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The Chinese government is calling for the United States to hand over several ethnic Uighurs from northwestern Xinjiang province who were captured while fighting with Taliban forces in Afghanistan. Washington thus far has refused, as it does not recognize Uighur separatists as terrorists. For Beijing, this is a test case for Washington’s stance that there are no good terrorists, and it may have broader implications for U.S.-Chinese relations.
In a Dec. 11 press conference, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said if Chinese nationals were captured in Afghanistan, “they should be sent back to China and dealt with in accordance to [Chinese] law.”
However, Gen. Francis X. Taylor, the U.S. special envoy on counter-terrorism, told Chinese officials the detained Uighurs would not be repatriated, as Washington does not regard the independence movement for East Turkestan – the Uighur name for Xinjiang – as a terrorist organization. Washington’s apparent obstinacy sours Beijing’s view of U.S. reliability in anti-terrorism coalition efforts. That view will carry over into other aspects of China’s relations with the United States.
China’s cooperation and support for the U.S.-led international campaign against terrorism stemmed from self-serving goals. Beijing sought to enhance its international political standing, to refocus Washington’s perception of a “China threat” and to gain international acceptance of its own battle against separatist forces in Xinjiang and Tibet. Yet like Russia and India, China is finding that the anti-terrorism coalition targets only those the United States deems a threat – while Chechens, Kashmiris, Uighurs and Tibetans are for the most part ignored.
Chinese security forces stepped up efforts to crush Uighur separatism after Sept. 11, expanding upon an extant “strike hard” campaign that targets criminal and separatist elements. Government officials repeatedly have warned that Beijing will not tolerate separatism or social disturbances under the guise of religion – a warning that encompasses groups including the Muslim Uighurs as well as Tibetans and Falun Gong practitioners.
Beijing claims Uighur separatists are terrorists responsible for several acts of violence in China and abroad. On Nov. 14, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangguo detailed several specific instances, including a 1996 prison riot and bombings in Xinjiang in 1992, 1993 and 1997. Zhu also accused Uigher terrorists of a 1998 bombing at the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, the May 2000 killing of a Chinese official in Kyrgyzstan and the deaths of two policemen in Kazakhstan in September the same year.
In November, Vice Prime Minister Qian Qichen told Mary Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, that around 1,000 of China’s 10 million Muslims had trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Beijing also has claimed that around 100 Uighurs were thought to be in Afghanistan, and they likely fought on the side of the Taliban.
Robinson cautioned the government not to use the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse to suppress ethnic minorities, but Beijing assured her that it was targeting only terrorists – who incidentally were linked to Washington’s public enemy number one, Osama bin Laden. On Dec. 6, Rashid Niyaz, vice director of the Xinjiang Ethnic and Religious Affairs Commission, countered the continued criticism, telling the official China Daily that “Muslims in Xinjiang are going on with their normal religious life.”
Yet Beijing harbors deep-seated fears that religious and ethnic loyalties ultimately threaten the authority and even existence of the Chinese Communist Party. At a Dec. 10-12 conference on religion, top party and government officials urged greater party leadership over religion. President Jiang Zemin said that religion should not be allowed to be used to challenge party leadership or destroy ethnic unity, according to the China Daily. Jiang also emphasized the close link between religion and China’s social stability, national security and foreign relations.
It is this recognition of the effect China’s religious policies have on foreign relations that stirred Beijing to seek international understanding for its crackdown in Xinjiang in the first place. But China’s leaders now are casting a skeptical eye on Washington’s commitment to cooperation and enhanced relations with Beijing. The decision against repatriating Uighurs captured in Afghanistan marks just another example – from Beijing’s point of view – of Washington’s double standard on international issues. China’s terrorists are not the same as the United States’ terrorists.
The case of the Uighurs will not, in itself, wreck Chinese-U.S. relations. But it does add to Beijing’s underlying distrust of Washington’s promises. This feeling was only reinforced by Washington’s decision to withdraw from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty despite strong opposition from Moscow, Beijing and even some of Washington’s allies in Europe.
China will undergo a leadership transition during the next two years as a new generation takes the helm. This offers an opportunity to redefine U.S.-China relations, but Washington and Beijing’s understanding now will strongly affect the outcome
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