They're not actually trying to inflict terror or bring about political change, even if what they do is horrible. It's conceivable they could congregate to carry out attacks together.

There's no point in demanding "action" from the Chinese government if it's not clear who carried out the attack or why.
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The rationale or justification behind acts of terror are typically not factored into describing something as an "act of terror".

But I agree that demanding action is certainly pointless. We don't even know who the perpetrators are.
 
siegecrossbow

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Bltizo said:
The rationale or justification behind acts of terror are typically not factored into describing something as an "act of terror".

But I agree that demanding action is certainly pointless. We don't even know who the perpetrators are.
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I am 90% sure this is a Uighur terrorist group, possibly with foreign sponsoring and training. If you read the report one of the witnesses hinted that the attackers might be Uighurs. The style and execution of the attack is remarkably similar to what we see in Xinjiang in recent years.
 
bd popeye

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siegecrossbow said:
I am 90% sure this is a Uighur terrorist group, possibly with foreign sponsoring and training. If you read the report one of the witnesses hinted that the attackers might be Uighurs. The style and execution of the attack is remarkably similar to what we see in Xinjiang in recent years.
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Possibly.. read this report:

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Attacks blamed on Uighur separatists

The far western region of Xinjiang is home to a simmering rebellion against Chinese rule by separatists among parts of the Muslim Uighur population.

CHINA-ATTACK/
Police patrol on a street after a group of armed men attacked people at Kunming railway station, Yunnan province, on March 1, 2014. At least 27 people were killed in the attack, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua said. (Wong Campion/Reuters)

Most attacks blamed on Uighur separatists take place in Xinjiang, but Saturday's assault took place more than 1,000 kilometres to the southeast in Yunnan, which has not had a history of such unrest. However, a suicide car attack blamed on Uighur separatists that killed five people at Beijing's Tiananmen Gate last November raised alarms that militants may be aiming to strike at targets throughout the country.

In an indication of how seriously authorities viewed the attack — one of China's deadliest in recent years — the country's top police official, Politburo member Meng Jianzhu, was on route to Kunming, the Communist Party-run People's Daily reported.

The violence in Kunming came at a sensitive time as political leaders in Beijing prepared for Wednesday's opening of the annual meeting of the nominal legislature where the government of President Xi Jinping will deliver its first one-year work report.

Xi called for "all-out efforts" to bring the culprits to justice.
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P

PanAsian

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plawolf said:
Who walks around with a baseball bat or gulf club?

This sort of suicide attack is near impossible to stop, anywhere. Just a few months ago, a lone gunmen walked into LAX and shot a load of guards. He could have killed far more people had he wanted he, but that particular lunatic was targeting boarder agency guards so the death toll was very small. And it took a lot longer than a minute for him to be stopped.

5-10 armed guys would have cause a lot of casualties and taken a hell of a lot longer than a minute to take down. Some of us need to take a breath and stop letting raw emotions get the better of our reasoning.
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OK, my reaction to the news may have been a bit dramatic.

However my question still stands. Do regular police/Public Security/"beat cops" in the PRC carry weapons of any sort? By weapons I mean things like pepper spray, baton, or taser, I know they don't normally carry guns.

If they don't normally carry any of the aforementioned equipment I would suggest they start doing so, at least a baton, so that they can be more effective at protecting themselves as well as peaceful citizens against troublemakers who could easily be armed with an array of deadly everyday items.
 
bd popeye

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PanAsia in answer to your question I'd say no. I've posted many, many photos of "regular" Chinese police. They appear to be unarmed in any way.

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BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese president Xi Jinping has urged the law enforcement to investigate and solve the case of Kunming terrorist attack with all-out efforts and punish the terrorists in accordance with the law.

More than 10 terrorist suspects attacked people at the square and ticket hall of Kunming Railway Station at 9:20 p.m. on Saturday, killing at least 28 civilians and injuring 113 others.

Police shot dead five attackers and are hunting for the rest.

Xi stressed the careful rescue and treatment of injured civilians and proper handling of the dead.

He ordered relevant parties to firmly suppress terrorists' rampant momentum, be fully aware of the grave and complex anti-terrorism situation and strengthen bottomline thinking.

The president, also head of China's national security commission, asked law enforcement to crack down on violent terrorist activities in all forms, safeguard social stability and guarantee the safety of people's lives and property.

Xi has assigned officials, including Meng Jianzhu, head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Guo Shengkun, Chinese state councilor and minister of public security, to go to Yunnan to guide work and visit injured civilians and relatives of the victims.

Premier Li Keqiang asked local authorities to chase and punish the suspects severely, and public security departments at all levels to strengthen prevention and control measures to guarantee the safety of public places.

Local officials rushed to the scene to organize and direct the follow-up work.

The treatment of the injured civilians and case investigation are underway.
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siegecrossbow

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bd popeye said:
Possibly.. read this report:

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I think they should stop putting terrorist in quotation marks when random civilians are killed indiscriminately. If the attack was against a Chinese police station or armed force locale then I could see them twisting the facts a bit to justify some sort of "uprising" against authority. But when innocent civilians are getting killed, there is no reason why terrorist is supposed to be in quotation marks. Stop blaming the victims, CBC news.
 
superdog

superdog

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PanAsian said:
OK, my reaction to the news may have been a bit dramatic.

However my question still stands. Do regular police/Public Security/"beat cops" in the PRC carry weapons of any sort? By weapons I mean things like pepper spray, baton, or taser, I know they don't normally carry guns.

If they don't normally carry any of the aforementioned equipment I would suggest they start doing so, at least a baton, so that they can be more effective at protecting themselves as well as peaceful citizens against troublemakers who could easily be armed with an array of deadly everyday items.
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Police on street patrols are equipped with guns. If you search Chinese news you'll see front-line police in Kunming were equipped with low power revolvers to replace older guns with higher penetration back in 2010. Criminal police/detectives are usually equipped with Type 92 9mm.

But not everyone always carry their gun with them while on the job, depending on the situation and location. Some may feel they're actually safer without a gun, especially when they don't have enough training, as they won't risk losing it or getting stressed out when engages in low intensity physical contact with others.

I have no idea if the police on patrol in the railway station that day have their guns with them or not.
 
TerraN_EmpirE

TerraN_EmpirE

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siegecrossbow said:
I am 90% sure this is a Uighur terrorist group, possibly with foreign sponsoring and training. If you read the report one of the witnesses hinted that the attackers might be Uighurs. The style and execution of the attack is remarkably similar to what we see in Xinjiang in recent years.
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Although Uighur is likely, I doubt sponsor or training. First this is terrorist in nature, but not necessarily foreign. The Uighur nationality has a long grudge against ethnic Chinese, and ethnic Chinese have visa versa so domestic seems more likely.

second if you compared the actions in China to even the attacks in neighboring countries with strict gun control like Indian you, would note the choice of arms in Chinese attacks are always knives, clubs and hand to hand weapons. The Indian attack in Mumbai used AK's the attacks in Pakistan use explosives and AK's. If these attackers in China could have left the country and gotten foreign terrorist training then why not bomb? I mean terrorist groups know how to make homemade explosives and detonators, and if they could sneak out of the country with ease to attend such terrorists camps then why not establish a gun running route? I mean the casualty rate would be much higher. Hence my doubt of foreign sponsoring or training.

I do feel sorrow for the family's of victims.
 
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