A Chinese woman has been deported from the US after pleading guilty to stabbing a person at a Miami art show that she had thought was a member of ISIS.

Zhao Siyuan, 24 (seen above), admitted to attacking Shin Seo Young at the Art Basel exhibition on December 4 last year. Zhao had been following Young around the show before she used an X-Acto knife to stab her in the neck and shoulder, causing non-life threatening wounds. While Young was bleeding on the gallery floor (seen below), the attack was misconstrued by some patrons as “performance art”.

Zhao was heard saying as she was arrested by police “I had to kill her and two more,” and “I had to watch her bleed.”

Zhao’s psychiatrist told the court that his client suffers from a mental illness and hears voices in her head.

“She felt that ISIS was going to be at Art Basel to destroy the art,” Dr. Ilan Melnick testified. “So she, when walking around, felt that (Young) was an ISIS agent at the time.”

As part of her plea deal, Zhao was deported back to China on April 14 and will never be allowed to return to the USA. Zhao served no jail time for her crime.

Zhao’s violent behavior continued during treatment, said Dr. Melnick. Zhao had attempted to kill someone and had vandalized a doctor’s car while under his care.

Zhao’s lawyers said her health has improved greatly with therapy and medication, adding she has begun to feel remorse for her actions.

“Her family has paid for her treatment, and will continue to pay for her treatment,” said defense attorney Howard Srebnick. “She will not pose a danger to anyone in the United States because she will be living in China with no hope of returning.”

At the time of the attack, Zhao was living in an apartment located on the Upper East Side in Manhattan with plans to attend graduate school. Before that, Zhao had graduated from a five-year architecture program at the University of Oregon.

The post Chinese Woman Deported From US After Attacking a Person She Thought Belonged to ISIS appeared first on The Nanfang.

Zhang made the comments during the annual “two sessions”, claiming religious management and ethnic unity in Xinjiang had undergone “heartening changes” and that the public and officials were in “good spirits”.

“In the last year of economic development, religious administration, ethnic unity and other aspects of society have experienced positive and pleasant developments,” said Zhang. “In general terms, maintaining the stability has not been an exception. Stability has improved. Violent terrorist incidents have dropped significantly. Our ability to prevent, combat, and deal with them has continued to increase.”

Zhang however made it clear that Beijing has no intention of loosening control over the region: “Wherever the terrorist mentality and extremist behavior exists, we will maintain (our policy) of striking hard,” he said.

In the Agencies and CRI reports of Zhang’s statement, no details or statistics were released to verify his claim of a decrease in terrorism.

Meanwhile, The Nanfang coverage of Xinjiang stories over the past year has included an AIDS epidemic said to be “more dangerous” than regional terrorism, a violent incident at a Xinjiang coal mine in which some 40 people were injured, and the banning of burqas in public places. And just before that, Xinjiang had experienced a crackdown on religious leaders as well as instituting a Muslim dress ban along with a Muslim public bus ban.

The post China Says Terrorism Reduced in Xinjiang, But Offers No Statistics appeared first on The Nanfang.

Xinhua reported Tuesday that there were 38,283 HIV carriers and AIDS patients living in Xinjiang by the end of October, comprising 13 percent of the 497,000 people living with AIDS/HIV throughout China as recorded at the end of last year. By comparison, the 22 million residents of Xinjiang (according to a 2010 census) comprise less than two percent of China’s total population.

The Xinhua report said that a billion yuan ($156 million) has been allocated by national and local governments to improve HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment in Xinjiang, noting that the frontier area is located in the “Golden Crescent” which is, along with Afghanistan and Pakistan, notorious for the trade of illicit drugs.

But drugs may not be the problem. Even though needle-sharing was blamed for the previous waves of HIV infection, intravenous drug use only accounted for 28 percent of Xinjiang HIV infections this past year.

