Wednesday, November 09, 2005

China warns of possible terrorist attacks

The Chinese government has issued a warning that Islamic terrorists may be planning to attack luxury hotels in Beijing in the next week. This is interesting for a few reasons, among them:

1. Bush is scheduled to be in Beijing late next week.
2. China has announced "terrorist threats" in the past as a pretext for stomping on the minority Uighurs, who are Muslim.

So, as is the case with nearly everything that comes out of Beijing, it's hard to know what's really going on here.

This certainly MIGHT be credible, as the Chinese are no friends of Islamic extremists.

However, it could just as easily be made up to a) show the world that the Chinese are on board with the War on Terrorism, and/or b) excuse some additional human rights violations against the Uighurs in Xinjiang.

UPDATE: Huh? Now the Chinese deny having issued the warning in the first place. Beijing is the most confusing place on Earth.

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