RICHARD BERNSTEIN, ELY RATNER, JEFFREY PAYNE
China File - 09.26.14
Richard Bernstein: Of course, they should. But
can they? Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 in the United States,
China has defined almost any dissent from its policies there as examples
of international terrorism. It has also consistently tried to win
western acquiescence in its suppression of the Uighurs by claiming that
all Uighur protests, whether peaceful or violent, against China’s harsh
rule in Xinjiang amount to terrorism. For well over a decade, China’s
propaganda has identified a group it calls the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement, or ETIM, as a main instigator of Uighur violence in China,
saying that ETIM has training camps in the borderlands of Afghanistan
and Pakistan and is closely linked to al-Qaeda.
Given the absence of peaceful avenues of protest and the mounting
frustrations of many Uighurs, it is certainly possible that some Uighurs
have joined extremist Muslim groups, and perhaps have instigated some
of the Uighur violence. Still, China has been able to produce no
persuasive evidence that any Uighurs at all, much less a significant
number of them, have actually joined the international
jihad.
Still less has it demonstrated that Uighur violence in China is
anything other than local rage at China’s various methods of control,
rather than part of the international jihadist movement.
Given this troubling circumstance, could China make a useful
contribution in the newest anti-terrorist battleground, against ISIS in
Syria and Iraq? In general, China’s participation in international
anti-terrorism efforts has so far been limited to support for UN
Security Council resolutions. In the past day or so, for example, China
supported a resolution, sponsored by the United States, demanding that
countries take action to stop the flow of foreign jihadists to Syria and
Iraq. The online Chinese daily Global Times
reports
that China has also promised to “strengthen our cooperation with
various parties in intelligence sharing and personnel training.”
This could be a positive step. If China chooses to make a real
contribution against real, as opposed to imaginary, terrorists, that
would, of course, be welcome. But so far, the indication is that that
China will attempt to use the new situation, as it did the attacks on
9/11, to divert attention from its repression of peaceful and lawful
dissent in Xinjiang, illustrated most recently and most starkly by the
life sentence
meted out to the peaceful Uighur scholar-dissident Ilhan Tothi. If the
rest of the world allows this “cooperation” to take place, it will not
be so much gaining Chinese help in the real anti-terrorism fight as it
will be collaborating in China’s ongoing violations of the rights of
its Uighur citizens.
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Given this troubling circumstance, could China make a useful contribution in the newest anti-terrorist battleground, against ISIS in Syria and Iraq? In general, China’s participation in international anti-terrorism efforts has so far been limited to support for UN Security Council resolutions. In the past day or so, for example, China supported a resolution, sponsored by the United States, demanding that countries take action to stop the flow of foreign jihadists to Syria and Iraq. The online Chinese daily Global Times reports that China has also promised to “strengthen our cooperation with various parties in intelligence sharing and personnel training.”
This could be a positive step. If China chooses to make a real contribution against real, as opposed to imaginary, terrorists, that would, of course, be welcome. But so far, the indication is that that China will attempt to use the new situation, as it did the attacks on 9/11, to divert attention from its repression of peaceful and lawful dissent in Xinjiang, illustrated most recently and most starkly by the life sentence meted out to the peaceful Uighur scholar-dissident Ilhan Tothi. If the rest of the world allows this “cooperation” to take place, it will not be so much gaining Chinese help in the real anti-terrorism fight as it will be collaborating in China’s ongoing violations of the rights of its Uighur citizens.