The top Chinese official in the frontier Xinjiang region blamed virtual private networks – a technology used to bypass China’s internet censorship – for a spate of recent violence, including the gang knife attacks at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming.
Eight attackers armed with knives stormed the Kunming railway station on Sunday, killing 29 people and wounding dozens in several minutes of violence. Four were shot dead by a paramilitary sharpshooter, and one wounded and captured alive.
The other three attackers were apprehended on Monday in a district close to the border with Vietnam. All appear to be Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking, Muslim people native to Xinjiang.