There have been 110,000 HIV/AIDS cases reported so far this year in China, with sexual transmission between men accounting for the majority of HIV infections at 25 percent of total cases, while university students have seen the greatest increases. However, in Xinjiang the HIV situation is very different with HIV activists and health care providers saying that ignorance of the disease is proving to be as dangerous as HIV itself.

Whistleblower Feruk Pidakar, a former senior government official at the Office for AIDS Control and Prevention, said the influx of HIV/AIDS is due to prostitutes who first migrated to Xinjiang in 2009 and began to infect young Uighur men. Brothels of predominantly Han Chinese prostitutes flourished under government support that have also turned a blind eye towards policing them. Pidakar said:

To a large extent, the local authorities are focusing their main work on maintaining ‘stability’ and fighting the ‘war on terror,’ and refuse to do any kind of HIV/AIDS education or prevention work.

Pidakar emphasized his point by saying the strict government regulations imposed on Muslim religious activities as a way to maintain ‘social stability’ is in stark contrast to the free reign given to the red light districts that operate without any government intervention.

Local Uyghurs now account for 80 percent of HIV/AIDS sufferers in Xinjiang, which had the fifth highest number of cases among China’s regions and provinces, according to the Office for HV/AIDS Control and Prevention. But despite the growing threat of HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang, activists hoping to make changes at the grassroots level have encountered stiff resistance from the government.

In 2014, AIDS activist Akbar Imin was arrested and charged with endangering national security. Called “one of Western China’s foremost HIV/AIDS advocates”, there has been no new details revealed about Imin’s situation as of this past August. It’s with this kind of recriminations that forced Pidakar use a pseudonym even after having left China with his family.

Without any kind of advocacy, any type of change seems unlikely.

Uyghur sociologist Memetjan Sadir told Radio Free Asia: “Educated Uyghur citizens and government employees know that the immigrant Han sex workers are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, but nobody dares to complain about them. If they speak openly, they know very well that they will be accused of the crime of ethnic separatism or religious extremism.

The post Terror Takes a Backseat to the Threat of HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang appeared first on The Nanfang.

The Nanfang reported on the negative reaction previously, but now we have some actual statistics. Guhe Media and Weibo Database released a study that offers a breakdown of user activity in China in regards to the Paris terror attacks on the micro-blogging service Weibo.

Out of all the users in China concerned with the November 13 Paris terror attacks (by posting and writing comments), almost half (48 percent) came from Beijing (seen on the pie chart above, to the right). Other provinces were not well represented with Guangdong coming in at ten percent, Sichuan at eight, and only five percent out of all the Weibo users concerned about the Paris terror attacks in China came from Shanghai.

The statistical breakdown continued by saying male Weibo users were far more interested in the Paris attacks than their female counterparts by a 4:1 ratio (78 percent, and 22 percent, respectively).

The study differentiated between posts that used “positive” and “negative” terms. Positive terms including “cooperation”, “hope”, “gold”, and “cute”, while negative terms included “terrorism”, “threat”, and “dead”.

Another telling detail was that among those with the most fans, no Chinese entertainment celebrity commented on the attacks. Instead, the most popular accounts to get involved in the discussion included several Weibo humor accounts like “Piggie likes to make sarcastic remarks”, and social commentators like management studies phD Chen Li.

And, as the study showed, Chinese have been talking about terrorist group ISIS for awhile now, most noticeably last February in the aftermath of the horrific executions of two Japanese hostages. Strangely, the study does not show any online reaction to the September news that a Chinese national was being held hostage and ransomed by ISIS.

50 year-old Fan Jinghui was reported to have been executed earlier this week, an act that drew strong condemnation from China’s Foreign Ministry and President Xi Jinping.

The post Measuring China’s Online Reaction to the Paris Terror Attacks appeared first on The Nanfang.

Eyewitnesses and the Malian security bureau have said two armed men arrived at the hotel in a diplomatic vehicle, and then took control after firing their guns for several minutes. At least three people, two Mali citizens and a French national, are suspected to have died from the initial attack.

