Separatists or terrorists in western China?

With China adding its voice to the coalition to end global terrorism, some observers worry that the Asian giant may use the current fight against terrorists as carte blanche to wage an anti-Islamic campaign on separatists in western China.

Similarly, Russia has been using the worldwide campaign to justify its military activities in rebellious Chechnya.

At the recent summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group, or APEC, in Shanghai, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin joined together to call for the elimination of terrorists in Chechnya and western China as part of the global war on terrorism.

Chinese officials at the summit told Hong Kong’s Zhongguo Tongxun She Chinese language newspaper that East Turkistan was rife with national separatists who intend to separate Xinjiang from China and establish a so-called “East Turkistan” state by violent and terrorist means.

Said one official, “It has been proven by irrefutable evidence that the East Turkistan terrorist elements, as we call them, have indeed committed and manipulated a number of terrorist acts in Xinjiang, and it has been clearly indicated in their program that they will resort to violence. This is out-and-out terrorism. There is also clear evidence showing that some of them once received training in terrorists’ training camps in Afghanistan.”

China has experienced political, cultural and religious unrest in its western regions for centuries. Most recent are the intermittent outbursts of tension between the province of Xinjiang’s ethnic Uighur population and Han Chinese settlers, who have flooded into the vast region in recent years. Beijing has vowed to stamp out the activities of separatists in Xinjiang fighting for an independent state.

The most serious recent incidents in Xinjiang came in 1997 with violent anti-Chinese riots in the town of Yining, as well as explosions in the region and in Beijing, which were blamed on separatists.

Fighting against activities that advocate “Xinjiang independence” is not the persecution of minorities, stressed an official from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing.

Said the official, “The ‘East Turkistan’ [group] is a terrorist force that aims to separate China; and acting in cahoots with international terrorist organizations, it has committed a host of horrifying incidents of terror and has caused heavy casualties, both inside China and in China’s neighboring countries. Facing the present circumstances wherein the international community is stepping up its cooperation against terrorism, ‘East Turkistan’ is now attempting to disguise itself in a different garb so that it can continue its activities of separating China under the signboard of human rights, democracy and protection of the rights of minorities. However, no matter how it may change its tricks, it can never change its nature as a terrorist group.”

According to Pan Zhiping, director of the Institute of Central Asian Studies under the Xinjiang Regional Academy of Social Sciences, separatist forces in East Turkistan “… make use of religion, and their slogan is to ‘defend Islam, oppose heretics and liberate East Turkistan.'”

Xinjiang national separatist forces outside the country have been giving support to those inside. Pan says they have stepped up arms infiltration into the country, raised funds through drug trafficking and smuggling, prepared arms and ammunitions, and have committed such acts of violence as bombings and assassinations in a number of influential locations in Xinjiang.

According to Pan, over the past couple of years, Xinjiang national separatist groups outside the country have obtained support and aid spiritually and materially from international terrorist groups like al-Qaida and have acted in cooperation with such groups, hoping to launch an armed infiltration into the country.

Meanwhile, the French Press Agency reported this week that more than 1,700 illegally held weapons were destroyed last week in Xinjiang.

According to the report, “The operation was carried out by police from the production and construction corps, a state farming organization originally set up by the army and now dominated by ethnic-Han Chinese in the region,” citing a press release by the semi-official China News Service.

The article continued, “The arms were seized over the previous five months, following a previous destruction process in May, the report said. In all, more than 3,300 firearms, 45,000 bullets, over six tons of explosives and 50,000 sticks of dynamite, as well as other weapons, had been destroyed in the region since the start of the year.”

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