Friday, October 17, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

How did the number of Uyghurs in China rapidly increase in the midst of “genocide”?

The modern China

By hosting members of the so-called World Uyghur Congress, the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina has attempted once again to position itself as the "Mecca" of American foreign policy actions, once again presenting its Muslim image to the U.S. as a cover for pursuing their interests, writes Branko Zujovic in a guest analysis.

Published 8 November 2024
Uyghur separatists protesting outside the White House in Washington DC.
12 minute read

Rarely has anyone offended the Islamic world this year as much as Zumretay Arkin, who signs as the president of the Committee of Women of the so-called World Uyghur Congress. During a recent session of the so-called World Uyghur Congress in Sarajevo, she told local media that Islamic countries do not support her organization’s efforts to separate the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang from China, because these countries have strong economic ties with China.

Caring and generous – NED and CIA

From her statement, it can be concluded that the Islamic world is so weak, immoral and corruptible that because of Chinese loans it agrees to turn a blind eye and remain silent on the alleged violence that China is carrying out against the Uyghurs, while the American National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), who in fact founded and generously finance the so-called World Uyghur Congress, are the only ones who genuinely care about the fate and well-being of that Islamic community in China. The aforementioned intelligence organizations “took care” of the Uyghurs by inciting countless terrorist attacks by Uyghur extremists against citizens, Chinese security forces and Chinese institutions, in which thousands of people died until a few years ago.

The author of these lines is, unfortunately, a witness to the suicide terrorist attack by Uyghur extremists that took place in Beijing in 2013, when, in addition to the three attackers, two visitors were also killed: a Chinese woman and a woman from abroad.

Uyghur girls in Hotan. The photo was taken in the 90s. Photo: Gujiang xie

The World Uyghur Congress was founded two decades ago. According to all relevant international reports, the organization was founded under the patronage and with abundant financial and logistical support of the aforementioned NED, that is, the CIA, as well as other security and intelligence agencies of the United States of America (USA). According to the latest report by the Kinex government, which, of course, closely monitors the work of this organization, NED annually allocates 5 to 6 million dollars for the work of the World Uyghur Congress.

Yesterday terrorists, today “freedom fighters”

The World Uyghur Congress wholeheartedly supported the activities of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which carried out a large number of terrorist attacks in China from approximately 2006 to 2016, i.e. 2017. Similar to what happened earlier with the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, the United States first designated the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a terrorist organization in 2002. Subsequently, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement was simply removed from the U.S. list of terrorist organizations because someone in Washington apparently concluded that this group could be useful.

East Turkestan Islamic Movement fighters.

With a single act of the U.S. administration, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which we can broadly consider to be the terrorist wing of the World Uyghur Congress, was reassigned from the list of terrorists to the list of supposed democratic movements fighting for “freedom.”

The similarity with Serbia and the process of the disintegration of former Yugoslavia does not end with this kind of political-legal manipulation regarding the status of a notorious terrorist organization. Shortly thereafter, Mike Pompeo, the then U.S. Secretary of State, announced that his country was imposing sanctions on China for the alleged genocide against the Uyghurs.

They were burning and slaughtering people

But what was actually happening in China all this time, and how did the U.S., just as in the case of Srebrenica, again use “genocide” as a trump card against another country, in this case China? From around 2006 to 2016, or 2017, China faced terrorist attacks from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and related Islamist groups of Uyghur separatists supported by the U.S., along with the World Uyghur Congress as the political wing of these terrorist groups in exile.

The political aim of this wave of terrorism, which, it should be emphasized and repeated, affected all of China and was clearly orchestrated by the U.S., was crystal clear: to destabilize the entire country under the pretext of separating Xinjiang and establishing a new Turkic “state,” similar in many ways to “Kosovo,” which would be called “East Turkestan.”

Here are a few examples of the violence that people in China were subjected to.

In the summer, specifically on July 5, 2009, Uyghur Islamists sparked a wave of violence in the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi, resulting in the deaths of 197 people and injuring 1,721. People were literally hacked with machetes and knives, beaten, and even burned alive in the streets.

On May 22, 2014, two car bomb explosions in the same city killed 43 people and injured 94.

In addition to the aforementioned suicide attack that occurred at Tiananmen in Beijing, another suicide terrorist attack took place in Kunming, in southwest China, in 2013, resulting in 5 deaths and 38 injuries.

A year later, another serious terrorist crime occurred in Kunming, committed by eight Uyghur terrorists. They literally stabbed people with knives, killing 31 and injuring 141.

3 paradoxes

Initially, Turkey was at least partially interested in the events in Xinjiang, as the Uyghurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims. However, the coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, along with a clearer understanding of the real motives and background of the activities of Uyghur terrorists, as well as the overall development of relations with China, distanced the country from supporting the U.S. and the World Uyghur Congress’s interpretation of the Uyghur issue.

Claiming that Turkey abandoned pro-American “support” for the Uyghurs due to the high interest rates of Chinese loans is not worth mentioning.

The World Uyghur Congress has remained isolated on the international stage, alongside the U.S. and its satellites. This congress needs to explain the first of at least three major paradoxes that accompany and essentially demystify its work: why do only the U.S. and its allies “support” the Muslim Uyghurs, but not Islamic countries?

