In a LA Times article on the March 1 attack, Philip Potter states that, although knives are low-tech, the attack showed sophistication because of the significant coordination and power projection. The attack occurred in Kumming, the capital of Yunnan province, when a group of assailants wielding large knives stormed into a railway station and attacked people at random.
Potter, who has written extensively about ethnic violence in China, said the attack showed sophistication despite the low-tech weapons because of the number of people involved, explaining that coordination at that scale is difficult to achieve. On the message of the attack, he stated:
"I see this as a constitution of the theme from the Tiananmen attack, though this is far more serious. The new goal is to project power and fear out of Xinjiang."