Location: The Heritage Foundation's Lehrman Auditorium
Since the beginning of the Olympian month of August 2008,
Chinese security forces in far Western Xinjiang Autonomous Region
have suffered three major attacks, in which 19 police and perhaps
as many as 15 died. On July 21, three civilians were killed
in two separate bus bombings in Yunnan province - an unknown group
called the "Turkestan Islamic Party" later took credit for the
blasts. The Chinese government says the Yunnan bombings had
nothing to do with terrorists, while the Xinjiang attacks were
"terrorist," despite the fact that no group took credit for
them. Moreover, few details of the Xinjiang attacks are
known, except that the attackers used common propane tanks as bombs
and attacked soldiers with "knives." Alas, the Chinese
government has a poor track record for Olympic season honesty, a
fact that has made foreign journalists in Beijing a bit skeptical
of the information they get from Xinhua news agency.
Please, join us as we explore with three prominent specialists
in Xinjiang-Uighur issues the current violence, its roots and
significance.
More About the Speakers
Sean Roberts, Ph.D.
Director of the International Development Studies Program,
George Washington University
Nury A. Turkel
Past President,
Uyghur American Association
James A. Millward, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Georgetown University,
and author of Eurasian Crossroads: A History of
Xinjiang
Ben Venzke
CEO,
IntelCenter
Hosted By
John Tkacik, Jr.
Senior Research Fellow
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