China Public Security ministry claims to have uncovered ‘major’ terrorist group

China says it has cracked ‘major’ terrorist ring

BEIJING — China said Tuesday that it had uncovered an unspecified “major terrorist organization,” a claim that came just ahead of the anniversary of bloody ethnic rioting in the far western region of Xinjiang.

The Public Security Ministry gave little information in its brief announcement, which also coincided with the launch of a government propaganda campaign to promote patriotism in restive Xinjiang, following moves to strengthen security there.

The announcement posted on the Public Security Ministry’s website said only that police had “cracked a case involving a major terrorist organization.” It said details would be given at a news conference Thursday.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the alleged terrorist group was Xinjiang-based, although Beijing has consistently labeled those opposing Chinese rule over the traditionally Muslim Uighur region as terrorists. In 2008, the government claimed to have cracked a number of Uighur plots to attack the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Beijing has also applied the term to Tibetans who live abroad and whom China accuses of fomenting anti-government riots in 2008 that killed 22 in Tibet’s capital Lhasa. Domestic enemines such as the banned Falun Gong meditation sect have also been described as terrorists.

Long-simmering tensions between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese migrants in Xinjiang turned deadly in the capital Urumqi last July 5, leaving nearly 200 people dead in China’s worst ethnic violence in decades. Beijing accused overseas organizers of plotting the violence.

On Monday, region’s top official, Communist Party boss Zhang Chunxian, rolled out the “Love the great motherland, build a beautiful homeland” patriotic education campaign at a meeting with local officials, a statement on the Xinjiang government’s website said.

The statement said the goal of the campaign is to “establish the ideology that the Han are inseparable from the ethnic minorities, the ethnic minorities are inseparable from the Han and the minorities cannot do without one another.”

Since the riots, the region has been tense. Authorities in recent days have deployed an additional 1,000 police officers in Urumqi cracking down on illegal guns, ammunition, explosives and other dangerous material. The security drive started June 20 and runs until July 15, the state-run Tianshan website said.

Authorities have been accused of alienating the Uighurs, who are ethnically and linguistically distinct from China’s majority Han, with tight restrictions on cultural and religious expression and nonviolent dissent. Many Uighurs complain that they suffer discrimination in jobs and cannot get loans and passports.

China’s leaders say all ethnic groups are treated equally and point to the billions of dollars in investment that has modernized the region. In May, the government announced plans to inject nearly $1.5 billion into the region, starting next year.