Citing a guest surnamed Chen, Xinhua reported that there are at least seven Chinese nationals “trapped” at the hotel. This video purportedly made by a Chinese guest staying at the hotel shows the view from their window.

The presence of Chinese in Africa has been increasing with businessmen seeking opportunities in the wake of large-scale infrastructure projects that China has been investing and building throughout the continent.

CNN reports that Malian soldiers and UN forces have the hotel surrounded. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the incident.

The Radisson hotel was nearly full during the attack, having booked 140 guests in its 190 rooms.

The Mali attack comes a day after French President Francois Hollande praised his troops for successfully fighting Islamists in the former French colony.

Related:

• Chinese Visitors Robbed At Gunpoint In South Africa
• China Complains After Chinese Shops Attacked in South Africa

The post BREAKING: Chinese Among 170 Hostages in Mali Hotel Attack appeared first on The Nanfang.

On Wednesday, ISIS claimed it had executed 50 year-old freelance consultant Fan Jinghui and 48 year-old Norweigian Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad. Dabiq, an English magazine published by ISIS, featured graphic photos of the two victims. A caption above the photo reads, “Executed after being abandoned by the kafir (disbeliever) nations and organisations.”

Fan and Grimsgaard-Ofstad were previously seen in the September issue of Dabiq (seen above). The two were in yellow jumpsuit-clad hostages “for sale” to any interested party because, according to the poster, they were both “abandoned” by the Norwegian and Chinese government “which did not do its utmost to purchase (their) freedom.” The poster had ended with, “Note: This is a limited time offer.”

Reacting with “great shock”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said in a press release that the Chinese government had been trying to rescue the hostage with all-out efforts since the kidnapping happened. While strongly denouncing the executions, Hong extended condolences to the families of the victim and said the Chinese government had initiated an emergency-response plan and carried out rescue work, without revealing specifics.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it will “bring these criminals to justice,” but did not elaborate as to how they will achieve their plan.

Grimsgaard-Ofstad (left); Fan (right).

The executions come after the November 13 terror attacks on Paris and a bombing of the Russian airliner, events that have resulted in increased air attacks on ISIS strongholds in Syria. French and Russian air forces reportedly killed 33 Islamic State fighters on Wednesday. China is not an active participant in the Syrian war.

The Chinese media and public have been noticeably unsympathetic to the Paris terror attacks by using the tragedy as a way to bring up China’s grievances with the French even while Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed solidarity with France and as certain Chinese landmarks were lit up in the colors of the French flag.

Likewise, Chinese netizens were equally muted in their response to learning that a fellow citizen had been executed by ISIS forces, as they had done in Paris.

One person supported the idea of Chinese military involvement, if only because it would signify a positive contribution by the Chinese government. The person said, “Just bomb them. For (the Foreign Ministry) to keep taking a harder stance is just going to anger the reader as you essentially haven’t done a single thing. Can you be more specific about what you’re going to do?”

Another person cautioned against the use of force, warning of the risks involved. “For the sake of so many people’s safety, restraint must be shown here. If troops are dispatched, this will signify sending them to their deaths!” they said.

One person said, “I feel as though the Chinese government doesn’t really care about this hostage,” while another said, “No matter how rough the situation, my government can’t do anything aside from strongly denouncing things. Can they do anything else?”

Earlier this year, Chinese media blamed Japan for allowing its citizens to get targeted and executed by ISIS. The Global Times reasoned that since “East Asian countries are not supposed to be key targets of the atrocious IS,” there must be a deeper reason for why Japan was singled out.

Meanwhile, at the G20 summit in Turkey, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for international support in China’s fight against domestic terrorism, saying that there shouldn’t be a “double standard”. Wang said, “China is also a victim of terrorism. The fight against the ‘East Turkestan Islamic Movement’… should become an important part of the international fight against terrorism.”

Xinjiang remains one of China’s most heavily policed area that places restrictions on personal rights and freedom of the press, with rights activitists complaining local violence is a result of oppressive policies that clamp down on religious freedoms.

