The world's biggest tea museum was recently built in Zhangpu county of Fujian province, east China.
Located in Pantuo township in Zhangpu, the museum covers 5.3 hectares with a floor space of 8,000 square meters, featuring a major exhibition hall, a Japanese tea ceremony hall, a painting and calligraphy hall and other tea-related structures.
Exhibits at the museum reflect the history of tea culture in thousands of years in China and other parts of the world.
The museum also offers demonstrations of the art of making and serving tea, and will give classes in the traditional tea ceremony.
(People's Daily January 13, 2002)
5. Establishing Secret Training Bases and Raising Money to Buy and Manufacture Arms and Ammunition
In order to train hardcore members and enlarge their organization, the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces secretly established training bases in Xinjiang, mainly in remote parts of the region. In 1990, the "Shock Brigade of the Islamic Reformist Party" established a base to train terrorists in the remote Basheriq Township, Yecheng County. Three training classes were run there, with more than 60 terrorists having been trained, mainly in the theory of religious extremism and terrorism, explosion, assassination and other terrorist skills, and physical strength. Most of the trainees later participated in the major terrorist activities, such as explosions, assassinations and robberies, from 1991 to 1993 in various parts of Xinjiang.
In February 1998, Hasan Mahsum, ringleader of the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" abroad, sent scores of terrorists into China. They established about a dozen training bases in Xinjiang and inland regions and trained more than 150 terrorists in 15 training classes. In addition, they set up large numbers of training stations in scattered areas, each of them composed of three to five members, and some of them being also workshops for making weapons, ammunition and explosive devices. The Xinjiang police uncovered many of these underground training stations and workshops, and confiscated large numbers of antitank grenades, hand-grenades, detonators, guns and ammunition.
On December 30, 1999, the police discovered an underground hideout in Poskam Township, Zepu County. In this hideout, which was 3 meters from the ground and measured 3 meters long, 2 meters wide and 1.7 meters high, they found tools for making explosive devices, such as electric drills and electric welding machines, as well as blueprints and antitank grenades.
On February 25, 2000, the police arrested seven terrorists in the No. 3 Village, Kachung Township, Shache County, and discovered a tunnel leading to an underground bunker beneath the house of one of them, which was equipped with ventilation devices and water supply and sewage systems. The tunnel was 7 meters long and 2.5 meters high and the bunker was 12 meters long, 3.8 meters wide and 2 meters high. The police seized 38 antitank grenades, 22 electric detonators, 18 explosive devices, 17 kilograms of explosive charges and more than 20 fuses from the bunker.
In August 2001, police discovered a four-meter-deep tunnel under the house of a terrorist in Seriqsoghet Village, Uzun Township, Kuqa County, and confiscated 61 explosive devices from the tunnel, which also contained various kinds of equipment for making arms and ammunition.
6. Plotting and Organizing Disturbances and Riots, and Creating an Atmosphere of Terror
In order to create an atmosphere of tension and fear, and extend its political influence, the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces plotted and organized riots and disturbances many times, by engaging in terrorist acts of beating, smashing, looting, arson and murder, which seriously endangered social stability, people’s lives and property.
On April 5, 1990, a group of terrorists, aided and abetted by the "East Turkistan Islamic Party," created a grave terrorist incident in Barin Township, Akto County, Xinjiang. They brazenly preached a "holy war," the "elimination of pagans" and the setting up of an "East Turkistan Republic." The terrorists tried to put pressure on the government by taking ten persons hostage, demolished two cars at a traffic junction and killed six policemen. They shot at the besieged government functionaries with submachine guns and pistols, and threw explosives and hand-grenades at them.
From February 5 to 8, 1997, the "East Turkistan Islamic Party of Allah" and some other terrorist organizations perpetrated the Yining Incident, a serious riot during which the terrorists shouted slogans calling for the establishment of an "Islamic Kingdom." They attacked innocent people, destroyed stores and burned and otherwise damaged cars and buses. During this incident seven innocent people were killed, more than 200 people were injured, more than 30 vehicles were damaged and two private houses were burned down. The terrorists attacked a young couple on their way home, knifing the wife to death after disfiguring her and severely injuring the husband. A staff member of a township cultural station was stabbed to death and then thrown into a fire.
Besides engaging in terrorist violence within China’s borders, the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces have also been involved in violent incidents beyond the borders.
In March 1997, "East Turkistan" terrorists opened fire at the Chinese embassy in Turkey, and attacked the Chinese consulate-general in Istanbul, burning the Chinese national flag flying there.
On March 5, 1998, they launched a bomb attack against the Chinese consulate-general in Istanbul.
In March 2000, Nighmet Bosakof, president of the Kyrgyzstan "Uygur Youth Alliance," was shot dead in front of his house by members of a terrorist organization named the "East Turkistan Liberation Organization" because he had refused to cooperate with them.
