Two severe bombing incidents in China over the last two weeks have brought national and international attention to bear on the grievances that drive such extreme measures. Experts and activists say that the incidents reflect a boiling-over of frustration on the part of many Chinese people at what they see as the injustices perpetrated by agents of the Communist Party, and the fact that they have simply lost trust in the system.
They expect the violence to continue, or escalate, if changes don’t come.
Two Incidents
On Nov. 6, eight bombs exploded within an hour next to the provincial Party building in central China’s Taiyuan City of Shanxi Province. The bombing killed one and injured eight. Police found exploded circuit boards, steel balls, and long steel nails among the debris, Chinese official reports say.
Another attack took place a week and a half ago, when a jeep exploded in flames on Tiananmen Square. Two pedestrians were struck and killed by the vehicle, while three inside it died; 38 were injured. Central propaganda authorities quickly called the incident a “premeditated, organized terrorist attack” conducted by separatists from Xinjiang, a province heavily populated by Uyghur muslims.
International media questioned whether the incident was terrorism carried out with a specific ideological, religious, or political purpose, or whether it was an aggrieved individual lashing out. CNN called its article “Tiananmen crash: Terrorism or cry of desperation?” It focused on reports that the Communist Party has been “repressing Uyghurs’ political voices,” and “greatly curtailing Uyghur religious practices.”
Grievances
China experts and rights activists say that the violent outbursts reflect anger toward the regime on the part of an increasing number of Chinese people.
“These people used such extreme ways of protest because every one of them have their own grievances,” said Yang Jianli, a longtime democracy advocate and the founder of Initiatives for China, a civil rights organization.
Protesters, he said, are driven by what they perceive as the injustice perpetrated against them personally, and also the behavior of the Chinese regime in general.
“The Chinese government plunders people financially and suppresses them politically. If you want redress from the government, it’s really difficult.” He said that no one would want to resort to violence, but “when people cannot resolve their grievances through legal procedures, they become disappointed, and look for extreme ways to protest.”
Land grabs, he said, are one of the major means by which ordinary people can be radicalized: local officials collude with real estate developers to demolish houses and seize land, then build apartment buildings. “The State Council of China has a document saying that courts in China don’t accept house demolition cases,” Yang said.
With no channels for solving their problems, “people self-immolate, and some take revenge on society.”
A History
The recent bombings may have been intended to coincide with the major political meeting that the Communist Party will hold in Beijing this weekend. But there is a history of such incidents.
Ji Zhongxing, a man beaten to paralysis by police, exploded a homemade bomb at the Beijing airport earlier this year in protest, after years of failing to obtain justice at the lower level.
In September, a petitioner in Shandong Province exploded a bomb in the courtyard of a local government building, after attempting to get compensation for a work injury he received a decade previously.
Most recently, a disgruntled man in Ningbo, a coastal city, commandeered a bulldozer and used it to turn over and otherwise smash-up over 10 cars belonging to local Party officials. Photos posted to the Internet show ruined and overturned vehicles outside an opulent mansion belonging to the local government. Police later arrested him. His complaints against the authorities are not yet known.
