Assuredly, we must recognize the importance of areas like Tiananmen Square. This past Monday, a family in an SUV drove through many citizens and then proceeded to light their car on fire, and an explosion rocked the same area that once had a citizen now known in the zeitgeist as ‘tankman’ stood his ground during the square protests of 1989. Now being identified as a terrorist attack, the police have detained five individuals that are believed to have participated in the horrid act which took the lives of five civilians and injured dozens of others. The fight for a peaceful democracy is still very much going on.
In the day and age of digital enlightenment, it was almost instantaneous that we found out about this bombing, and it is now being linked to an Islamic separatist group. Police reportedly found gasoline, two knives and steel sticks, as well as a flag with extremist religious content in the Jeep. What is interesting is that the group was of two tourists and three members of a family of Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority from northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, who were in the car used in the attack. They included the 70-year-old mother of the driver.
They have figured out the key settings of rival factions that set off the chain of events, the amount of money saved for it, and all about anything that you would need to know about the jihadist Uighurs that happened to divulge into the incident. Then, if we can find these things at what happens to feel like the snap of a finger, why is it hard to prevent these things from occurring? It is surprising that with all of the events of violence that are politically motivated, that the place is not turned into a stronghold, especially underneath a giant portrait of Mao Zedong.
The most defense is that fire extinguishers are kept at the site and have been used when protesters set themselves on fire, even though Chinese police have arrested 139 people in Xinjaing for being a part of a ring that spread religious extremism propaganda which came about: riots that had wiped out another 35 unfortunate individuals. Which seems to just leave a puzzling vicious circle in its path, one truly has to wonder the strange allure that the area brings to it. One has to think that with a more open forum, this plague of political extremism can maybe be fixed.
It is quite the task to formulate an opinion on such a layered topic but one can see that whatever has been used in the current paradigm, it has not been effective. The continuing weeks and months ahead will not only unravel this tragedy but it hopefully will not be exploitative to the good people who make up that community. Regulation is key in this situation. Even though it has been said that “the notice should not be taken as the evidence of Uyghur involvement in the incident,” or that “It was close to the Zhongnanhai party headquarters,” and, in terms of timing, it is on the eve of the plenary session of the Chinese Communist Party. They do not want these rumors and speculation, it is imperative that this continues to be discussed so that this will not get lost in the shuffle and that people stay aware to the political threads that tread in society.
