Newsletter No. 1103
News-Analysis
August 6, 2008

 

JAPAN AND “TERRORISM” IN XINJIANG

On the 4th two young Uighur men in Kashgar drove a dump truck into a group of jogging Chinese paramilitary policemen and then hurled explosives at others. Before the two Uighurs were captured, they had killed sixteen policemen and injured another sixteen. Chinese authorities then began a crackdown in which two Japanese journalists were detained and beaten by local police. Masami Kawakita, a photographer for the Chunichi Shinbun, and Shinji Katsuta, a Beijing-based reporter for Nippon Television Network Corporation, were knocked down, kicked, trampled, and hit in the face by officers at a police facility. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference on the 5th: “We strongly protest China’s actions.” Chinese government authorities quickly apologized. The Yomiuri Shinbun reports today that no one in Kashgar even wants to talk about what happened because the authorities’ “eyes and ears” were all around.

Those are the facts which are being reported by the international media right now. In a few days, no doubt, the story will be forgotten in most newsrooms, and in a month or two no one will even remember the event -- except for the Chinese authorities and the families of those who are directly concerned.

Further Reflection on “Terrorism”

The Japanese media is widely describing the original attack by the two Uighur men as being an act of “terrorism.” My understanding of that term is deadly violence aimed at civilian targets for some kind of political purpose. Are Chinese paramilitary police what we mean by the term “civilians”? I understand that the US State Department would answer a clear “Yes.” Their current definition of “civilian” includes even on-duty soldiers who are not expecting an attack. This is why the 2000 attack by Al-Qaida on the USS Cole in Yemen is described as being an act of “terrorism.”

There are plenty of political and emotional reasons for all of this, but isn’t the real effect to essentially criminalize all guerilla warfare? The same kind of tactics used by American patriots fighting King George III’s redcoats is being described today as “terrorism.” And according to the statement issued by the G-8 at their recent summit in Lake Toya, nothing can justify “terrorism” -- not even “oppression.”

Consider the ramifications: According to the G-8 and this expanded definition of terrorism, Chinese police and military officers could smash into people’s houses, destroy their furniture, rape their women, beat and humiliate their men, and continue this process each and every day. However, the first time someone decided to take up arms to liberate themselves, their families, or their people from this daily oppression, they would instantly become outlaw “terrorists” against which all civilized people around the world must oppose.

I am not saying that the Chinese police are actually doing these kinds of things in Xinjiang. The point I am trying to make actually has nothing to do with China. I am just trying to demonstrate the logical flaws which make the US State Department and G-8 versions of antiterrorism unacceptable. Wittingly or not, their current definitions of terrorism are essentially a license for governments to oppress.

How far Americans in particular have drifted in their political ideology in a couple of centuries! Consider these words from the man who was US president exactly two centuries ago:

God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13 states independent 11 years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & a half without a rebellion? What country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure.

Thomas Jefferson
November 1787
Author of the US Declaration of Independence, 1776
US President, 1801-1809

Is there any doubt that, by the current standards, Thomas Jefferson was in fact an apologist for “terrorism”?