If it was Xinjiang province then we are talking about the Uighers. Yes, it is true that they are almost all muslims and I would normally call this islamoterrorism. But, in this case it probably isn't. I would instead chalk it up to plain old garden variety anti-government terrorism. You see, the ChiComms come into this area and pretty much take over. They ship ethnic Chinese in and give them all of the government administrative jobs, award all government work to ethnic Chinese and make life miserable for the natives in every sense possible. In this case the natives just happen to be muslims. My contention is that anyone, regardless of religious affiliation, anyone with some sense of self respect would fight the ChiComm bastards tooth and nail. It would be refreshing to see the Dali Lama's people turn on their oppressors but being pacifists (and cowards) that's not going to happen. Freedom isn't free and the Uighers, even though they be muslim scum, understand that.
And, if it did turn out to be actual jihadi activity, I'm personally okay with the ChiComms (enablers of the Iranians and other wretched state terrorism sponsors) getting some of it themselves. They richly deserve it.