The explanation by Zumretay Arkin that China bribes the Islamic world with loans does not sound convincing or realistic. Jewish communities around the world and Israel itself also have enough money to buy the favor of Islamic countries outside the Arab sphere in support of the obvious violence against Palestinians. Yet, no non-Arab Islamic country has ever agreed to this kind of geopolitical corruption.

Zumretay Arkin is the president of the Committee of Women of the World Uyghur Congress.

The Mecca of American geopolitical action

Since no significant Islamic country supports the World Uyghur Congress, Sarajevo, the capital of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), has emerged as an ideal location for hosting this essentially pro-American organization. For decades, Sarajevo has tried to position itself as the “Mecca” of American geopolitical action, aligning its Muslim image with U.S. interests as a cover to promote their agenda whenever the opportunity arises, hoping that the U.S. and its allies will one day dismantle the Republika Srpska and undermine the unofficial, but existing, third entity in BiH colloquially known as Herceg-Bosna.

At the end of May and the beginning of June this year, Damon Wilson, the head of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), along with his colleague responsible for BiH, Brian Joseph, visited the capital of the Federation. It is hard to believe that this visit, along with the visit of CIA Director William Burns to Sarajevo shortly afterward, was unrelated to the organization of the World Uyghur Congress’s session in that city.

Given that radical Muslim forces in BiH were similarly used during the breakup of Yugoslavia – removing democratically elected Fikret Abdić and refusing to finalize a pre-war agreement with their Serbian neighbors that was acceptable to all – it was not difficult for them to come to an understanding with their colleagues from the World Uyghur Congress today.

The common denominator of this joint action by the U.S., the World Uyghur Congress, and Sarajevo is “genocide”.

Not a word about Gaza, but tears for the Uyghurs

Representatives of the World Uyghur Congress first visited the massacre site in Potočari, which the U.S. is interested in solely within the context of its geopolitical utility, particularly in exerting pressure on Serbia and Republika Srpska. Outside of this strained assessment of the crimes committed by Serbian forces in Srebrenica, the U.S. and its satellites show as much interest in Srebrenica as they do in the nearby Serbian massacre sites from the same war.

This brings us to the second paradox: Sarajevo has never issued a diplomatic note to Washington regarding the evident support for the even more apparent genocide against Muslims in Gaza, yet it sheds crocodile tears for the nonexistent genocide against Uyghurs in China on behalf of the U.S.

The narrative of American institutions and media about the so-called genocide that China is allegedly continuously committing against the Uyghurs is ‘supported’ by unprovable claims that can only be either believed or disbelieved.

China has, for example, been accused of sterilizing Uyghur women and establishing concentration camps. Evidence for these claims often includes blurry satellite images or media reports that have turned out to be false.

One of the most notorious examples of such manipulation involves a convicted drug dealer named Merdan Ghappar, whose videos and text messages from prison, exchanged with a BBC correspondent, were used in Western media as prime evidence for the existence of concentration camps for Uyghurs.

The comical side of anti-chinese propaganda

The narrative goes that where there are concentration camps, there is also genocide. When the imperative is to prove that a nonexistent genocide has indeed occurred, even footage from a regular prison can come in handy. However, this kind of anti-China propaganda also had its comedic aspects. In January 2021, the New York Times published an article by a certain Amelie Pang titled “It Took Genocide for Me to Remember My Uyghur Roots”. Amelie, as can be read in relevant sources, is one-eighth Uyghur. Although she has never been to Xinjiang or interacted with Uyghurs from China, she has published at least 17 articles about the “genocide” against them, claiming that “Chinese policies of forced assimilation have even reached her.”

The best example, however, was the case of a “genocide victim” revealed by YouTuber Daniel Dumbrill, who pointed out that the aforementioned “victim”, whose case was extensively reported by CNN and BBC, had her passport renewed by Chinese authorities at a time when she claimed to have been in prison. In a clip aired on CNN, the date of this “victim’s” passport renewal was conveniently blurred.

The Chinese government has systematically refuted the blurry satellite images used as supposed prime evidence for the existence of concentration camps in Xinjiang, publishing images from the actual locations. This included sites in the Markit district of Kashgar Prefecture, where basic schools, middle schools, and nursing homes were misrepresented as concentration camps. Many similar examples exist, such as a logistics center in the Bachu district, also in Kashgar Prefecture, which was cited as a concentration camp in Western media reports.

Demographics in the time of genocide

Yet, there is a crucial point in the narrative of Western media regarding Xinjiang and the alleged genocide against Uyghurs: the Uyghur population in the People’s Republic of China.

From 2010 to 2018, the Uyghur population grew by 25 percent. It is simply incredible that, under the conditions of the alleged genocide that, according to claims from American and other Western media, China is continuously perpetrating against the Uyghurs, the Uyghur population in the country has been rapidly increasing.

Over the last 40 years, the number of Uyghurs in Xinjiang has risen from around 5.5 million to over 12 million. It’s important to emphasize another very significant fact: like other ethnic minorities, the Uyghurs were never subject to China’s one-child policy. This policy applied exclusively to Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the country.

While the numbers of nearly all ethnic groups in China have been stagnating or even declining in recent years, the aforementioned fact indisputably refutes the Western media and institutional narrative of “genocide” against the Uyghurs.