The post ISIS Executes Chinese Hostage appeared first on The Nanfang.

While this sentiment runs throughout China, the media isn’t shy about leading popular opinion. Chinese state-run newspaper the People’s Daily does not want the Paris terror attacks to overshadow a deadly landslide that coincidentally happened at the same time, and it does so by urging its readers to choose one over the other.

Twenty-five people died when a landslide struck the village of Lidong near the city of Lishui, Zhejiang at 10:50 on Friday night. Only one person has been rescued from the landslide so far, while another 12 victims remain unaccounted for. Twenty-seven Lidong homes below an adjacent mountain were buried, with another 21 flooded.

Landslides are a common occurrence in China that have derailed trains, blocked train tracks, capsized boats in the Yangtze River, and have caused numerous fatalities during south China’s annual rainy season. It’s a problem that keeps happening in China, but with the Paris terror attacks attracting world-wide attention on Friday night, the Lishui incident is at risk of being ignored in the daily news cycle.

That’s where the People’s Daily intervened by sharing a Weibo micro-blogging post at around 8pm on Saturday. The post compares the two tragic incidents:

People’s Daily Weibo Opinion: Cry for Paris, but don’t forget to cry for Lishui as well.
The Paris terror attack has shocked the world. Terrorists are the enemy of the entire word which is united in its humanity to defeat it. Cry for Paris, but don’t forget to cry for Lishui as well. A landslide occurred in Lidong village, Yaxi County, Liandu District, Lishui, Zhejiang. The latest news reports there are nine dead from the disaster, with another 28 victims unaccounted for. Every life that is taken away in a disaster is valuable; please direct your concerns and prayers towards Lishui.

Even though many Chinese have shown sympathy towards the people of France, many of the top-voted responses said deaths from the Paris terror attacks are simply not as important as those from the Lishui landslide, two incidents that were otherwise separate and unrelated before the People’s Daily Online made the connection.

Here are what some Chinese people had to say in response to the People’s Daily Online Weibo post:

(highest rated comment)
洛水柳畔：
I don’t cry for Paris, I pray for that whore the Virgin Mary to curse them. I only pray for Lishui. 

Fally章：
Pray for your own compatriots! France supports Tibet independence!

春晖大地：
Some people these days only know how to concern themselves with the outside world. They think that everything outside the border is great. If you think that it’s so great in other countries, then you should immigrate! If you’re going to be spouting off your opinions, then you should show some concern about your own country. China is not worse than other countries!

O福星高照O：
Cry for Paris? From where do I have such emotion? I am only sympathizing with them! I only cry for the tragic deaths of my compatriots!

king1however：
The perspective of the masses is directed by the media. Don’t forget this, because the people won’t forget this. 

应西堤：
Even more importantly, don’t forget about Tianjin.

努力使自己微笑：
The running dogs of capitalism have gone to lick France.

Even though Chinese President Xi Jiping has made an official statement saying that China is devoted to fighting terrorism, and the Oriental Pearl Tower lit up its exterior in the colors of the French flag, the feeling that the Paris terror attacks were stealing attention away from China’s own domestic tragedy have been spreading online.

In a CCTV report about the Lishui landslide that made no mention whatsoever about the Paris terror attacks, netizens used the opportunity to compare the two incidents in much the way that the People’s Daily Online had done:

鉴翔师：
I ask the municipal government of Shanghai to shine their lights for the victims of the Lishui landslide. I also ask the network of the addicted running lap dogs of the Virgin Mary to shout aloud ‘May heaven protect Zhejiang’. I also ask that the traitors belonging to the media outlet Caijing as well as others to pray for the victims of Lishui.

Lr19970808：
Hey, Oriental Pearl Tower, why do you pray for foreign countries, but not for China?

