Recent state security actions in the PRC prior to the Olympics have resulted in the arrest of many purported "terrorist" that were alleged to have planned the disruption of the games. At least this is what the Chinese government has stated publicly. Critics have charged that those arrested really weren't terrorists at all, but people who have either protested or encourage others to take such actions. Now, after two buses blew up nearly one after the other, and a PRC border police post was attacked (with 16 PRC border cops reportedly killed), the PRC continues to deny that these incidents were terrorist actions. This raises a political quandry for the PRC. While using the fear of terrorism allows the PRC to publicly justify certain security actions, actually admitting that it has a terrorism problem is a whole other matter. China, if it does come forward and label those incidents as terror acts, will essentially admit that there are terrorists operating in China. This admission will do two thing; politically the PRC will have to allow for the fact that not everyone in China is happy with the CCP's rule, and more importantly, that the PRC cannot contain the unrest, even after all these years. The Chinese should actually be thankful of the Russian (former Soviets) and United States involvement in central Asia. If not, the western region of China would already be Afghanistan. By consuming the large bulk of militant Islam's attention for nearly a half century, the Soviets and US had spared China the brunt of most of the regional terror activity. That however, is not going to last forever. It would actually be in China's best interest that the US war on terror never ends. China doesn't really have many options; on the one hand, it can walk away from the western region of China and give the Islamic peoples there its freedom. But that ain't gonna happen anytime soon, as 1) mineral and other resources would be lost, and 2) it would set a very bad example for other regions (mainly Tibet) that want to leave the Chinese yoke. On the other hand, if it holds onto those western areas, it will become increasingly more and more expensive in just about every way imaginable; financial, military, political, etc. Only time will tell, but historically, regions that simmer eventually boil over, whether China wants to admit it or not, it very obviously has a serious terrorism problem on its hands, and its about to get a lot worse. Ralph
politics... politics... first about state security in china... how about NSA and Guantanamo... i think the same... ethnics problems: Kosovo and Serbia, Ireland and UK.... Muslims in China... anyway you should not get to involve because the history teach us the world war started on that problem!!! which country don't have problem with terrorism. but china don't justifies it as a reason for war... with 2.3 million soldiers (official but who knows the exact numbers) i think it should enough to take a small continent like the whole Islamic region but i am not an military strategic so if someone can tell me.... then what is the definition of terrorism? a hooligan ? a serial murderer? mafia? it's all perception and use of words to justifies some political decision. that is why i don't bother with politics: all the same with others words....
