A Chinese government-backed newspaper recently criticized CNN for publishing an opinion piece disputing the Communist Party's claims that Muslim Uighur extremists were behind the recent attack on Tiananmen.

The assault left five people, including three passengers in a Jeep that smashed through dozens of pedestrians and police officers, dead and around 40 injured.

"CNN is way out of line this time," the Global Times' Nov. 4 editorial read, referring to the American news organization's piece titled, "Tiananmen crash: Terrorism or cry of desperation?" written by Sean Roberts, a professor at George Washington University who specializes in the Turkic Uighur ethnic group, TIME reported.

"It is of a vile nature to present such a view at the mainstream media," the Global Times stated.

Following the attack on China's core venue for political dealings, the country's security czar announced that investigators probing the assault found the East Turkestan Islamic Movement was responsible. The Movement, which the United States dubbed a terrorist organization more than 12 years ago, was said to have been involved after the Chinese government reportedly found signs with "radical extremist" rhetoric in the vehicle.

The two countries have long fought over disputed land that they both claim is theirs, and that they have named separately - the Uighurs consider East Turkestan their homeland while China's Xinjiang is the largest of its provinces.

For a while, the area was independent from China, but is now under its control once more.

The Uighurs have been blamed for a handful of fatal attacks, including dual 2008 strikes in Kashgar and a bus bombing in Beijing in 1997.

Roberts wrote in his piece that Beijing's "lack of transparency historically" concerning the conviction of Uighurs on political-related violence is enough to question "the characterization of [last] Monday's events."

In his article, Roberts commented on the repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang, including religious expression bans and Han migrants who take many of the highest-paying jobs from native residents of the area.

"One feels compelled to question whether Monday's alleged attack was a well-prepared terrorist act or a hastily assembled cry of desperation from a people on the extreme margins of the Chinese state's monstrous development machine," Roberts wrote.

The Global Times fired back with its response, saying that CNN had just lost a huge following.

"By publishing an ill-intentioned commentary, CNN lost its reputation amoung Chinese readers, as well as jeopardizing the image of the U.S.," the news organization wrote. 

This isn't the first time China has criticized CNN - in 2008, a group of Chinese lawyers filed a lawsuit against the news network, saying that commentator Jack Cafferty violated the dignity of the Chinese people when he called them "goons."