In May 2000, members of the "Uygur Liberation Organization" beyond the boundaries extorted US$100,000 as ransom after kidnapping a Xinjiang businessman, murdered his nephew, and set the Bishkek Market of Chinese Commodities on fire. On May 25, 2000, terrorists attacked the work team of the Xinjiang People’s Government which went to Kyrgyzstan to deal with the above case, causing one death and two injuries. The culprits then fled to Kazakhstan, killing two Kazakhstan policemen who were searching for them in Alma-Ata in September the same year.
The ironclad details of these bloody facts are irrefutable proof of the nature of the "East Turkistan" forces as a terrorist organization that does not flinch from taking violent measures to kill the innocent and harm society so as to achieve the goal of splitting the motherland.
III
There is plenty of evidence to show that most of the terrorist and other violent incidents which have occurred in Xinjiang were directly plotted and engineered by the "East Turkistan" organization beyond China’s borders, with the collusion of a handful of people within the borders.
The 15 cases of arson caused by chemical comburents in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, in May 1998 were plotted and carried out by members of the "East Turkistan Liberation Organization" from beyond China’s borders who had slipped into Xinjiang.
In February 1998, dozens of members of the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" who had received special training in Afghanistan sneaked into Xinjiang and inland provinces and cities, and established 15 secret cells to offer technical training in explosives to 150 terrorists from various regions. They purchased a large amount of chemical raw materials to secretly produce explosives and other devices, according to the formula supplied by the terrorist organization beyond China’s borders. In September 1998, in one search operation alone the Xinjiang police seized more than 300 trunks of over 20 varieties of chemical raw materials, totaling six tons, for producing explosives in the warehouse of the Urumqi North Railway Station.
In 1998, a gang led by Hogaxim Qasim from Hotan County and Muhammatjan Huxir from Bole City, both in Xinjiang, went to Afghanistan to join the "Islamic Holy Warriors," an "East Turkistan" terrorist organization, and received special training in shooting, demolition and assassination. In December the same year, they were secretly sent back to Xinjiang to establish organizations, recruit members, raise funds, collect arms and ammunition, and organize terrorist and other violent activities.
Organized and plotted by terrorists dispatched by the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" outside China in 1999, terrorists in Hotan established an underground organization, which set up dozens of secret cells in seven counties and cities of the Hotan area for terrorist training and production of explosives and other arms and ammunition. The antitank grenades seized from them by the police alone totaled over 4,500, along with 98 guns of various types and tools for producing guns and explosives.
The "East Turkistan" terrorists also smuggled arms into China with the collusion of people both within and beyond the country’s borders to arm fellow terrorists in China. On April 6, 1998, the Chinese customs and frontier checkpost at the Qorghas land port discovered six pistols, one folding submachinegun, over 19,000 bullets and more than 90 antitank grenades in a sheep wool container. The culprits confessed that they had acted under the orders of the "East Turkistan International Committee" and the "East Turkistan Liberation Organization" outside China, and had smuggled arms and ammunition into China 17 times.
The "East Turkistan" terrorists are closely connected with international terrorist forces.
The "East Turkistan" terrorist organization based in South Asia has the unstinting support of Osama bin Laden, and is an important part of his terrorist forces. The "East Turkistan Islamic Movement" headed by Hasan Mahsum is supported and directed by bin Laden. Since the formation of the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement," bin Laden has schemed with the heads of the Central and West Asian terrorist organizations many times to help the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces in Xinjiang launch a "holy war," with the aim of setting up a theocratic "Islam state" in Xinjiang.
The terrorist forces led by bin Laden have given much financial and material aid to the "East Turkistan" terrorists. In early 1999, bin Laden met with the ringleader of the "East Turkistan Islamic Movement," asking him to "coordinate every move with the ‘Uzbekistan Islamic Liberation Movement’ and the Taliban," while promising financial aid. In February 2001, the bin Laden terrorists and Taliban leaders met at Kandahar to discuss the training of "East Turkistan" terrorists. They decided to allocate a fabulous sum of money for training the "East Turkistan" terrorists and promised to bear the funds for their operations in 2001. Moreover, the bin Laden terrorists, the Taliban and the "Uzbekistan Islamic Liberation Movement" have offered a great deal of arms and ammunition, means of transportation and telecommunication equipment to the "East Turkistan" terrorists.
Bin Laden’s group has also directly trained personnel for the "East Turkistan" forces. Hasan Mahsum chose some criminals, religious extremists and national separatists both from home and abroad for training at bin Laden’s terrorists training camps in Afghanistan, at Kandahar, Mazari Sharif, and other places. After the training, some of the key "East Turkistan" members were secretly sent back to China to set up terrorist organizations, and planned and carried out terrorist activities; some joined the Taliban armed forces in Afghanistan, some joined the Chechen terrorists in Russia and some took part in terrorist activities in Central Asia. In August 1999, "East Turkistan" terrorists bore a part in kidnapping four Japanese scientists and senior local officers of the Kyrgyzstan Ministry of Internal Affairs in south Kyrgyzstan, and held them hostage, and in August 2000, they took part in the invasion of Uzbekistan and the mountain area of south Kyrgyzstan, attacking local government forces of the two countries.
