A string of recent bomb explosions targeting government buildings throughout China, including five incidents in Fuzhou of Jiangxi Province and, most recently, one in the northern municipality of Tianjin, continue to stun Chinese officials.
While authorities attempt to block the news and divert attention, the spotlight of public opinion persists in illuminating the incidents.
The latest explosion on June 10, in front of the Tianjin Municipal Government, resulted in two minor injuries. A person with insider information, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sound of Hope Radio that a petitioner had detonated two homemade bombs, and authorities had responded by sending a large contingent of police for crowd control and to prevent the news from getting out.
Liu Changhai, a Tianjin resident, allegedly admitted to having planned and executed the explosion out of a long-standing, smoldering resentment towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Prior to the attack, Liu sent a letter to Secret China, an overseas Chinese media. The letter said in part: “I’ve been sitting and biding my time for 60 years. Now I’ve had enough. At 10 a.m. on June 10, 2011, I will bring my homemade gun and grenade to fulfill my mission of letting the leaders die first, and sound the death knell for the evil CPP at the evil Tianjin Municipal Government.”
On the same day, at around noon, another explosion occurred in southern China’s Hunan Province, at the Zhuhai Police Station in Huangshi Township, razing a four-story building to the ground. The case remains unsolved. Radio Free Asia reported on June 10 that there was no official report of the incident in China.
On the previous day, June 9, an explosion took place before dawn in front of a police station in Zhengzhou City, in central China’s Henan Province. Authorities claimed the blast happened spontaneously from fertilizer being stored at high temperatures. One injury was reported.
A series of five explosions on May 26, executed by Qian Mingqu, a victim of forced demolition in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, received widespread attention throughout China.
In a microblog written prior to the explosions, Qian said his house had been forcibly demolished twice. He described how he had appealed for ten years, leaving him bankrupt, and his family shattered.
Qian said he did not want to die in a state of grief, like his family members, or become a second Qian Yunhui [a village head who had defied land grabbing officials, and was crushed to death by a truck], or like Xu Wu [a petitioner who was forcibly admitted to a mental hospital and mistreated for four years.]
“I wanted to take genuine action to get rid of the bad guys for the people,” Qian said.
Many bloggers posted comments in Internet forums, applauding him.
One blogger said car bomb attacks frequently happen in other parts of the world, though rarely in China. The explosions reveal that social turmoil in China has intensified and reached a critical point.
Commentators and China experts conceded that the Fuzhou explosions are a turning point in how Chinese approach protests.
Independent Internet commentator Zhu Niao called the explosions in Fuzhou a landmark event that is setting a new precedence for the future.
“From the self-immolation incident of demolition victim Tang Fuzhen, a Jiangsu wrecking crew killing a demolition victim and burning the body to get rid of the evidence, to Qian Mingqi’s violent protests today—the long-suffering Chinese people at the bottom rung of society have finally ended their course of non-violent, peaceful protests,” Zhu told The Epoch Times.
Wu Fan, an overseas Chinese political commentator and president of China Interim Government told The Epoch Times, “This is a very obvious sign that people have started to resort to returning violence with violence in retaliation for the regime’s oppression.”
Tian Li, a Chinese writer and human rights activist, told The Epoch Times that while these recent explosions have taken center stage of public opinion in China, Chinese authorities have done everything to suppress public outrage and block information. They have assiduously tried to divert public attention by using their time-tested strategy of instilling patriotism and nationalistic fervor.
Ms. Tang Zhimin, a representative of China Interim Government in Europe elaborated on the diversion tactics used by Chinese authorities.
“Every time a big, defining event occurs in China, something big also just happens to occur outside of China, and the public’s attention will naturally be diverted,” Tang said in an interview with The Epoch Times.
Tang cited the recent conflicts with Vietnam in the South China Sea as an example. “Out of the blue something went wrong in the South China Sea, an area where China has been maintaining ‘common ground’ with neighboring countries. On the surface, the regime appears to be soliciting benefits for China, but in reality, it has other motives,” she said.
In addition to the bomb attacks, large-scale riots, lasting several days, have also flared up since mid-May in different regions across China, from Inner Mongolia to the southern city of Guangzhou.
