China's tough Xinjiang policy backfires
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING - China's success in eliminating clusters of Muslim insurgencies in the
western province of Xinjiang may have pushed an alleged separatist movement
across the border into Pakistan and Afghanistan, exposing it to greater
influences by jihadi groups in those countries.
With the Beijing Summer Olympic Games well underway, the Muslim majority
province of Xinjiang has seen a spate of deadly attacks on government
establishments and security personnel. Three violent incidents over the past 10
days have been interspersed with the release of two videos threatening the
Olympics. In the latest assault, which took place on Tuesday near the border
city of Kashgar, three security staff manning a
road checkpoint were stabbed to death.
"Since the beginning of this year we have seen the deployment of some new
tactics by insurgents," says Professor Chu Shulong, head of the Institute for
International Strategic Studies at Qinghua University. "They are no longer
targeting civilians by planting bombs on buses as they did in the 1990s but
attacking government personnel, army and the police. This is aimed at winning
the general population on their side."
While difficult to be independently verified, the incidents showed a high level
of coordination, creating a thread of unrest in southern Xinjiang through a
series of bombings and armed assaults. In one incident two attackers rammed a
truck into a group of police in the city of Kashgar and then attacked them with
knives and homemade grenades, killing 16. Another attack followed several days
later, with bombers hitting 17 targets, including a police station and a
government building in the city of Kuqa.
No group has claimed responsibility. Li Wei, China authority on terrorism
issues, has blamed the attacks on the East Turkestan movement, a group that
China alleges is engaged in separatist activities seeking to establish an
independent state. But the online appearance of two videotaped threats against
the Beijing Olympics has been linked to the Turkestan Islamic Party - a group
experts say is an offshoot of the secessionist movement with ties to al-Qaeda.
Resentment against Chinese rule in Xinjiang has flared for years. Many among
China's eight million Uyghurs - Turkic people that make up the biggest Muslim
group in the region - dream of recreating a fabled "Kashgaria". The short-lived
kingdom sprang up after a prolonged Muslim rebellion against the Qing Dynasty
in the mid-19th century. China's Manchu rulers eventually reconquered the
region and in 1884 created Xinjiang (new frontier) province.
Except during the brief existence of the two East Turkestan republics - in
mid-1930s and after the end of World War II - the Uyghurs have continuously
struggled in their quest for national identity, for most part away from the
world's gaze.
But after the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, China claimed
that the al-Qaeda had trained more than 1,000 members of the East Turkestan
Islamic Movement. Beijing succeeded in placing the group on the terrorist lists
of the US and United Nations and resorted to a hard-line policy aimed at
stifling unrest.
Through propaganda and extended security crackdowns the authorities have
managed to put a lid on simmering ethnic resentment, but recent attacks have
sparked fears that tough measures and omnipresent control may have driven more
disaffected Uyghurs into joining the ranks of the global jihad movement.
"China's success in fighting those terrorists at home has made it impossible
for them to survive underground and many are now training abroad," says Chu.
"In 2001, it may have been premature to say that the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement was part of the global jihad but by now many of its elements have
spent so much time in the tribal border areas of Pakistan that we can't really
say for sure what cause they stand for," says John Harrison of the
Singapore-based International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism
Research.
However, the coordinated targeting of symbols of the Chinese government in
recent attacks shows a shift to tactics used by more traditional insurgent
groups. "I would say there is less radicalization than before," Harrison
suggests. "They are trying to show that their actions are aimed at whom they
view as their main opponent - the Chinese government."
The continuous violence underscores China's undying problem with its restive
ethnic minorities in far-flung regions like Xinijang and Tibet.
Chinese leaders like to take credit for developing the border regions, but
Beijing's increasingly tight control on all aspects of the lives of minorities,
including religious belief and cultural identity, have bred resentment.
China's most recent drive to assert control over the resource-rich Xinjiang
region, through the "Go West" campaign, has spurred new investment and a wave
of Han Chinese immigration, which has alienated the Uyghurs. In 1949 when the
communist party came to power, the Uyghurs were 90% of the population of
Xinjiang. Today they account for less than half.
This week, the government defended its record in the province. Mu
Tielifuhasimu, commissioner of the region's administration, said the majority
of Uyghurs are happy in Xinjiang and enjoy the freedom to practice their
religion. "The overall situation is extremely good," he told a press
conference.
Meanwhile, in Beijing state councilor Meng Jianzhu was meeting with Rehman
Malik, adviser to the Pakistani prime minister on interior affairs and asking
for more support from Islamabad in fighting terrorism. President Pervez
Musharraf had admitted earlier that there were a number of Uyghur rebels from
Xinjiang undergoing terrorist training in Pakistan's tribal areas.
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