Most of the explosions, assassinations and other terrorist incidents that have taken place in Xinjiang in recent years are related to these organizations. So far, the Chinese police have arrested over 100 terrorists who had sneaked into Xinjiang after being trained in terrorist training bases in Afghanistan and other countries. The police of some other nations have also extradited or transferred to China a dozen or so "East Turkistan" terrorists they captured.
As the appeal for international cooperation in curbing terrorism is becoming increasingly stronger following the "September 11" terrorist attacks in the United States, the "East Turkistan" forces that bear evident marks of terrorism have found themselves in an extremely embarrassing situation. While they are distressed by the destruction of the bin Laden terrorist forces and Taliban terrorist training bases by US missiles, they cannot but "take the initiative" to express their support for the US military retaliation, attempting to distance themselves from the bin Laden terrorist forces. To erase their terrorist marks and conceal their label as a terrorist organization, they have demanded that their members not publish radical remarks for the time being, in order to avoid being linked with terrorist organizations by the countries in which they are located. The terrorist organizations in South Asia lost no time in conducting a secret strategic shift, evacuating their members in Afghanistan to the surrounding South and Central Asian and Middle East regions to preserve and accumulate their strength. Meanwhile, the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces have employed the tactic of mounting attacks as a means of defense. Once again, under the banner of protecting "human rights," "religious freedom" and "the interests of ethnic minorities," they claim that the Chinese government "has taken the opportunity to crack down on ethnic minorities," in an attempt to mislead the public and deceive international opinion, and thus dodge the international crackdown on terrorism.
IV
To achieve their aim of splitting China, in recent years the handful of the "East Turkistan" terrorists within and outside the territory of China have carried out a series of sabotage activities by means of terrorism and violence. It is only natural that this has been firmly opposed by people of all ethnic groups in China, including the Uygur people in Xinjiang. In order to protect the lives and property and common interests of the people of various ethnic groups, maintain the stability of China’s Xinjiang and the surrounding regions, safeguard national unity, social stability and the smooth progress of the modernization drive, the Chinese government has resolutely cracked down on the violent activities of the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces in accordance with the law. However, the Chinese government targets only a few core members and criminals who have schemed, directed and participated in violent terrorist incidents. Toward the majority of the people involved, who have been hoodwinked into bearing a part in some of the activities of the "East Turkistan" terrorist organization, the Chinese government adopts the attitude of educating and helping them, and welcomes them back to the true path. The ethnic groups in Xinjiang have always had the glorious tradition of loving and safeguarding national unity, and Islam is a peace-loving religion. The Chinese government’s crackdown on the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces is not directed at any particular ethnic group or any particular religion, but at criminal activities of violence and terrorism, in order to better protect the common interests of the country’s various ethnic groups and safeguard normal religious activities. All the people in the country, including the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, have given wholehearted support to the Chinese government’s policies. Over the past few years, the situation in Xinjiang has been stable, and the people’s peaceful living and working environments have been effectively safeguarded. The people there have been living and working in peace and contentment.
After the September 11 incident, terrorist activities have become discredited worldwide and the "East Turkistan" terrorists in Xinjiang have gone underground temporarily. The situation in Xinjiang is stable, and the people there live and work as usual. The Chinese government has not taken advantage of any opportunity to institute "suppression," nor does it deem it necessary to do so. It is obvious that the “East Turkistan” terrorist organizations are brazenly peddling rumors out of ulterior motives.
China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region exercises regional ethnic autonomy, and carries out the policies of ethnic equality and freedom of religion. It fully respects and protects the various rights of ethnic minorities and the citizen’s freedom of religious belief. With the wholehearted support of the people all over the country and the common endeavors of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, the various undertakings in Xinjiang have advanced by leaps and bounds. The people of different ethnic groups, the various religions, and religious believers and non-believers respect each other and treat each other equally, co-exist in peace and harmony, and pursue common development. The region presents a scene of prosperity. Although there are still a handful of "East Turkistan" terrorists both at home and abroad, it is impossible for them to fundamentally affect Xinjiang’s excellent situation, in which the society is stable, the people of all ethnic groups are united, the various undertakings are making progress and people’s lives are constantly improving.
The Chinese government opposes terrorism in any form; at the same time it opposes the application of double standards concerning the anti-terrorism issue. Any tolerance or indulgence toward the “East Turkistan” terrorist forces will not harm China and the Chinese people alone. Today, as the international community becomes more clearly and deeply aware of the harm brought about by terrorism, we hope that all peace-loving people throughout the world, regardless of ethnic status or religious belief, region or country, political or social system, will fully recognize the nature of the "East Turkistan" terrorist forces and the serious harm caused by them, see through all their disguises, and jointly crack down on their terrorist activities, leaving not a single opportunity for them to exploit to their advantage.
(Source: Information Office of State Council)
(china.org.cn January 21, 2002)
