Thread,
Yesterday a story from DEBKA, China Moves Forces into Afghanistan (#reply-16467750), claimed large numbers of Chinese Moslem troops were moving into the Little Pamir area of the Afghan-Chinese border with the intention of supporting the Taliban army against the US and the Brits
Naturally the claims in this report caused a stir; but the fact that its source was DEBKA eyebrows and doubts. I suggested,”Personally I think something may be happening with China but I doubt it is what DEBKA is reporting.” I went on to suggest a few possibilities (#reply-16468214).
A little later, Derek posted several excellent references detailing the continuing problems in the, largely Moslem, western provinces of China. (#reply-16469533)
Late last night, I browsed through several Chinese newspapers in an attempt to discover a additional clues as to the source and nature of the DEBKA reports. I found and posted the following items:
Western China: Twin mission for PLA troops
#reply-16469571
Excerpts:
Thousands of People's Liberation Army troops are pouring through the far-western city of Kashgar in Xinjiang towards the Pakistani and Afghan borders as China prepares for possible US military strikes against Afghanistan or terrorist attacks by local separatist Muslims in the run up to National Day.
China has been waging its own long-running war against terrorism, with local Uygur guerillas reportedly having been trained by Afghanistan's Taleban militia to fight Chinese occupation of what is a predominantly Muslim area.
Beijing has recently stepped up efforts to suppress them. Traditionally [Interesting choice of words! -fl], it arrests and often executes criminals, dissay hts and anti-Chinese elements in the run-up to the October 1 celebration.
“The police have been arresting a lot of Uygur revolutionaries in the past two weeks - many have gone to jail - so that is a problem I do not think will go away and may only get worse as National Day nears.”
"The Chinese Government knows this, and that is why you see so many police at the moment."
While the city itself remains relatively calm, China was last night preparing to again close its border with Pakistan, probably indefinitely.
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Xinjiang steps up security amid National Day fears
#reply-16469576
Authorities have stepped up security across Xinjiang to prevent terrorist attacks by Muslim separatists during the National Day holiday.
Troops and paramilitary forces have been deployed to prevent any incident during the week-long holiday, which starts on Monday, following the terrorist attacks in the US.
"Basically Xinjiang has been put on high alert, meaning the troops and police have to cancel their holidays and be on standby from now on," a local source said.
"Usually security is tight during the National Day, but this year the situation is particularly intense because of what happened in the US."
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So why do I bring all this up?
Because not one person today has commented on these actual developments which are directly germane to the charter of this thread.
This situation certainly reinforces the question so appropriately posed by H2SteveO this morning in #reply-16470671 . He said, “By the way, what was the original intent of this thread?”
Original intent indeed.
--fl@ontopic-ness.om |
