I just saw this in another forum. I'm very anxious to see the PLA real response to this incident will be. I know I'll be watching.
My condolences to this soldiers family. He was only 18 years old.
My condolences to this soldiers family. He was only 18 years old.
Soldier shot in southwestern Chinese city; govt says it's terrorism
By Alexa Olesen, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - The Chinese government is treating the shooting death of an on-duty soldier in southwestern China as a terrorist attack.
Police have set up checkpoints and are calling for a counterterrorism response.
Southwestern China has been on high alert for weeks amid fears of a repeat of anti-government riots that rocked Tibetan areas of the country last March.
The city of Chongqing (CHUNG-CHING), where 18-year-old Han Junliang was killed Thursday night, is adjacent to Sichuan province where some of the worst violence occurred last year.
Han was standing guard at a military garrison in downtown Chongqing when he was shot by attackers who then made off with his machine-gun, the official Xinhua News Agency and other state media reported.
The brief reports said it was unclear how many attackers were involved and provided few additional details.
The Chongqing Daily cited police as saying the attack on the sentry demanded a counterterrorism response. Police were searching cars at checkpoints throughout the city, Xinhua said.
An official with the propaganda office of the Chongqing Communist party said police told him the attack was carried out by one assailant wearing a mask. But the official said he was unclear about why police suspected terrorism.
Li said he was told the assailant took one machine-gun and fled.
An employee at the Huarui Inn near the garrison said witnesses told him police tactical squads arrived at the scene 15 minutes after the attack.
"They haven't allowed vehicles to pass (through the area) since last night. There are more police around," said the man, who hung up when asked for his name.
Civilian attacks on the military and police are extremely rare in China and the local community and Internet were abuzz with rumours and secondhand accounts in the absence of information from authorities.
The shooting underscores an increase in violent crimes, often with guns, that has accompanied China's free-market reforms and a loosening of social controls.
Though the authoritarian government bans private gun ownership, it has acknowledged troubles dealing with armed criminal gangs that are worsening with growing joblessness.
Chongqing is a sprawling metropolis of more than 31 million people and is a magnet for migrants from the countryside looking for work.
The Chinese government is also grappling with separatist movements in Tibet and Xinjiang, the latter a Muslim area abutting Central Asia where violent attacks have sporadically erupted.
An assault last year in Xinjiang involving two men who rammed a dump truck into a group of jogging policemen, killing 16, was the deadliest and most brazen in years. It was blamed on minority Muslim separatists.