This is a long post. Sorry for that.
I'm in Kunming now. I got here this morning.
When I was exiting the train station I saw eight troops from the People's Liberation Army in combat gear. This is the first time I've seen this in China and I've been here seven weeks. Seen lots of servicemen in uniform, but never in combat gear.
The process to get to Kunming was a bit more involved as well, in assuming because of the attack in Urumqi.
In order to buy a train ticket, you need to present an ID card or passport. If the govt has flagged your card or you don't have one, you can't buy a ticket.
To get into the departure hall, you have to present your passport and ticket. Your passport number is listed on the ticket so they check if this matches so someone else can't buy the ticket for you. But this can only be identified if the agent actually looks at the numbers. I've been through loud if times where they don't even look, just stamp. And I've even walled right pay without anyone saying anything.
Then your luggage goes through an xray machine where the operator is not paying attention. They are usually doing their nails or sleeping.
Then you go through the xray machine. It goes off but no one pays attention to that. Sometimes it's off so it doesn't beep.
In most cases you are now free to do whatever but in Chengdu they'd had people to physically search each person which was good and then you had to present your passport and ticket again to get into the waiting area of the train you are taking.
It's quite the process. The main problem with this all is the people. They are poorly trained. The police look unsure and in intimidating. The sliders I saw today were kids and did not strike the fear of God into me.
At this point in time, the Chinese have shown terrorists if you want to attack something, go ahead because the people they have there to prevent this type of thing can't stop it and don't have the proper training to do it either.
In the latest attack in Urumqi I think I heard that the police issued verbal warnings while the terrorists were hacking people. I think we're a little past the stage of verbal warnings.
In short, security in China is a joke. It's a facade, as is a lot of China. All for show. (For the record I think China is a pretty neat place).
Most of the metro stations in China have xray machines, but these are also a joke. The attendants are usually asleep or uninterested. Until this changes, it will be easy to attack targets such as these.
By the way, as for the actual act of killing 28 people with knives, I componentry understand how it happened. There are so bloody many people here we can not comprehend this in Canada. Go during a busy time and it would be easy. Also, when I arrived the exit from the train is a bottleneck. You could massacre people there as there is only one way for people to go.
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