Uyghur girls wearing ethnic dress in Hotan, Xinjiang. The photo was taken in the 90s. Photo: Gujiang xie

China’s response

China initially responded to the challenges of terrorism and separatism by crushing terrorist groups on the ground, which were found to be linked to the Islamic State. Another paradox in this story is that the U.S. held 22 Uyghur Islamists at Guantanamo who fought against American forces in Afghanistan, not within the U.S. itself.

In July 2020, the United Nations identified thousands of Uyghur fighters within the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria and Afghanistan. While the U.S. fought against terrorism immediately after the September 11, 2001 attacks, it regarded China as a partner and ally in that struggle. However, when China began defending itself against terrorism shortly afterward, the U.S. supported Uyghur terrorists and separatists as “freedom fighters.”

With the U.S. as the obvious ally of Uyghur separatists, China achieved victory over terrorists on the ground. After this victory, Xinjiang ceased to be a neuralgic point through which Western powers, led by the U.S., attempted to destabilize China (similar attempts have been made in Hong Kong, Tibet, and continue in Taiwan).

China has established temporary educational and vocational centers in Xinjiang, which the pro-Western propaganda machine automatically labeled as concentration camps, but these centers have since been closed. Xinjiang has become an important tourist, agricultural, and commercial hub for China and the “Belt and Road” initiative, with the living standards of its residents rising sharply year by year.

Urumqi is the provincial capital of Xinjiang. Photo: AsianDream

Autumn harvest instead of violence and bloodshed

This brings us to another significant paradox: while discussions were held in Sarajevo at the World Uyghur Congress about the need for Xinjiang to secede from China – an action that inherently generates violence and bloodshed – Xinjiang itself was experiencing a mechanized autumn cotton harvest and the harvesting of fall crops, utilizing the BeiDou satellite system and artificial intelligence to monitor crop conditions and yields.

This situation perhaps most accurately reflects the value difference between the Chinese civilization circle in the 21st century and the civilization circle of the U.S., to which Serbia belongs. In recent years, China has invested hundreds of billions of yuan in Xinjiang. Modern roads and railways have been built, and the state encourages agriculture, private initiative, and market development, while also working to protect the untouched nature of that part of China.

Tens of millions of tourists travel to Xinjiang each year, recording hundreds of millions of overnight stays. This fact does not support the claims of the so-called World Uyghur Congress about Xinjiang being a large concentration camp for the extermination of Uyghurs.

The rapid economic progress of Xinjiang, along with the rising living standards of its inhabitants – where the Uyghur community, by the way, does not constitute an ethnic majority – can be illustrated by the data showing that last year, exports from this Chinese autonomous region to five neighboring Central Asian countries (geographically, Xinjiang belongs to Central Asia) increased by 23.2 percent compared to the previous year. The value of those exports amounted to a staggering 246.57 billion yuan (34.25 billion dollars) for our country, and nearly unreachable for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

All other economic indicators and facts also testify in favor of China’s economic development and the stability of the Chinese state, along with that of Xinjiang itself. These circumstances enjoy the majority support of the population in Xinjiang, which does not want to become prey to geopolitical predators again.

Locals and tourists at the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar. Photo: kitzcorner

What did the so-called world Uyghur congress try to hide in Sarajevo?

Support from Xinjiang itself is precisely what the so-called World Uyghur Congress lacks in order to truly become Uyghur, instead of, in fact, (pro)American. To obscure this fact, the so-called World Uyghur Congress requested hospitality in Sarajevo, which now has its part of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – specifically, the area of Sarajevo – Tuzla – Zenica plus Bihać. Let’s reiterate that this should convince the U.S. that it truly cares, uniquely and sincerely, about the welfare of the Uyghurs located 6,000 kilometers away from Baščaršija, and that this American “concern” is the concern of all Bosniaks in the world, while the same U.S. cannot be directed by Sarajevo to issue even a letter of official protest due to its support for the oppression of Palestinians.

The biggest beneficiary of the Sarajevo episode with the so-called World Uyghur Congress is, you guessed it, the Republic of Srpska.

Banja Luka wisely published an interview with the chargé d’affaires of the Chinese embassy just before the opening of the mentioned congress of Uyghur extremists in Sarajevo, who rightly described the gathering in Sarajevo as anti-Chinese. This circumstance further strengthens the position that the Republic of Srpska, as part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has managed to build in international relations, especially regarding its increasingly intensive cooperation with the People’s Republic of China and its fundamental respect for the one China principle – not just the formally expressed one, which seems uncontested only in Banja Luka.

 

Branko Zujovic

 

The article was originally published on EagleEyeExplore

Quick facts about Xinjiang

Being China’s largest province, Xinjiang spans 1.6 million square kilometers in the country’s northwest. Historically a key Silk Road passage, it connected China with Central Asia and beyond; today, it plays a strategic role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative, with new infrastructure supporting expanded trade routes across Eurasia. The economy of Xinjiang, driven by abundant reserves of oil, gas, and minerals, is also bolstered as China’s top natural gas producer and a leading exporter of cotton.

