China Politics: Explosions Hit City of Xinjiang, Claims 31 Lives and 90 Injured

Although I think China’s seeming provocations with her neighbors in the territorial disputes has partly been in response to the US foreign policy strategy of encirclement, it would seem that most of these has been grounded on the attempt to divert the public’s attention from her imploding economy that has been aggravating the brewing accounts of local unrest.

Today’s blast at the city of Xinjang claimed 31 lives looks like an example.

From Reuters: (bold mine)

A blast in the capital of China's western region of Xinjiang killed 31 people, with around 90 others injured, state broadcaster China Central Television reported on Thursday.

The blast took place when two vehicles rammed into a crowd at a morning market in Urumqi. Explosives were hurled from the vehicles and one of the vehicles exploded.

China's domestic security chief has labeled the incident an act of violent terrorism. China has blamed a string of violent attacks in recent months on militant separatists from Xinjiang.

More on the swelling social strife, from Sydney Morning Herald. (hat tip zero hedge, bold mine)

Unlike most of the rest of China which is predominantly Han Chinese, many parts of Xinjiang -- an expansive region which shares borders with eight countries including Russia, Afghanistan and Pakistan -- remain largely home to the native Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group. According to a 2010 census, Xinjiang's 22 million population comprises of 43 per cent Uighur, 40 per cent Han Chinese, with the rest made up of other minority groups.

But fast-paced development and an associated influx of Han Chinese economic migrants has seen larger cities in Xinjiang, including Urumqi, transform almost unrecognisably, sparking tensions among Uighurs who chafe at government policies they say discriminate against them and restrict their religious freedoms.

Xinjiang has been plagued by ethnic unrest, with China attributing a series of escalating knife and bomb attacks in recent months to separatist Uighur militants from Xinjiang.

Last month an explosion killed three and injured at least 79 at a central train station in Urumqi, in an attack that coincided with the high-profile visit of President Xi Jinping to the region.

On March 1, knife-wielding attackers slashed indiscriminately at passengers at a train station in Kunming, in south-western Yunnan province, killing 29 and wounding more than 130. 

Unfortunately it seems that the Chinese government fails to understand that picking a fight with neighbors will hardly solve domestic social problems caused by discriminatory government policies. In short, "two wrongs don't make a right".