An American environmental activist evading the United States government was sentenced to three years in prison on Friday in Dali for manufacturing drugs, according to a New York Times report.

Former New Jersey resident Justin Franchi Solondz, 30, who had been living in Dali under the name Isaac Cox, was arrested in Dali in March of this year with illegal drugs and faked Canadian identification, the Times reported his parents as saying.

According to Solondz's father, police found more than 30 pounds of marijuana at the apartment he rented in Dali, where it was buried in the courtyard. The prosecutor for the case characterized the inside of the younger Solondz's home as a "drug laboratory", he said.

When finally brought before a court for trial in October, Solondz pleaded guilty to the drug charges he faced and requested deportation back to the US, which he was denied.

After finishing his Chinese prison sentence, Solondz will be deported to the United States where he awaits his arson-related charges.

On the other side of the Pacific, Solondz is on the FBI's wanted list for conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building, arson of property used in interstate commerce, use and carrying of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence and making unregistered destructive devices.

The FBI accuses Solondz of being involved with a splinter group of the Earth Liberation Front, a decentralized environmental activist group which the US government declared the top domestic terrorist threat in early 2001. He was indicted in absentia in 2006 for his alleged involvement in a three-state arson spree in the American west in 2005.

It is widely believed that the Chinese and American governments met regarding the case and that Solondz received a relatively mild sentence as a result of US diplomacy. In October of this year, UK citizen Akmal Shaikh was sentenced to death for dealing drugs in Xinjiang in northwestern China.

While standing before judges at the intermediate court in Dali, Solondz praised Dali as a "paradise" and apologized to the people of China for his actions.

Justin Solondz 2002 photo: FBI via New York Times

Kunming explorer finishes Sahara expedition
Kunming native and famous Chinese explorer/adventurer Jin Feibao completed his crossing of Africa's Sahara Desert last week.

Jin and geologist Fei Xuan spent 80 days crossing the desert by various modes of transportation from Ghana's Atlantic coast to Cairo on the Red Sea in an expedition that aimed to raise China's exploration credentials and study the effects of desertification.

During the course of their travels, Jin and Fei fell out of contact with their Kunming operations base, with Xinhua erroneously reporting that the two had disappeared and may have been abducted by "terrorists".

Visa problems became an issue when the two travelers were briefly arrested in Algeria for overstaying their visas while waiting for Egyptian visas after getting denied Libyan visas. Jin and Fei had to fly from Algiers to Beijing to Cairo, skipping Libya and thus being unable to traverse the Sahara without interruption.

The Yunnan Provincial Museum will hold an exhibition of Jin's photos from his Sahara expedition from July 8 through 13. A preview of some of the photos can be found on Jin's English-language blog.

Kunming rail station a 'drug control frontier'
As expected, recent upgrades in transport connectivity with Southeast Asia have helped boost Yunnan's foreign trade and regional influence. Also not surprisingly, it has led to increased inflows of illegal drugs.

The Kunming railway station has become a major jumpoff point for illegal drugs from Southeast Asia to make their way to other parts of China, so much so that China's Ministry of Railways is calling the station a "drug control frontier" according to a Xinhua report.

In the first five months of this year, police at Kunming's train station confiscated 31 kilograms of illegal drugs connected to 242 criminal cases in which 283 individuals were detained.

Pepsi to open 'green' plant in Kunming
PepsiCo Inc announced last Friday that it will build a 'green' bottling plant in Kunming and four other cities in China in the coming two years, according to a Reuters report.

The announcement comes after the world's second-largest soft drink producer announced the opening of a new facility in Chongqing that satisfies the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, which employ water- and energy-saving systems.

In addition to a plant in Kunming – where rival Coca-Cola Co already has a bottling facility – PepsiCo said it will open plants in the cities of Zhengzhou, Quanzhou, Lanzhou and Nanchang.

Jin Feibao image: jinfeibao8844.com

One week to the day after two bus bombs killed two and injured 14 on two number 54 buses on Renmin Xi Lu in Kunming, the city was on edge once more as rumors of another explosion Monday night – this time a K2 bus – spread like wildfire via text messages and phone calls.

Local media is reporting that "another abnormal incident occurred" Monday night at 8:40 – once again on Renmin Xi Lu – near the intersection of Haiyuan Lu. At a press conference this morning, Kunming police spokesman Liu Zheng said the incident was a tire blowout.

According to local reports, the bus in question was driven away shortly after police and ambulances arrived at 8:50. Some people at the scene said they thought there was an explosion on the bus, while others said a tire had exploded.

Unlike last week's explosions, which shattered all the windows on the two buses that were attacked, last night's bus in question reportedly had no broken windows, with only an oil stain on the road left behind after it left the scene.

Last Wednesday, a video purportedly released by the Turkestan Islamic Party claimed responsibility for the July 21 bus attacks in Kunming, saying further attacks would take place throughout China, aimed at stopping the Olympics. A spokesman for the Yunnan Public Security Bureau said no connection had been found between the bus attacks and terrorist organizations.

