天安門突入事件 中国社会の不安定さが見える

The Yomiuri Shimbun November 1, 2013
Instability of Chinese society made visible with the latest incident
天安門突入事件　中国社会の不安定さが見える（10月31日付・読売社説）

The recent fatal car crash in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing is believed to have been a suicide terrorist attack by an ethnic minority group. They may have been expressing opposition to the Chinese Communist Party’s rule.
　少数民族による自爆テロと見られる。中国共産党支配に反抗する意思を示したのではないか。

Five people, including three in the vehicle, died, while about 40 others, including one Japanese, were injured. Local authorities said they found gasoline containers, which the car’s occupants set ablaze, inside the vehicle.
　北京中心部の天安門前に車が突っ込んで炎上した。車に乗っていた３人を含む５人が死亡し、日本人ら約４０人が負傷した。車内からはガソリンなどが発見されたという。

The square, featuring a huge portrait of Mao Zedong, former chairman of the Communist Party of China, is located near the Zhongnanhai district, where the party headquarters is located, and is symbolic of one-party rule. A number of antigovernment activities, including the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident, took place in nearby areas.
　巨大な毛沢東の肖像画が掲げられた天安門は、党指導部の所在地・中南海にも近く、一党独裁の象徴的存在だ。周辺では、１９８９年の天安門事件はじめ、数々の反政府行動が発生している。

Local authorities have announced they are treating the incident as a terrorist act and that they have arrested five suspects. The five arrested and the three who died in the car are believed to be Uighur.
　当局は、事件をテロと見て、容疑者グループ５人を拘束したと発表した。この５人も車内の３人もいずれもウイグル族と見られる。

The Uighurs are a Turkish minority group of Muslims who mainly live in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
ウイグル族は、新疆ウイグル自治区を主な居住地とするイスラム教徒のトルコ系少数民族だ。

In Uighur, local police have repeatedly attacked “armed mobs” of Uighurs in the name of antiterrorism campaigns. After President Xi Jinping’s administration was launched, there was an incident in which more than 10 people died. The latest incident may have something to do with rising tensions in Xinjiang.
　新疆では、警察が反テロ作戦と称し、ウイグル族「武装集団」への攻撃を繰り返している。習近平政権になってからは、１０人以上の死者が出る場合もあったという。今回の事件も、新疆の緊張の高まりと関係があるのではないか。

Separatist sentiment rising

The Uighurs have been effectively placed under the control of the Chinese Communist Party politically, and under the control of the Han people, the majority group in China, economically. Autonomy and freedom of religion exist in name only for the Uighurs. The average income of Uighurs remains low, with people having limited means of support.
　ウイグル族は、事実上、政治的には共産党、経済的には多数派の漢族の支配下に置かれている。「自治」や「宗教の自由」は名ばかりの状態だ。平均的な所得水準は低く、生活は豊かでない。

Among the Uighur people, antagonism toward the party and the Han has been increasing, and a movement toward Xinjiang independence, which has long been smoldering, is now active.
　ウイグル族住民の間では、党と漢族への反感が広がっており、くすぶり続けてきた新疆独立を目指す動きも活発だ。

The recent developments appear to suggest that control over the Uighurs has become ever more difficult under the party’s ethnic minority policy, which comprise two pillars of control by force and through fiscal actions such as infrastructure development.
　力による支配とインフラ整備などへの財政出動を二本柱とする党の少数民族政策では、統治が以前より困難になってきていることを示すものと言えよう。

Following the latest incident, the communist government has placed strict controls on news reports and deleted related information on the Internet. News aired by NHK satellite broadcasting has been blocked. This is probably because they are worried that such news coverage would trigger other antigovernment action.
　今回の事件で、共産党政権は報道を厳しく規制し、インターネット上の書き込みも削除した。ＮＨＫ衛星放送のニュースは遮断された。新たな反政府行動の誘発を恐れているからだろう。

In the Tibet Autonomous Region, adjacent to Xinjiang, the ethnic minority opposes the control of the party and the Han people the same way as in Xinjiang. More than 100 Tibetan monks and others in the region have set themselves on fire in protest, or attempted to do so.
　隣接するチベット自治区でも、少数民族が党と漢族に反発する構図は同じだ。既に１００人を超すチベット族の仏教僧らが焼身自殺を図っている。

Aside from ethnic minorities, people’s frustration and anger over Chinese society is spreading even among the Han people, who account for more than 90 percent of the population. Chinese society is becoming ever more unstable, with as many as 180,000 mass protests, including demonstrations and riots, believed to occur each year.
　少数民族に限らず、人口の９割以上を占める漢族の間でも、格差社会への憤りが充満している。デモや暴動などの集団抗議行動が年間１８万件程度発生していると言われるほど、中国社会の不安定化は進行している。

The general assembly of the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee, which decides key party policies, will convene Nov. 9. We have to pay close attention to the meeting to see what policies to address social stability President Xi comes up with, on the basis of the latest incident.
　党の重要政策を決める中央委員会総会が１１月９日から始まる。習総書記が事件を踏まえ、社会安定に向けたいかなる政策を打ち出すか、注視しなければならない。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Oct. 31, 2013)
（2013年10月31日01時31分 読売新聞）