I thought it was only the US that was still paranoid about water on airplanes. Apparently, China is even more afraid of liquid bombs than George Bush.
I got a pretty nerve-wracking introduction to the consequences of breaking the rigid rules of Chinese security on my flight to Kashgar.
By Jill Drew
Photo by Ryan Anson
Violent outbursts are continuing in the Xinjiang region of western China, with the latest resulting in the deaths of two policemen who were attacked Wednesday while searching a cornfield for a woman they believe is involved in a separatist cell.
State media reported Saturday morning that police found the alleged assailants and shot six of them dead after they tried to defend themselves with knives, wounding two security officials.
Since the August 4th attack in Kashgar that killed 16 Chinese police officers, officials have intensified security measures all over Xinjiang Province. Militia and troops from the People's Liberation Army man checkpoints on all major roads in and out of Kashgar. Passengers in both private and public vehicles must disembark from their cars or buses, walk through the checkpoint, show their identity cards or passports which are all scanned electronically, and pass through another blockade of sandbags and gates before getting back on the road.
Kashgar's claim to fame is its spot on the Silk Road. Some of the first settlers built their clay homes along this major caravan route more than 2000 years ago. It is, and has been a major trading post connecting the Western world with Central Asia and the Far East even if carpets are now sold off the back of trucks rather than camels. Silk, woven goods, exotic fruits, jade, and probably a little opium turned Kasghar into one of the more powerful Turkic kingdoms up through the 17th.century and later transformed this desert oasis town into one of Asia's major commercial powerhouses.
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Pulitzer Center grantee Loretta Tofani talked to KCRW's To The Point about occupational diseases Chinese factory workers suffer to produce cheap goods to export to foreign countries including the U.S.
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