Despite any evidence that last night's incident was a deliberate man-made explosion, bars, restaurants and entertainment venues were on high alert and searching customer bags thoroughly.

In what may or may not be a related event, three China Southern flights – two to Guiyang and one to Changsha – were delayed at 9:40 Monday night at Kunming Wujiaba International Airport for "weather reasons".

The passengers, numbering more than 170, were not provided with food or lodging by China Southern, and slept in the departure hall or elsewhere at the airport after some took taxis to a hotel China Southern told them they had prepared for them, only to be turned away by the hotel at 2 am Tuesday morning.

This morning, several of the passengers clashed with airport police, smashing computers, desks and other items.

Related articles:

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Kunming on high alert after double bus bombing

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Kunming bus attacks: Police triple reward as new clue emerges

Official: Uighur group not responsible for Kunming bus attacks

Two weeks before the start of the Olympics in Beijing, China is denying claims made in a video that has been linked to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) that the group is responsible for the fatal July 21 bus bombings in Kunming.

In addition to the Kunming bus attacks, the group is also claiming to be behind a May 5 bus explosion in Shanghai. The video also states that the ETIM-linked group is planning more attacks on China during the Olympics, which begin on August 8 and will be held in seven Chinese cities, including Beijing.

ETIM is officially considered a terrorist organization by China, the US, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and the United Nations. ETIM's primary goal is to split Xinjiang – known as East Turkestan prior to annexation by China in 1955 – from the mainland. Xinjiang is the homeland of the Uighur ethnic group, a Turkic people which is predominantly Muslim.


In the video – a copy of which has been posted on YouTube – two masked and armed men stand behind a masked man calling himself Commander Seyfullah of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), which US-based private intelligence service Stratfor says is another name used by ETIM. The video includes scenes of the aftermath of the Kunming bus attacks plus other bus attacks.

In the first official response to the video, a Yunnan official said no link between terrorism and the bus attacks has been found so far. Five days after bus bombings in Kunming that killed two and injured 14, police have yet to announce any major clues in the case.

"We have noticed media reports about the claims, but so far, no evidence has been found to indicate the explosions were connected with terrorists and their attacks, or with the Beijing Olympics," a Yunnan Public Security Bureau spokesman told Xinhua, according to a Reuters report.

Stratfor notes that this year TIP has begun to make noise on the Internet, with videos featuring calls for a Uighur jihad against China, training scenes, executions of at least three Han Chinese, and profiles of the group and its former leader Hasan Mahsum, who was killed in Pakistan in 2003.

ETIM fractured after Mahsum's death and many of its members relocated to Afghanistan. After 2003, ETIM has been linked to Uzbek and other foreign militants operating around the border area shared by Afghanistan and Pakistan. More recently, TIP has been releasing a growing number videos, most notably an April 2008 video in which it warned China it would attack the Olympics, according to Stratfor.

TIP's leader is believed to be a man named Abdul Haq, who worked with Mahzum to train Uighur militants in Afghanistan in 2001 and has ordered attacks on central China. According to a transcript released by US-based IntelCenter, Commander Seyfullah states in the video – which is dated July 23rd – that:

"Our damullah, Abdul Heq [Haq], made his final order to the [person] responsible for the military regarding the issue of severely attacking all central cities in inner China, particularly focusing on eight cities that are going to hold Olympic games. ... ask our merciful Allah to allow these brothers and sisters [suicide bombers] to deal a fatal blow in this jihad against Chinese and we ask our merciful Allah to completely stop Olympic Games. ... Bomb Chinese government buildings, military barracks, airplanes, airports, railways, hotels, entertainment venues, tourist spots and similar places...You're even permitted to use biological weapons this time."

While ETIM/TIP are considered to have the operational capacity to strike mainland China outside of Xinjiang, analysts are skeptical of TIP's claims to be behind the Kunming and Shanghai attacks, with some suggesting an attempt by a group – which may or may not be TIP – to increase China's terrorism jitters before the Olympics by claiming responsibility for unrelated incidents around the country this year.

Related articles:

Two dead, 14 injured in Kunming bus explosions

Kunming on high alert after double bus bombing

Investigation into bomb attacks continues, injured recovering

Kunming bus attacks: Police triple reward as new clue emerges

With much of the city's traffic in disarray, travelers leaving Kunming via Kunming Wujiaba International Airport have needed to allow some extra time for their journey to the airport. Now that the airport has tightened security – especially with regards to liquids – it is advisable to give yourself even more time.

According to Kunming media reports more than 60 percent of passengers going through the airport's security check have had their bags searched recently. The increase in security at the airport – which previously had been quite lax – has reportedly led to many travelers missing their flights.

The recent tightening of security comes after Chinese media reported a foiled hijacking of an Urumqi-Beijing flight last week, which quickly and mysteriously disappeared from Chinese media.

On an unrelated note, Indian media is reporting that a China Eastern flight from Kolkata to Kunming this weekend had to dump its fuel and make an emergency landing when the plane's landing gear failed to retract after takeoff.