神的奥斯坦丁：
My compatriots (who died in the Lishui landslide), even though you didn’t die in a terror attack, you are still Chinese people. The Oriental Pearl Tower won’t shine its lights for you. When I return home I will light a candle for you… 

Then there’s this comment:

Don’t the lives of Chinese people matter?
On November 13, Paris suffered an unprecedented terror attack that led to the deaths of some 140 people. On television, French President Francois Hollande showed how moved he was by the attack by the shakiness of his voice. What is unacceptable is that the 2009 terror attack in Urumqi, in which 197 people died and 1700 people were hurt, was far more severe than in Paris. However, the French government showed no anger or “shaky voice” at this time, but instead interfered with China trying to implement the death penalty upon these terrorists.

It may seem like a minor miracle to get Chinese to actively care about the terror attacks in Paris, but there is one thing that may come to pass. Since the attacks occurred on Friday, there has been no contact with 27 year-old Chinese graduate student Liu Anyu, drawing fears that he may be one of the victims who succumbed in the attacks.

The post Chinese Nationalism Dulls Sympathy for Paris Terror Attack Victims appeared first on The Nanfang.

Citing local police, the knife attack began at around 3am last Friday at the Sogan colliery in Aksu Prefecture, Bay County. An official notice distributed to police and quoted by Radio Free Asia called the incident “a long-planned, well-prepared, large-scale attack by separatists against police officers and mine owners at a coal field in our county.”

Jamal Eysa, the chief of state security police at a neighboring mine in Bay County, said police officers involved in dealing with the attackers told him the suspects were from “neighboring farms” and that they had “taken control of the dynamite at the colliery.”

“That is why they were able to do such severe damage to our police team and to the Han businessman and factory owners,” said Eysa, though he did not elaborate if the explosives were used in the attack. Security guard Zhang Jianjie gave a second-hand account of the attack. “According to my boss, the attackers called the Terek police station to report the incident, and when police officers approached the mine area, the group used trucks filled with coal to ram the police van and then assaulted the injured officers with knives,” Zhang said.

“I know that five of 10 police officers were killed at the scene and the rest of them were transferred to the hospital in Bay county, but I don’t know how many of the attackers were killed or injured,” he said.

Zhang said police authorities are currently patrolling the vicinity in force. “The current situation in Bay county indicates that at least some of the attackers are alive and were able to escape.”

Bay township resident Li Ming told Radio Free Asia that by Monday afternoon, security checkpoints had been established at all intersections throughout town, while armed police squads were patrolling the area in armored personnel carriers, leading him to believe that the “incident was much more severe than I had thought and the suspects have still not been killed or captured.”

While Li could confirm that something had happened at “the coal mining field in Terek township”, he was not willing to continue to talk to a foreign reporter.

“I have no right to give you information and I have to record your contact information to give to the county police department,” said Li. “I can only answer your questions if the department notifies me that I may accept your interview.”

Channel News Asia reported that repeated calls to the Xinjiang government and public security departments were not answered, saying that violent incidents are not confirmed by Chinese authorities, if ever.

In June, Radio Free Asia said at least 18 people died when ethnic Uighurs attacked police with knives and bombs at a traffic checkpoint in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, an incident that has not been confirmed by the Chinese government.

Aksu has experienced previous incidents of mass violence.

This past February, a hacking and shooting incident left 17 dead in Aksu. In 2014, six people were shot by police and another six killed by explosions after a bomb went off near a hair salon. In 2010, a Uighur man is reported to have thrown a bomb that killed seven people and injured another 14.

Tensions between ethnic Uighurs that call Xinjiang home and the majority Han have resulted in repeated acts of violence that have killed hundreds of people. Beijing blames Muslim separatists, while exiled Uighur groups and human rights organizations say repressive policies are to blame for provoking unrest.

The post Many Injured after Xinjiang Separatists Go On a Knifing Rampage at Coal Mine appeared first on The Nanfang.

