Im disappointed that the administrators of this website suspended the comments on the original post. Though the thread certainly had "strayed into less palatable territory," I think that people were having an important discussion about laowai identity.

Whether or not Salvadors was the intended target of the attack, this event has revealed that there is some level of tension between foreigners and locals in KunMing. The comments in that thread show that some Chinese folks have a very negative perception of foreigners, and some foreigners smugly live up to that negative stereotype.

Left to open discussion, I think we would see the voice of the tolerant, cooperative and educated majority drown out that of the closed-minded, antagonistic, and ignorant minority.

I disagree with anyone who says that hateful or threatening posts should not be deleted. This is not a public space, this is a privately run website and posters have no free speech rights whatsoever. Removing posts is the administrator's prerogative, and if you don't like the standards that are upheld, find another forum. If someone were to post spam, or imbed unwanted images in their posts, it would be reasonable to remove them. Likewise, the moderators of this thread can remove any posts whose content they find inappropriate. If you want to know what standards this website employs in deciding to remove posts, then ask.

I think you'll find that they are aimed at fostering civil discussion and not suppressing alternative viewpoints. So if you want to complain, or wax philosophic about free speech, go ahead, but if you want to post racist jokes, stories about your sex life, descriptions of your bowel movements, or hate speech directed at religious or ethnic group, don't expect your post to remain.

While I agree that we do not want to use this forum to propagate fear of particular religious groups, I do not think it is nonsense to ask if the attack was religiously motivated. Whatever the motivations of the attacker- religious or political- I think we ought to consider them. Frankly, I did not sense that such deep anger towards the ex pat community was brewing, and I am very curious if architects of the attack are nationalist xenophobes, or religious fundamentalists. This is actually why I find the bomber confessing to the bus bombings rather incongruous. While the foreign community seems to have been the target of the attack at Salvadores, suggesting perhaps nationalist extremists, the bus bombing seems aimed at general social stability, and more likely the work of someone trying to undermine the central government- like religious fundamentalists.

Yeah, I agree. If it is an accident, it is quite a coincidence: explosion on Christmas eve at the place in town known to be a hangout for foreigners. Either way, I hope that the truth will come out here.

It would be a relief if this turned out to be just a tragic accident, and not a bombing targeted at the foreign community. Anyone with further information, please let us know.

Thanks to Chris for bringing us this story firsthand.