With a population of about 25 million, Xinjiang’s largest groups include Uyghurs, Han Chinese, Kazakhs, and Hui. Islam is widely practiced among Uyghurs and Hui, while Buddhism and Taoism are common among Han.

Xinjiang is known for its wild horses, which attract tourists eager to experience the region’s unique landscapes and rich natural heritage. Photo: kitzcorner/iStock

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The untold story of terrorism in China

The modern China

  • While the world focused on terrorist attacks in the West, an extensive wave of violence erupted in China's northwestern Xinjiang region.
  • From the early 1990s to the mid-2010s, thousands of terrorist attacks were carried out, killing hundreds of innocent people and transforming an entire region.
  • The Nordic Times has visited the Xinjiang region and uncovered three decades of overlooked terrorism in what has today become one of the world's safest countries.
Updated today 20:31 Published 12 October 2025
– By Editorial Staff
11 minute read

It is just before six o’clock in the evening on February 28, 2012. On Xingfu Road, a pedestrian street with market stalls in the city of Yecheng in southern Xinjiang, it is crowded with people. Shop owners are selling grain, vegetables and fish. Children are on their way home from school. It is an ordinary Tuesday evening in an ordinary Chinese city.

Then the massacre begins.

Nine men, armed with axes and machetes, storm into the street and begin hacking down everyone who comes in their way. Within minutes, fifteen people are killed and sixteen are seriously injured. Among the dead is an auxiliary police officer who tried to stop the men when he discovered they were carrying weapons. Among the injured are a four-year-old boy and his mother, a 60-year-old woman whose jaw was crushed by an ax, and several shop owners who tried to defend themselves.

When I saw what the terrorist was holding, my first thought was, ‘Oh no, he’s going to kill me’, recounts shop owner Wang Tiancheng, who managed to fight back with a wooden chair.

When terrorists come at you, you either fight back or wait and die.

The attack in Yecheng is just one in a long series of terrorist attacks that struck China, and especially the Xinjiang region, for nearly three decades. Between 1990 and 2016, according to official Chinese sources, thousands of terrorist attacks were carried out in the region, where large numbers of innocent people were killed and hundreds of police officers died on duty.

But for many in the Western world, this story is largely unknown.

A region of diversity and conflict

To understand the emergence of terrorism in Xinjiang, one must understand the region’s complex history. Xinjiang, or “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” as its official name is, is an enormous region in northwestern China covering 1.66 million square kilometers – about the size of Alaska, or the combined area of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The region borders eight countries: Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Xinjiang has been home to many different peoples since ancient times. By the end of the 19th century, thirteen ethnic groups had established themselves in the region: Uyghurs, Han, Kazakhs, Mongols, Hui, Kyrgyz, Manchus, Xibe, Tajiks, Daurs, Uzbeks, Tatars and Russians. The Uyghurs constituted the largest group.

The Uyghur people, who today number around ten million, have their roots in the Ouigour people who lived on the Mongolian plateau during the Sui and Tang dynasties in the 6th–10th centuries. Through centuries of migration and ethnic integration, the modern Uyghur identity was formed. During the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, Mongolian blood was added, and the standardized name form “Uyghur” (维吾尔) was not adopted until 1934, with the meaning “to maintain unity among the people.”

Religion has also been diverse in Xinjiang. From shamanistic origins, the region successively transitioned to Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Manichaeism and Nestorianism. Islam was introduced to southern Xinjiang in the late 10th century and spread to the northern part during the 14th century, often through war and coercion. But Islam was neither the original nor the only religion – even today, a significant portion of the population practices other religions or is non-religious.

The Xinjiang region’s location with borders to several Muslim countries with high levels of poverty has made the region particularly vulnerable to the intrusion of religious extremism.

The roots of separatism

Towards the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, colonial powers began spreading theories of “pan-Turkism” and “pan-Islamism” in Central and South Asia. These ideologies would come to lay the foundation for a separatist movement in Xinjiang.

Separatists and religious extremists, both inside and outside China, began claiming that the Uyghurs were the only “true rulers” of Xinjiang, that the region’s cultures were not Chinese cultures, and that Islam was the only religion practiced by the ethnic groups there. They called on all Turkic-speaking and Muslim ethnic groups to unite to create the theocratic state of “East Turkistan.” They denied China’s common history and called for “opposition to all ethnic groups except Turks” and “annihilation of pagans.”

On November 12, 1933, the so-called “Islamic Republic of East Turkistan” was proclaimed by the separatist Mohammad Imin. The experiment collapsed after less than three months due to strong opposition from the population. A new attempt was made on November 12, 1944, when separatists led by Elihan Torae proclaimed yet another “Republic of East Turkistan,” but it too fell apart after about a year.

But the East Turkistan movement did not die. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, separatist forces, with support from anti-China forces internationally, continued to organize and plan divisive and sabotage activities.

Religious extremism as a weapon

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, religious extremism began making deeper inroads into Xinjiang. The religious extremism that emerged had little in common with traditional Islam.

The extremists preached that people should only obey Allah and urged them to resist all state control. Those who did not follow the path of extremism were branded as pagans, traitors and scum. Followers were urged to verbally attack, reject and isolate non-believers, party members, officials and patriotic religious leaders.

