A terrorist attack in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, left at least 31 dead and 94 injured on May 22, according to local authorities.

Two vehicles without license plates broke through roadside fences and plowed into crowds at an open air market at Park North Street near Renmin Park at 7:50 a.m. and explosive devices were set off, a statement issued by the regional government revealed.

In response to the attack, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to severely punish terrorists and spare no efforts in maintaining stability.

Xi asked local authorities to solve the case quickly, put the injured under proper care and offer condolences to the families of the victims.

All injured were rushed to hospitals. The regional government has launched an emergency response system and organized medical efforts for treatment of the injured, said the statement.

Witnesses who saw the two off-road vehicles drive into people from the south end of the market. Explosives were thrown before the vehicles exploded.

Many of the injured were elderly people who frequently visited the morning market, according to witnesses.

A business owner in the market told Xinhua News Agency that he heard a dozen large explosions.

Cyber Security

Latest data from the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Coordination Center of China (NCNERTTCC) showed that from March 19 to May 18, a total of 2,077 Trojan horse networks or botnet servers in the United States directly controlled 1.18 million host computers in China.

The NCNERTTCC found 135 host computers in the United States carrying 563 phishing pages targeting Chinese websites that led to 14,000 phishing operations. In the same period, the center found 2,016 IP addresses in the United States had implanted backdoors in 1,754 Chinese websites, leading to 57,000 backdoor attacks.

Hackers in the United States have attacked, infiltrated and tapped into Chinese networks belonging to the government, institutions, enterprises, universities and major communication networks. Activities have targeted Chinese leaders, ordinary citizens and mobile phone users.

Windows 8 Ban

China has announced that it will forbid the installation of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system (OS) on government computers, a move that looks to ensure computer security in the wake of Microsoft dropping support for Windows XP.

All desktops, laptops and tablet PCs that are purchased by state organs must use an OS other than Windows 8, according to an online statement by the Central Government Procurement Center.

The measure only targets computers used by government offices, while the personal computer market is expected to stay unaffected.

Currently, most government computers run Windows XP, which has a 70-percent market share in China. However, Microsoft ended support for this 13-year-old system on April 8, citing safety concerns and appeals for domestically designed OS. China has also pledged to focus on the development of its own OS, which is to be based on Linux.