New York Times, March 8, 1997

By SETH FAISON

BEIJING An explosion rocked a bus during rush-hour Friday evening on a crowded downtown street, alerting police to the possibility that recent bombings and unrest among Muslims in Western China had spread to the nation's capital

Reuters reported that two people were killed, but that could not be independently confirmed. The Beijing Daily reported early Saturday that the explosion had caused more than 10 injuries but no deaths, adding that Beijing leaders had visited the scene and that the cause was under investigation.

Yet the blast appeared to be placed and timed for maximum impact. Not only did it occur in one of Beijing's most popular shopping areas; it came just two weeks after the death of Deng Xiaoping and half way through the two-week-long convening of China's legislature, the National People's Congress, when delegates from all over the country gather in Beijing.

Perhaps most significant, the explosion appeared similar to three simultaneous bombings of buses Feb. 25 in Xinjiang, the Muslim region in Western China, which has been plagued by growing violence in recent months.

Terrorist attacks are extremely rare in China, where weapons are hard to obtain and where law enforcement authorities are notoriously strict and harsh in punishment.

Friday evening's explosion occurred at 7 p.m. on a cream-and-red Number 22 bus as it passed through Xidan, a highly congested shopping area where a McDonald's is squeezed in between a beeper store and a boutique. The area was closed off for several hours. By midnight, only a handful of police were still at the site, where broken glass and other traces had all been swept away.

"Nothing happened," said a uniformed policeman in a heavy green overcoat.

When asked the last time such an explosion had occurred in Beijing, he responded: "Never."

Although no one immediately took responsibility for the explosion, a young workman in dusty coveralls standing outside a nearby all-night construction site voiced a predictable concern: "It's Xinjiang people. Who else would do it ?"

Populated mostly by Uighurs, a Turkic people, Xinjiang is the largest and one of the most volatile regions of China.

Those who resent Chinese rule sometimes recall the independent Muslim-ruled republic that was established in 1944, only to be crushed by China's Communists in 1950.

Sporadic violence has erupted in Xinjiang over the years. But incidents of rioting and bombings and assassination seem to have been rising in the past year, and though reliable information is rare, the area has been particularly tense since last spring, when rioting in a town called Aksu led to thousands of arrests.

Early last month rioting also broke out in Yining, near the Kazakstan border, apparently over the jailing of a resident that neighbors felt was unjust.

But the incident that most alarmed Chinese authorities seemed to be the simultaneous detonation of three small bombs in buses in Urumuqi, the capital of Xinjiang, because it showed a certain level of organized resistance, always the highest concern for Communist Party authorities here.

After denouncing the "separatists," the authorities promised swift punishment for anyone involved in the bombings. A pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong reported Friday that the authorities had arrested seven suspects in the attacks in Xinjiang, which killed 9 and wounded 74.

But an exiled leader of a group seeking independence for the region said his group had nothing to do with the explosion in Beijing.

"I am shocked about this event," said the leader, Anwar Yusuf, president of the Eastern Turkestan National Freedom Center in Washington. "We promote nonviolent struggle to get freedom from Chinese rule. We never advocate or promote violence. We don't want to get credit for that bombing."

Friday night a few checkpoints were set up around the capital so police could stop and search vehicles. But as usual the authorities seemed to try to make the streets look as normal as possible.