Unite in anti-terror fight

THE SECOND TERRORIST ATTACK IN LESS than a month in the capital of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region points to the severity and complexity of China's anti-terror fight.

The attack on an open market in Urumqi on Thursday morning, which killed 31 people and injured 94, raised immediate associations with the attack at a railway station in the city on April 30, when President Xi Jinping was visiting the region. It was confirmed that attack was plotted by a separatist organization called the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement.

Although no organization has so far claimed responsibility for the latest attack, the timing of its occurrence, one day after the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit concluded in Shanghai, suggests the organizers of the attack may have intended to send a provocative message not only to the Chinese government but also to the regional security forum.