They banned all secular culture and preached a life without TV, radio and newspapers. People were not allowed to cry at funerals or laugh at weddings. Singing and dancing were forbidden. Women were forced to wear heavily veiled, long black garments. The concept of “halal” was generalized far beyond food to include medicine, cosmetics and clothing.

“They turned a blind eye to Xinjiang’s diverse and splendid cultures created by all its ethnic groups, and tried to sever the ties between Chinese culture and Xinjiang’s ethnic cultures,” states a Chinese official report. “All this indicates their denial of modern civilization, rejection of human progress, and gross violation of citizens’ human rights.”

Poverty became a breeding ground for extremism. In certain areas of Xinjiang, people had weak understanding of the law, could not speak, read or write standard Chinese, and lacked employable skills. This made them more susceptible to being lured or forced into criminality by terrorist and extremist groups.

The violence escalates

From the 1990s onwards, terrorism intensified dramatically. The East Turkistan forces, both inside and outside China, stepped up their cooperation as terrorism and extremism spread globally, especially after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

In the name of religion and ethnicity, they deceitfully exploited people’s ethnic identity and religious faith to incite religious fanaticism, spread religious extremism, and urge ordinary people to participate in violent and terrorist activities. They brainwashed people with the concept of “jihad” and persuaded them to “die for their faith to enter heaven.” Some of the most susceptible followers lost all self-control and became extremists and terrorists who ruthlessly slaughtered innocent people.

Montage of images from the 1992 bombing in the regional capital Ürümqi. Photo: The Nordic Times

On February 5, 1992, in the middle of the Chinese New Year celebration, a terrorist group planted bombs on two buses in Ürümqi. Three people were killed and 23 injured.

On February 25, 1997, three buses in Ürümqi were blown up by East Turkistan terrorists, killing nine and seriously injuring 68 people.

On February 5–8, 1997, the East Turkistan movement orchestrated riots in Yining. Seven people were killed and 198 injured, 64 of them seriously. More than 30 vehicles were damaged and two houses were burned down.

On August 24, 1993, Senior Mullah Abulizi, imam at the Great Mosque in Yecheng County, was stabbed and seriously injured by two terrorists.

On May 12, 1996, Aronghan Aji, vice chairman of the China Islamic Association and chairman of the Xinjiang Islamic Association, was attacked by four terrorists who stabbed him 21 times on his way to the mosque. He survived but was seriously injured.

On November 6, 1997, Senior Mullah Younusi Sidike, member of the China Islamic Association and imam at the Great Mosque in Baicheng County, was shot dead by a terrorist group on his way to the mosque.

On July 30, 2014, the 74-year-old Senior Mullah Juma Tayier, vice chairman of the Xinjiang Islamic Association and imam at the Id Kah Mosque, was brutally murdered by three terrorists on his way home after morning prayer.

The list could be made much longer. The violence was directed at everyone – ordinary citizens on streets and squares, religious leaders who dared oppose extremism, government officials and police officers.

Massacre on Xingfu Road

The attack in Yecheng on February 28, 2012, became one of the most brutal examples of the blind terrorism that struck Xinjiang. The nine terrorists had divided themselves into three groups with plans to kill an estimated 500 people each. Their original target was the schoolchildren from nearby elementary and middle schools.

But the plan was exposed by auxiliary police officer Turghunjan, 28 years old and a new father to a six-month-old baby. He saw the group gathering at the market and asked them to disperse. When they refused and he discovered that one of them was carrying an ax, he tried to take them to the police station. Then a terrorist gave a signal and hacked him down. Several others fell upon him and stabbed him to death.

Turghunjan’s father, Tursun Talip, who worked at a school, received the news that same evening but did not dare tell his sick wife for several days.

I went back to the scene the next afternoon, there remained some blood on the ground, and I was sitting there, looking at the blood, and crying. All I had in my mind was the scene where my son was hacked to the ground, and I could even hear him cry, “Dad, Dad…”

When the terrorists began their attack, it was total chaos. Wang Tiancheng, the shop owner with the grain and oil store, was standing in front of his shop when he suddenly felt a blow from behind.

After the first hack, two people (the terrorists) turned directly to my front. They were holding an ax in one hand and a machete in another, and their axes were so big, and the hafts were so long. So, they hacked me with their machete right on my head and shoulder.

Wang managed to defend himself with a wooden chair and escaped with wounds to his head and shoulder. The doctor later said that the shoulder bone would have been broken if the machete had gone half a centimeter deeper.

But many others were not so lucky. In the grain shop next door, the shop owner and two employees were killed. An elderly couple shopping there was attacked – the man was killed on the spot and the woman was hacked in the head as she tried to protect her grandchild. She became half-paralyzed after the attack.

They hacked me for no reason. This was so unreasonable. On a personal level, I had no grudge against him. But on a societal level, he was carrying out terrorist activities, says Wang Tiancheng.

Brother Mehmet Tursun lost his brother Ubulqasim in the attack. His brother worked in a grain shop and defended himself with his fists but was hacked to death.

This incident has brought us so much harm that we are still in pain and anger today. It destroyed my sister-in-law’s entire family. My dad was in constant pain and eventually passed away. My younger brother, who was only nine years old when it happened, developed epilepsy from the shock.

