New China Train Station Attack Sparks Terrorism Fears

BEIJING —  The third attack at a train station in China in a little more than two months is sparking fears of terrorism.
The midday stabbing attack Tuesday left six people injured at a train station the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said whoever carried this attack out will be brought to justice. The Chinese government will take firm actions to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people, she vowed.

Chinese state run media reported that police gunned down one of the attackers, captured a second and said two attackers were still at large. A local newspaper reported the attackers were wearing white hats.

Previoius attacks

Two suicide bombers killed three people and injured 79 others in an attack at a train station in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang Province, last weekend. On March 1, a group of men and women killed 29 people and injured another 143, slashing people with knives at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming.

China’s government blamed the incidents on terrorists from Xinjiang separatist movements.

During a visit to Xinjiang Province last week, President Xi Jinping vowed to fight terrorism with an iron hand, implement development to benefit the common people and strengthen military presence in the region.

Beijing Foreign Studies University Visiting Professor James Liebold said the attacks are embarrassing for the Chinese leadership.

“And then you have this attack at the train station which was clearly meant to send a signal to Xi and the state that at least some Uighurs, at least the two attackers in Urumqi, did not buy into his vision of the Chinese dream," he said.

The latest attack occurred in one of China’s largest cities and transportation hubs. Photos broadcast on CCTV showed paramedics treating people in the large public square of the Guangzhou railway station.