Deadly Attacks in Xinjiang Go Unreported in China

Had these incidents taken place in the United States or Europe, they would have dominated the news for days, if not weeks, and prompted extensive nationwide discussions about how, and why, they happened. Had they occurred in Iraq, or Pakistan, or Syria, they might have been regarded — sadly — as routine.

But these events, all reported by Radio Free Asia, took place in China, and the country’s news outlets, controlled by the ruling Communist Party, have yet to acknowledge they even took place.

All three occurred in Xinjiang, the region in China’s far west where Beijing is waging a wide-ranging crackdown on the Uighur ethnic minority after an upsurge in violence. Some Uighurs, a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking group who make up more than 40 percent of Xinjiang’s 22 million people, want to break away from China and set up an independent East Turkestan. And some are increasingly attracted to the radical jihadists in the Middle East and are adopting some of their tactics.

China’s news outlets, controlled by the Communist Party, have not acknowledged recent bloodshed in the restive region, including a knife and gun battle in which 17 people died, according to Radio Free Asia.Read more…

More than five million Chinese were estimated to have traveled abroad over the Lunar New Year holiday that ended on Wednesday, a 10 percent increase over the year before and the first time Chinese tourists bound for foreign lands outnumbered those vacationing domestically.Read more…

The police and officials in Shandong Province have resolved a case where a terrified young Siberian tiger jumped from the roof of an office building during Lunar New Year festivities.Read more…

The New York Times