Chinese Police Kill 18 in Terror Raid
Welcome to anti-terrorism the Chinese way.  In a terror raid in the Muslim-heavy northwestern Xinjiang province, Chinese police stormed an alleged terrorist training camp, killing 18 and arresting 17 suspects, police announced Monday.  The raid took place in the mountains on the Chinese-Pakistan border, at what police believe is, or was, the training camp for the East Turkestan Islamic Movement or ETIM.  As police raided the ETIM camp, the Xinjiang suspects opened fire on the Chinese anti-terror forces.  One Chinese police officer was shot dead.  What did Chinese police find in their raid?  22 grenades.  That doesn't sound like such a big deal to me, but hey, I'm not in the anti-terror business.  This insubstantial amount of terrorist material does, however, become relevant within the context of the longstanding debate of the Xinjiang people.  While the Chinese government has historically labelled this group terrorists, many rights groups and international advocates believe the Xinjiang people are merely victims of a ethnic cleansing campaign on the part of Beijing.  Because the province borders Russia and 5 'Stans, nearly half of the people living in Xinjiang are not of Chinese descent.  They are ethnic Uighur people who speak Turkic, cook some yummy Turkish-style food and look more like members of Borat's village than any Chinese village.  This region was not even part of China until 1949, when Mao's army conquered Xinjiang as payback for a massacre of Communists that claimed Mao's brother.  Since '49, Beijing has been flooding the region with ethnic Chinese to dilute the Uighur majority.  As an AP article Monday points out, "Two years ago, China claimed that Muslim separatist groups and individuals in western China had carried out 260 attacks since 1995, killing 160 people and injuring 440. Diplomats and foreign experts, however, are skeptical and say that many of the bombings and other violence China has linked to the group actually stem from personal disputes."  Many believe that China is mistaking Xinjiang anti-government activity for terrorist activity.  And from where I stand, far away from Xinjiang province, 18 deaths over 22 grenades sounds a bit strange.

•AP: China Raid Kills 18 'Terrorists'
•Wikipedia: History of Xinjiang

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