As the Chinese National Day approached on October 1, the Chinese authorities carried out a series of anti-terrorism drills and civilian disarmament campaigns amid escalating tensions between Mongolians and Chinese over mining, environmental destruction and land expropriation in Southern (Inner) Mongolia.

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau official website reported that an anti-terrorism drill code-named “2013 – Mission Stability” was carried out in eastern Southern Mongolia’s Tongliao Municipality on September 28, 2013. Formerly known as “Jirim League” (“league” is a traditional Mongolian administrative unit that consists of several county level administrative units called “Banner”), Tongliao Municipality is home to about 1.5 million Mongolians, the largest concentration of Mongolian population among all the leagues in Southern Mongolia.

“In order to effectively respond to the complicated and volatile social stability situation, and to strictly implement the Autonomous Region’s ‘8337 Development Guidelines’”, more than 15 units including the Tongliao Municipality Public Security Bureau, Armed Police Tongliao Branch, the Municipality Fire Department and the Inner Mongolia Nationality University Affiliated Hospital joined the anti-terrorism drill, according to the Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau website.

The main objective of the so-called “8337 Development Guidelines”, as outlined by the newly appointed Party Secretary of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Wang Jun, was to “develop Inner Mongolia as the defense line of the Capital Beijing, to serve northern China, to supply clean energy, coal and rare earth to all of China, to serve as the energy base of China, and to develop Inner Mongolia as the defense line of the northern frontier’s stability and ecosystem,” according to Baidu, the Chinese equivalence of Google.

“More than 1700 Public Security personnel and armed police, and more than 30 specially equipped vehicles and police cars joined the drill,” the Public Security authorities stated. At the drill, Mr. Yao Yongbo, Political Commissioner of the Autonomous Region Party Committee, emphasized the importance of “maintaining stability” and urged the Tongliao Municipality to “be fully prepared to meet any challenge and develop crack troops of anti-terrorism”.

On September 30, 2013, China’s official news “China Fire Fighter Online” provided a detailed scenario and description of the “2013 – Mission Stability” anti-terrorism exercise:

“At the instigation of a handful of outlaws, villagers from a certain village holding shovels and sticks come to the front of the ‘city government building’ causing a disturbance. A large-scale mass disturbance follows. Instructed by the outlaws, villagers move to the ‘government building garage’ to smash cars and set fire to them. Upon receiving the emergency call, the Tongliao Municipality Fire Department immediately comes up with a rescue plan. Two fire trucks and 12 fire fighters are dispatched immediately to the scene. In concert with the police and other security personnel, fire fighters successfully extinguish the fire in short order. The Public Security Bureau successfully puts down the mass disturbance, and arrest the criminal suspects including the instigators and plotters. The exercise successfully concludes.”

A similar display of Chinese special police force took place in eastern Southern Mongolia’s Hulun-boir Municipality on September 27, 2013. Special police force heads and other officials from the Public Security Bureaus across the Autonomous Region’s 12 leagues and municipalities gathered there to carry out a special armed police demonstration and competition. The special armed police heads emphasized the importance and urgency of strengthening the development of special armed police across the Autonomous Region in order to “face the new social stability issues, new needs, and new challenges”, according to the Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau website.

As part of the “Peaceful and Stable Inner Mongolia” movement, the Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau also carried out a 10-day long special operation to disarm civilians across the region before the Chinese National Day. According to the same website, during this special operation, “the Public Security authorities across the region mobilized 119,594 person/time and 136,337 vehicle/time, cleaned up 89,505 public places, confiscated 89 guns, 5850 bullets, and 1486 knives…and cracked down on 82 groups and struck hard at 3,644 criminals.”

Another statement issued by the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau on September 25, 2013, revealed that two steel plants, namely Bogot Steel (“Bao Gang” in Chinese) in the west and Ulaanhot (“wu lan hao te” in Chinese) Steel in the east, were responsible for destroying and recycling confiscated weapons from across the Autonomous Region. “Statistics show that 49,644 kilograms of explosives, over 120,000 detonators, 2159 guns, 5266 fake guns, 228174 bullets, and 32675 knives were confiscated” the statement said.

Mongolian traditional knives have been specifically targeted. Many complained that beautifully decorated Mongolian knives bought as gift were confiscated at train stations and airports across the region.

“At the Ordos Airport, the Mongolian knife I bought from the Ordos Convention Center was confiscated as a controlled substance even though it was in my checked luggage,” a traveler angrily blogged on Sina Weibo, “I had a longer fruit knife in my luggage, but only the Mongolian knife was targeted.”