A series of deadly bomb blasts in China this week has shown how easy it is to acquire explosives in the country, revealing a major gap in its huge security apparatus as the economy slows and anger grows over issues like graft and poor public services.
In a country where firearms are banned for most people, the bombings in the southwestern city of Liuzhou on Wednesday, and others in recent years around the country, demonstrate lax enforcement of rules to control access to bomb-making material.
Private gun ownership is almost unheard of in China as controls are so strict, meaning gun crime is rare. Explosives, on the other hand, are widely available from the sprawling mining and fireworks industries.
The 17 coordinated blasts across Liuzhou destroyed one whole side of a low-rise residential building, overturned vehicles and sent bricks showering into the street, images carried by state media showed. At least 10 people died and more than 50 were injured.
The ease at which explosives can be obtained in the world’s second-largest economy was underscored in a court case posted online earlier this year as part of a government transparency drive.
In September last year, a court in southwestern China’s Yunnan province jailed a man for three years after finding more than 20kg of explosives.
The man told the court he had been buying the explosives and storing them at home for the last decade without any problems.
Police on Friday said the suspect in the attacks in Liuzhou was Wei Yinyong, 33, who was believed to have been involved in a dispute with neighbours, the official Xinhua news agency said.
However, explosives are not often seen in violence in the far western region of Xinjiang, where China says it is battling an Islamist insurgency, with tight security limiting access to bomb-making materials or guns. Knives are generally involved in the violence there.
The worst incident of its kind happened in 2001, when a string of explosions at workers’ dormitories in the northern city of Shijiazhuang killed 108 people, blamed on a man seeking vengeance for family problems, although many doubt that explanation.
