Public explosions in China
(From The Japan Times July 25 issue)

五輪控えた中国、各地で暴動続発

Explosions on two buses during the morning rush hour July 21 in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in southwest China, killed two people and injured 14 others as Chinese authorities were tightening security ahead of the opening of the Beijing Olympics in less than three weeks. The Kunming public security chief and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman ruled out a link between the blasts and the Olympics.

The immediate task for the Chinese government should be to ensure safety at the Olympic Games. But people's frustration, especially in remote regions, on such matters as the gap between the rich and the poor, official corruption and illegal seizures of land is growing. Just tightening security will not dissolve this frustration, which often explodes in the form of public protests. China faces a difficult task of solving the social contradictions by getting to the root of the problems.

The Kunming bus explosions occurred within a span of about one hour, the first one near the central part of the city and the second one in the suburbs. The two locations were about 3 km apart. Ammonium nitrate is reported to have been used as the explosives. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said there was no evidence to link the blasts with terrorism.

Even if they were not the acts of terrorists, the security situation in remote regions is unstable. On June 28, more than 10,000 people rioted in Weng'an County in Guizhou province over public security authorities' handling of the death of a teenage girl. From July 11 to 13, about 1,000 people in Yuhuan County in Zhejian province attacked a police box over procedures related to residency permits.

On July 17, people from Hunan province attacked a police box in Boluo County in Guangdong province because a motorcycle taxi driver from Hunan was beaten to death in the police box. On July 19, police in Menglian County in Yunnan province killed two people after a clash with rubber farmers involved in a dispute with a local rubber company. The self-purification of officials and transparent administrations are the least that China should push to help ease the social unrest.

北京五輪開幕を控え警備が強化される中、中国・雲南省昆明市で7月21日、バス連続爆破事件が起きた。市の公安局や中国外務省は五輪との関連を否定している。

五輪会場での安全確保が中国政府の急務だが、経済格差や役人による汚職、農地の不法収用などに対する地方の不満が高まっており、警備強化だけでは住民運動は抑えきれない。政府は問題の本質を探り、社会的矛盾を解決するという難題に直面している。

連続爆破事件がテロ行為でないとしても、地方での治安悪化は確かだ。貴州省甕安県で7月28日、死亡した少女への捜査に不正があったとして数万人の群衆が暴動を起こた。社会不安を緩和するために、中国政府は少なくとも役人の自浄努力を求め、行政の透明化を図るべきだ。