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Anti-U.S. Protests Not Reported in China
BEIJING, Oct 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies ) - Chinese media have been forbidden from reporting anti-American protests ahead of the arrival of U.S. President George W. Bush in Shanghai for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum leaders' meeting at the end of the week, news agencies reported.
Muslims in northern China hung banners with anti-American slogans from mosques in protest at U.S.-led air attacks on Afghanistan.
"The banners were removed by authorities," an official from the office of minorities in Tianjin municipality, a large city around 150 kilometers (95 miles) southeast of Beijing, was quoted by
Agence France-Presse (AFP), said.
The Chinese official refused to comment on what the banners said or give any further details.
"Solidarity for all the world's Muslims. Resist Anglo-U.S. despotic aggression," read one of the banners, according to Hong Kong's
Oriental Daily News.
Another slogan called on Muslims worldwide to oppose "the new crusader armies", the newspaper added, saying there had been other protests by Muslims elsewhere in northern China.
In northern Shanxi province, Muslim residents held demonstrations against the U.S. strikes for several days, news agencies reported. However, the office of minorities in the province categorically rejected any protests had taken place.
Local officials also denied press reports concerning similar protests in the northwest provinces of Shaanxi and Ningxia, and in Gansu.
Beijing has reportedly launched a crackdown in the Muslim majority region of Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan to the far west of China.
The central government has publicly linked activists in the region to Muslim "terrorists" of the sort blamed for the September 11th attacks on the U.S.
Washington launched the strikes on Afghanistan on October 7th in retaliation, accusing the Taliban regime of sheltering the U.S.'s prime suspect, Osama bin Laden.
However, there have been no reports of anti-American protests among Xinjiang's Muslims, who are generally more sympathetic to the West, and whose sporadic campaign is based also on language and cultural identity.
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