HOW'S THAT SOFT POWER WORKING OUT FOR THEM?:

Mosque siege reveals the Chinese connection (Howard W. French, July 12, 2007, NY Times)

Seminarians in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, who were associated with the city's notorious Red Mosque, site of a recent gun battles and a military siege, were scouring the town in search of redoubts of "loose morals."

After weeks of free rein in the city attacking fellow Pakistanis, the squads of self-appointed enforcers of strict Shariah, consisting of armed male and female students, raised the stakes, and selected a foreign target.

On June 23, the seminarians entered a Chinese-run health care center, which is often a euphemism for sex parlor, and kidnapped seven Chinese people, including five females whom they believed to be prostitutes.