Their father could never get over his son’s death. He became ill shortly after the attack and passed away five years later, in 2017, after spending his final years visiting his grandchild’s school every other day – the only moments when he felt some joy.

When the police arrived at the scene, several shop owners were still fighting the terrorists. Brothers Chen Jizhong and Chen Jide from Sichuan Province, who ran fish shops on the street, were among them. With fishing nets, wooden sticks and a steel pipe, they managed to subdue one of the terrorists.

We were scared when we saw the terrorist with a machete in his hands. But then, we realized that things couldn’t go on like this, and we must defend ourselves, recalls Chen Jizhong.

Seven of the terrorists were shot dead by police at the scene. One was injured and died later. One was captured alive, sentenced to death and executed.

Terror in the capital

Xinjiang terrorism was not limited to the region. On October 28, 2013, three terrorists from Xinjiang drove a jeep loaded with 31 barrels of gasoline, 20 lighters, five knives and several iron bars onto the sidewalk east of Tiananmen Square in central Beijing. They accelerated toward tourists and police on duty until they crashed into the barrier at the Golden Water Bridge. They then set fire to the gasoline. Two people, including a foreigner, were killed and over 40 were injured.

Smoke rises from Tiananmen Square in Beijing after the attack on October 28, 2013.

On March 1, 2014, eight knife-wielding terrorists from Xinjiang carried out a massacre at the railway station in Kunming. They attacked passengers in the station square and ticket lobby. 31 people were killed and 141 injured. The attack shocked all of China and received international attention.

The terrorist attack on Kunming railway station in southern China in 2014, where victims were attacked with machetes among other weapons, became a major trauma for the country.

On April 30, 2014, two terrorists hid in the crowd at the exit of Ürümqi railway station. One attacked people with a knife while the other detonated a device in his suitcase. Three people were killed and 79 injured.

On May 22, 2014, five terrorists drove two SUVs through the fence at the morning market on North Park Road in the Saybagh district of Ürümqi, into the crowd, and then detonated a bomb. 39 people were killed and 94 injured.

However, the most extensive violence occurred on July 5, 2009, when East Turkistan forces inside and outside China orchestrated a riot in Ürümqi that shocked the entire world. Thousands of terrorists attacked civilians, government agencies, police, residential buildings, shops and public transport vehicles. 197 people were killed and over 1,700 injured. 331 shops and 1,325 vehicles were smashed and burned down, and many public facilities were damaged.

Images from the attack at Ürümqi railway station in 2014.

Three decades’ trail of terror

Between 1990 and the end of 2016, according to official Chinese sources, a total of thousands of terrorist attacks were carried out in Xinjiang. Large numbers of innocent people were killed, hundreds of police officers died on duty, and the property damage is incalculable.

From 2014, authorities in Xinjiang crushed over 1,500 violent and terrorism-related groups, arrested nearly 13,000 accused terrorists, seized over 2,000 explosive devices, and prosecuted over 30,000 people for what was designated as illegal religious activities. Large quantities of religious material that authorities considered illegal were also confiscated.

For Wang Tiancheng, the shop owner who was attacked with an ax and machete, it took years to process the experience. Photo: ICBG.

It’s been many years since the terrorist attack, but I can still feel the horror whenever I recall it. To be honest, we were scared. But now that the attack had happened, the first thing we should do was to stay calm and be brave and try to fight back. It is the mentality I always uphold. We must not fear terrorism.

For families like Tursun Talip’s, whose son Turghunjan was killed when he tried to stop the terrorists, the pain was immeasurable but also associated with a certain pride, he tells the Institute for Communication and Borderland Governance (ICBG) at Jinan University.

Although our family was heartbroken for my oldest son Turghunjan’s sacrifice, I feel proud of my son from the bottom of my heart. We told my youngest son that his brother saved the lives of many children, and we also hoped that my youngest son to be a police officer and fight against terrorism!

Turghunjan’s younger brother became a police officer in 2014, two years after his brother’s death.

A calm characterizes the bustling crowds today in Kashgar, an ancient city in westernmost Xinjiang with a 2,000-year history as a meeting place along the Silk Road, known for its labyrinthine old quarter steeped in Islamic culture. Photo: The Nordic Times

Police officer Semet, who was among the first on the scene in Yecheng in 2012 and saw his chief shoot two terrorists at close range, has never wanted to quit being a police officer despite the experience.

I grew up dreaming of becoming a police officer. Many of us wanted to be police officers when we were still boys. I love this job. I regard it as a very sacred career.

The nearly three decades of terror have left deep scars in Xinjiang, but also marked the rest of China. Families were torn apart, communities changed, and fear characterized daily life for millions of people.

Since 2016, however, China has largely been free from terrorist acts after the People’s Republic’s extensive measures and counter-terrorism programs. Today, the country is one of the world’s safest countries to be in with very few violent crimes.

How has China succeeded in combating terrorism, restoring order and security, and what is actually true about the situation in Xinjiang and the relationship with the country’s ethnic minorities?

The Nordic Times examines the subject and the international reporting that has surrounded the developments in the next article.

“How educating girls became a cornerstone of China’s progress”

The modern China

Wen Ying writes about the lesson in the transformative power of linking gender equality to national development.

Published 30 September 2025
3 minute read
This is an opinion piece. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.

