Explosions on two buses during the morning rush hour Monday in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China, killed two people and injured 14 others, as Chinese authorities were tightening security ahead of the opening of the Beijing Olympics in less than three weeks. Both the Kunming public security chief and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman ruled out a link between the blasts and the Olympics.
The immediate task for the Chinese government should be to ensure safety at the Olympic Games. But people's frustration, especially in remote regions, on such matters as the gap between the rich and the poor, official corruption and illegal seizures of land is growing. Just tightening security will not dissolve this frustration, which often explodes in the form of public protests. China faces a difficult task of solving the social contradictions by getting to the root of the problems.
The Kunming bus explosions occurred within a span of about one hour, the first one near the central part of the city and the second one in the suburbs. The two locations were about 3 km apart. Ammonium nitrate is reported to have been used as explosives. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said there was no evidence to link the blasts with terrorism.