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While authorities attempt to block the news and divert attention, the spotlight of public opinion persists in illuminating the incidents.
The latest explosion on June 10, in front of the Tianjin Municipal Government, resulted in two minor injuries. A person with insider information, who wished to remain anonymous, told Sound of Hope Radio that a petitioner had detonated two homemade bombs, and authorities had responded by sending a large contingent of police for crowd control and to prevent the news from getting out.
Liu Changhai, a Tianjin resident, allegedly admitted to having planned and executed the explosion out of a long-standing, smoldering resentment towards the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Prior to the attack, Liu sent a letter to Secret China, an overseas Chinese media. The letter said in part: “I’ve been sitting and biding my time for 60 years. Now I’ve had enough. At 10 a.m. on June 10, 2011, I will bring my homemade gun and grenade to fulfill my mission of letting the leaders die first, and sound the death knell for the evil CPP at the evil Tianjin Municipal Government.”
On the same day, at around noon, another explosion occurred in southern China’s Hunan Province, at the Zhuhai Police Station in Huangshi Township, razing a four-story building to the ground. The case remains unsolved. Radio Free Asia reported on June 10 that there was no official report of the incident in China.
On the previous day, June 9, an explosion took place before dawn in front of a police station in Zhengzhou City, in central China’s Henan Province. Authorities claimed the blast happened spontaneously from fertilizer being stored at high temperatures. One injury was reported.
A series of five explosions on May 26, executed by Qian Mingqu, a victim of forced demolition in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province, received widespread attention throughout China.
In a microblog written prior to the explosions, Qian said his house had been forcibly demolished twice. He described how he had appealed for ten years, leaving him bankrupt, and his family shattered.
Qian said he did not want to die in a state of grief, like his family members, or become a second Qian Yunhui [a village head who had defied land grabbing officials, and was crushed to death by a truck], or like Xu Wu [a petitioner who was forcibly admitted to a mental hospital and mistreated for four years.]
“I wanted to take genuine action to get rid of the bad guys for the people,” Qian said.
Many bloggers posted comments in Internet forums, applauding him.
One blogger said car bomb attacks frequently happen in other parts of the world, though rarely in China. The explosions reveal that social turmoil in China has intensified and reached a critical point.
Commentators and China experts conceded that the Fuzhou explosions are a turning point in how Chinese approach protests.
Independent Internet commentator Zhu Niao called the explosions in Fuzhou a landmark event that is setting a new precedence for the future.
“From the self-immolation incident of demolition victim Tang Fuzhen, a Jiangsu wrecking crew killing a demolition victim and burning the body to get rid of the evidence, to Qian Mingqi’s violent protests today—the long-suffering Chinese people at the bottom rung of society have finally ended their course of non-violent, peaceful protests,” Zhu told The Epoch Times.
Wu Fan, an overseas Chinese political commentator and president of China Interim Government told The Epoch Times, “This is a very obvious sign that people have started to resort to returning violence with violence in retaliation for the regime’s oppression.”
Tian Li, a Chinese writer and human rights activist, told The Epoch Times that while these recent explosions have taken center stage of public opinion in China, Chinese authorities have done everything to suppress public outrage and block information. They have assiduously tried to divert public attention by using their time-tested strategy of instilling patriotism and nationalistic fervor.
Ms. Tang Zhimin, a representative of China Interim Government in Europe elaborated on the diversion tactics used by Chinese authorities.
“Every time a big, defining event occurs in China, something big also just happens to occur outside of China, and the public’s attention will naturally be diverted,” Tang said in an interview with The Epoch Times.
Tang cited the recent conflicts with Vietnam in the South China Sea as an example. “Out of the blue something went wrong in the South China Sea, an area where China has been maintaining ‘common ground’ with neighboring countries. On the surface, the regime appears to be soliciting benefits for China, but in reality, it has other motives,” she said.
In addition to the bomb attacks, large-scale riots, lasting several days, have also flared up since mid-May in different regions across China, from Inner Mongolia to the southern city of Guangzhou.
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