In the pre-dawn darkness of Yunnan province’s high mountains, a daily ritual unfolds. Ms. Zhang Guimei, a 68-year-old principal, walks the halls of China’s first free high school for girls, waking her students. Though illness has weakened her, her resolve is unwavering. Her mission is singular: to propel young women from the brink of child marriage and poverty into the nation’s top universities.

Her story, which captivated China, is not one of gentle charity but of profound conviction. For over 25 years, she navigated treacherous terrain to build this school, offering a lifeline away from domestic labour and towards knowledge and self-determination. Her work is emblematic of a larger, state-supported revolution: the educational empowerment of women, treated not as a standalone social project but as a core driver of national development.

This modern drive finds its roots in a pivotal historical shift. Around the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, a mass mobilisation encouraged women to join the workforce, encapsulated in the saying that “Women hold up half the sky”. This philosophy was even etched into the language. The traditional character for “woman” (婦) depicted a woman with a broom. Its simplified form (妇), introduced later, symbolically shows a woman overcoming a mountain.

China’s most impactful strategy has been its systemic approach. For decades, the advancement of women has been integrated into the core of national five-year plans, with clear targets for education, health and economic participation. This ensures that national progress systematically benefits women, and their empowerment, in turn, fuels further progress. The lesson is clear: no nation can achieve sustainable development by harnessing only half its talent.

The results are visible in individual lives. Take Wang Fumei, a beneficiary of the state’s “Spring Bud Project” which has supported over 4.36 million girls. Forced to leave school at 15 for an arranged marriage, she fought for her right to return to the classroom and eventually joined the civil service. This two-way street, built on both policy and personal grit, creates a powerful multiplier effect. An educated woman tends to marry later, have healthier children, and is more likely to enter the formal workforce—breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty and creating a more prosperous society.

This belief in the female intellect is universal. Ms. Zhang’s students recite a pledge: “I was born to be a mountain, not a creek.” It echoes the defiance of 17th-century Swedish writer Sophia Elisabet Brenner, who argued for women’s intellectual equality, writing that “the only difference between he and she” lies in the body, not the mind.

As the world struggles to meet UN Sustainable Development Goals on education and gender equality, China’s experience offers a potent blueprint. It demonstrates that transformative change is achievable within a generation when personal courage is met with unwavering institutional commitment.

In 2023, the Spring Bud Project’s work was globally recognised with the UNESCO Prize for Girls’ and Women’s Education. Yet, the truest measure of success lies not in awards, but in the quiet confidence of a girl in a classroom, certain that her future is hers to shape. It is this profound confidence—the ultimate goal of any equitable society—that such programmes aim to nurture.

 

Wen Ying

About the author

Wen Ying is a current affairs commentator who has contributed to EUobserver, San Francisco Examiner, Deccan Herald, etc.

China plans fully AI-controlled economy by 2035

The modern China

Published 26 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
By 2035, AI is planned to have "completely reworked Chinese society" and implemented a new phase of economic and social production.
2 minute read

The Chinese government has presented an ambitious ten-year plan where artificial intelligence will permeate all sectors of society by 2035 and become the “main engine for economic growth”.

China’s State Council has published a comprehensive plan aimed at making the country the world’s first fully AI-driven economy within eleven years. According to the government document presented at the end of August, artificial intelligence will have transformed Chinese society by 2035 and become the foundation for what is described as “a new phase of development in intelligent economy and intelligent society”.

The plan, which spans ten years, encompasses six central societal sectors that will be permeated by AI technology by 2027. These include science and technology, citizen welfare, industrial development, consumer goods, governance, and international relations.

The goal: 90 percent usage by 2030

According to the timeline, AI technology should reach a 90 percent usage rate by 2030 and practically become a new type of infrastructure. At this point, the technology is expected to have developed into a “significant growth engine for China’s economy”.

The strategy resembles the country’s previous “internet plus” initiative, which successfully integrated the internet as a central component in the Chinese economy.

By 2035, AI should according to the plan have “completely reworked Chinese society” and implemented a new phase of economic and social production. This is an ambitious goal with significant consequences, not only for the People’s Republic but for the entire world.

International cooperation in focus

The State Council emphasizes that AI should be treated as an “international public good that benefits humanity”. The plan highlights the importance of developing open source AI, supporting developing countries in building their own technology sectors, and the UN’s role as a leader in AI regulation.

Although China’s AI industry is growing rapidly, as exemplified by the open AI platform DeepSeek’s successes earlier this year, Chinese models still lag several months behind their American counterparts in terms of average performance. This is largely due to restrictions and barriers that Western countries have imposed.

However, the gap is steadily narrowing. At the end of 2023, American AI models performed better than Chinese ones in 13 percent of general reasoning tests. By the same time in 2024, this figure had dropped to 8.1 percent. In certain AI applications, China is already a world leader and has invested heavily in offering its services at low prices and in many cases completely free as open source.

The State Council’s ten-year plan aims to further reduce the lead by strengthening key areas such as fundamental model performance, security measures, data access, and energy management.

Whether Beijing can deliver on its massive goals with the help of sometimes unreliable technology remains to be seen. However, if other nationally coordinated plans are any indication, the country may face a comprehensive transformation.

