A Climate of Fear

Posted on 28 October 2009.

"I didn't get to eat last night," a local friend told one of our China-based co-workers. "I was about to go and buy some food, when I saw it was dark outside. I was afraid to go out because the Uighur people are injecting people with AIDS."

During September, a climate of fear seemed to reign across many of China's cities. Rumours spread that large groups of Uighur minority people were arriving in various cities with the aim of stabbing Han Chinese with syringes and disrupting the October 1 National Day celebrations. There were warnings not to go to this or that area where the Uighurs were supposed to congregate and stories of this or that place where someone was supposed to have been stabbed. Yet most of the rumours and stories were impossible to substantiate.

The only stabbings confirmed by the authorities came in the north-western Xinjiang region, which has a large Uighur population. Police had issued a warning of attacks on August 31, blaming terrorists, and shortly afterwards more than 600 people claimed to have been victims. Of these, only a small number were confirmed to have actual puncture marks. None appeared to have been injected with any harmful substances.

By the beginning of October, only three such cases had passed through the law courts. A Uighur man and woman had been jailed for 10 and seven years respectively for using a syringe to rob a tax driver. A 19-year-old Uighur had been given 15 years for stabbing a woman with a pin. And four Uighur men had been sentenced to eight to 15 years for stabbing a woman in the neck with a syringe.

Nevertheless, many Han Chinese were terrified. In Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, some took to the streets in protest. When they were prevented from entering a Uighur neighbourhood, one man shouted, "They have no right to block off the road like this. These Uighurs have been stabbing us with needles. We need to take care of the problem." Another announced, "I think the government has been way too lax towards the Uighurs. This policy has got to change." (Reuters). Security forces used tear gas to break up demonstrations during which five people died.

Pray that those who have been attempting to cause terror by stabbing people with needles and syringes might be caught and stopped.

Pray for protection for innocent Uighurs who are currently the focus of much hatred and fear.

Pray for a widespread recognition that the stabbings were the work of a very small number of people. Pray for Christians to stand out against racial prejudice and distrust of minority peoples.

Pray for more Christian believers to have a burden to bring the Gospel to the Uighur people and to reach out to them with God's love.