China wages 'people's war' on terrorism

While China saw several successes in 2014, from the progress in the anti-corruption drive to the successful hosting of APEC, the year was also marred by deadly terrorist attacks which claimed the lives of scores and outraged the country.

Time and again, terrorism has taken its toll. To fight such crimes, China has waged a "people's war" on terrorism, using every force in its power to deal a crushing blow to terrorist activities.

STRING OF ATTACKS

A terrorist attack that killed 31 people and injured 141 in March at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province, was among the first attacks this year, changing Chinese people's attitude toward terrorism.

Several claimed the attack was China's "9-11", bringing fear and terror into the lives of ordinary people on vacation, waiting for trains, or haggling with vendors at train stations.

"I never realized terrorists are so close to us," a resident in Kunming wrote on China's microblog Sina Weibo after the tragedy.

After seeing the attack in Kunming, Chinese people have begun to believe it could happen in their own cities, around them or their families, Turwinjan Tursun, associate researcher with the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, said.

Mei Jianming, an anti-terrorism expert at the People's Public Security University of China, said the violence has seeped outside the borders of Xinjiang into other parts of China.

This trend became more obvious after the terrorist attack in Kunming, he said.

Meanwhile, terrorist activities have been on the rise in Xinjiang over the past year. On April 30, three people were killed and 79 injured at a railway station in Urumqi, the region's capital city.

In May 22, an attack on a market, also in Urumqi, left 39 civilians dead and 94 injured. July 28 saw 37 civilians killed and 13 injured in a terrorist attack in Shache County, Kashgar Prefecture. Another attack on September 21, six civilians were killed and 54 injured after a series of explosions were set off in Luntai County.

These attacks, both inside and outside Xinjiang, show nothing but the evil of terrorists who plot against and target civilians.