Four Chinese people are confirmed to have been killed by the blast, two of which were from Hong Kong, two women aged 19 and 24. Another 15 Chinese have been injured. With the memory of last week’s Tianjin blast still fresh in people’s minds, yesterday’s explosion resonated among Chinese netizens, even if it was to illicit a jaded response.

Here then are some Chinese reactions to the Bangkok bombing in which many of them drew parallels with the Tianjin explosion, which so far has claimed 114 fatalities with 70 still missing:

无敌双1988：
Fight back against any form of terrorist attack! Bunch of inhumane animals!

天地一芥：
Is this to shift the focus on domestic issues?

YYYMMua:
What is there to say? At the first opportunity, the casualties were announced to the outside world for the Tianjin explosion. There is no way during organized large-scale search and rescue efforts to confirm the number of dead. On another day, another country, the same situation has happened in Tianjin. The cause behind both of these explosions is not necessarily the same.

云下的浪子：
Don’t go to places with a lot of people; it can only be this way. This contempible, lousy world is too ruthless.

周洲Z_Z：
Isn’t everyone saying that most of this was for the Chinese people?

cocogtw：
My goodness! Yet another explosion!!

kou_离离原：
I hope this was not directed at Chinese tourists… 

尼玛团成团：
I haven’t yet wiped my bum clean when there’s now a new news story that overtakes the important issues.

JKuing：
The frequency of explosions lately is awfully high.

唯一的隐士：
Don’t worry about Thailand. There’s lots still unknown about Tianjin that needs media there.

Miss桃Yy：
The explosion in Tianjin was so big. How could they be part of the fatality list if they were unable to find the bodies? Some people’s brains don’t work properly. If you can find them, then do so!

杨树与海豚：
The (explosions in) Tianjin and Bangkok don’t contradict each other, okay? They are both news; don’t be constantly shouting out that this is just a diversion.

番番番番茄控：
Oh my goodness, what kind of fantasic logic is this? We are all very sad over the Tianjin explosions, but just because we reported the events of August 12, does this mean that we can’t publish other news!? In terms of body count, Tianjin was the bigger explosion. In the resulting chaos, who can put together a precise fatality count? Can a count be made just because you say so? The bodies of so many of our fallen compatriots can’t even be pieced back together! Don’t idly spend all day calling things into question! At this time, you need to put trust into your own country!

窦庆阳：
Yo momma… What is up with China at the moment? Okay, I can handle problems in China, but now tragedy is befalling Chinese in other countries. I pray for the victims, and hope for peace for our country! I love my mighty China!

小小小女子521：
I pray for my mighty China, may the heavens bless my mighty China. Bless the Chinese people with health and safety!

进击之win_记：
There has been a lot of explosions lately…

夢想家PCfan：
Explosions: do they bring contaminated pollutants as well?

IKeyi：
There are Chinese people everywhere.

猪猪猫儿：
So many sons of bitches I need to take care of! You know, many Chinese were hurt in the Bangkok bombing! You brain dead shitheads! How can this be changing the subject, and not caring anymore about our own country? I really think you need to go get your head checked out by a doctor.

The post Chinese Debate Bangkok Bombings in Shadow of Tianjin appeared first on The Nanfang.

Two passengers were also given awards of RMB 30,000 ($4,800) for their efforts to thwart the attack.

Upon landing, all passengers were evacuated using emergency slides. Two people were taken to hospital for their injuries.

Chinese media showed video of the flight crew pleading with passengers to “trust us, we can take care of this!” and “don’t panic, sit down and secure yourselves.” The crew was also heard asking whether “there [were] any soldiers or armed police on board?”

One passenger, Mr Zheng, reported that the flight crew had asked women and children to move to the tail of the plane, and had encouraged male passengers to stand up and stop the arsonist using their luggage.

At the same time, the CCAC shutdown Taizhou Airport in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province, the point of origin for the Shenzhen Airlines flight, for a security breach.

The post Airline Staff That Thwarted Attempted Arson Rewarded For Their Bravery appeared first on The Nanfang.