Putin and Kim Jong-un attend as China displays 100 new weapons systems

The modern China

Published 4 September 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Approximately 12,000 soldiers reportedly participated in the parade, making it one of the largest in modern times.
5 minute read

For the first time in 66 years, the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea gathered in Beijing.

The extensive military parade marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with over 100 new domestically produced weapons systems – including nuclear missiles, hypersonic weapons and unmanned vehicles.

China conducted its second-ever military parade on Wednesday to mark Victory Day – 80 years after the end of World War II. The massive display at Tiananmen Square in Beijing became a demonstration of power where Chinese President Xi Jinping received 26 world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The parade, witnessed by 50,000 spectators and 10,000 participating soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army, Navy and Air Force, marked the first time in 66 years that the leaders of China, Russia and North Korea gathered in Beijing. The last time this occurred was in 1959, during perhaps the most tense period of the Cold War.

Dressed in a gray Mao suit, Xi Jinping spoke from the Gate of Heavenly Peace. He focused on China’s victory over “Japanese aggression” in what he called the “global anti-fascist war”, but chose not to mention the United States by name despite the country’s decisive role in the war’s final stages.

— Humanity is again faced with a choice of peace or war, dialogue or confrontation, and win-win outcomes or zero-sum games, Xi declared and continued:

— The Chinese people will stand firmly on the right side of history and on the side of human progress, adhere to the path of peaceful development, and join hands with the rest of the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity.

Photo: Kremlin/CC BY 4.0

Nuclear arsenal in focus

Al Jazeera correspondent Katrina Yu emphasized the historical significance of the speech from Beijing:

— It really is difficult to understate how much of this is a part of the national psyche, the psyche of the Communist Party that, in the previous 100 years, China was repressed, invaded and humiliated by foreign forces.

Over 100 types of domestically produced weapons rolled along Chang’an Avenue. Particular attention was given to the new nuclear-capable missiles. For the first time, submarine-based JL-3 missiles were also displayed, whose extended range theoretically allows the entire US mainland to be reached from the South China Sea without submarines needing to advance into the Pacific Ocean.

The new intercontinental ballistic missile DF-61 also made its debut. It is estimated to be over 20 meters long with a range exceeding 12,000 kilometers. Additionally, the DF-5C was presented, which may have a range over 20,000 kilometers, carry ten nuclear warheads and reach speeds over Mach 10.

The hypersonic missile YJ-21, called the “carrier killer”, was also presented. The weapon is said to be able to strike aircraft carriers at Mach 10 – ten times the speed of sound – at a distance of 2,000 kilometers.

Trump’s sarcastic reaction

US President Donald Trump reacted to the parade with a sarcastic post on Truth Social:

“The big question to be answered is whether or not President Xi of China will mention the massive amount of support and ‘blood’ that The United States of America gave to China in order to help it to secure its FREEDOM from a very unfriendly foreign invader”, he wrote and continued:

“Many Americans died in China’s quest for Victory and Glory… May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America”.

Photo: screenshot/Trump/Truth Social

The Kremlin later commented on Trump’s statement and briefly explained that “no one even had this in their thoughts”.

New warfare technology presented

During the parade, China showcased its investment in modern warfare technology. Unmanned surface vessels (USV), underwater drones and unmanned aerial vehicles were presented alongside the new LY-1 laser system for shooting down drones and missiles. According to China, the new HQ-29 air defense system can defend against hypersonic missiles – a claim that has yet to be verified.

“For Xi, the point is to reinforce the impression that the People’s Republic of China has arrived as a great power under his leadership. Another is the array of leaders at the parade, which suggests that the PRC cannot be isolated, and is unafraid of pressure and bullying, particularly from the United States”, comments Ian Chong, political scientist at the National University of Singapore.

Above the parade, the air force conducted flyovers with helicopters carrying banners with messages such as “Justice will prevail”, “Peace will prevail” and “The people will win”.

US deploys missile systems

China declared that all of the more than 100 weapon types displayed were domestically produced. Despite the Chinese economy slowing down, the country’s defense spending has increased by more than 7 percent for four consecutive years and now amounts to approximately 4.2 times Japan’s defense budget. The military balance in the region has thus shifted markedly and China is gaining increasingly greater military influence.

Unmanned watercraft on display. Photo: Xinhua

Parallel to this development, the US and Japan are conducting extensive military exercises together. The US Army will for the first time deploy its medium-range missile system Typhon in Japan during the Resolute Dragon 25 exercise taking place September 11-25. Typhon can launch both Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles from land.

In July, the US placed two new weapons systems at its base in Okinawa: the MADIS air defense system and the NMESIS robot system that can combat ships. Both systems will also be used on Ishigaki Island during the Japanese-American exercise and military activities in the region are expected to intensify in coming years.

Modi abstained

Military parades on Victory Day are a relatively new phenomenon under Xi Jinping’s era – the first was held in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary, and this year’s parade was thus only the second of its kind.

Despite friendly meetings with Xi Jinping and Putin during the SCO summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to leave China before the military parade.

According to analysts, this was partly to avoid offending Japan, but also to signal that New Delhi certainly has strategic alternatives to the US but simultaneously remains concerned about maintaining its Western partnerships and cooperation.

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