Attacks show dangerous trend of private grievances turning into public violence in China
Latest attacks in busy places suggest angry mainlanders increasingly lashing out against society instead of those who wronged them
Deadly explosions outside the Shanxi Communist Party Committee offices in the provincial capital of Taiyuan on Wednesday show a trend of aggrieved persons seeking revenge not on specific people and targets but against society in general and at symbolic venues, academics say.
Watch: Scenes from blasts near Communist provincial HQ in China
Just a week before the Taiyuan bombings, which left one person dead and eight injured, an SUV rammed through barricades in front of Tiananmen Square's gate tower and burst into flames.
The incident killed five people, including two tourists and the vehicle's three occupants - a man, his mother and his wife, all from Xinjiang . Forty others were injured. Authorities said the crash was a terrorist attack orchestrated by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM).
No one has claimed responsible for either incident.
In July, a disabled man, Ji Zhongxing , set off a homemade explosive at Beijing airport in protest against alleged police brutality that he said had left him confined to a wheelchair. Ji, who said he had "lost all hope in society", lost his left hand in the blast but injured no-one else. On October 15, he was sentenced to six years in jail.
