M K Dhar
China’s western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is fast becoming a hotbed of terrorism fanned by militant Islamists with the help of external forces. Scarcely a week passes without anti-Government violence committed by activists of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement seeking separation. The recent deadly knife attacks in Kunming city that left 33, including four separatists, dead and over 150 injured came as a big shock to the Chinese leadership on the eve of the National people’s Congress meeting which reacted angrily to this outrage, calling it an “organised, pre-meditated, violent terrorist attack” and threatened to enact an anti-terrorism law specially to deal with the menace.
In the past two months more than 100 people have been killed in terrorist violence in the region, home to some 8 million Muslim Uyghur’s of Turkic origin forcing the Government, once again, to raise the matter with Pakistan, which provides sanctuary to several international terrorist groups, including the Uygur separatists from Xinjiang. In 2011 Chinese authorities had blamed Uyghur’s coming from Pakistan for attacks in the Xinjiang cities of Hotan and Kashgar. That made the then President Asif Ali Zardari rush to China and assure the authorities of Islamabad’s full cooperation in tackling the terrorist menace — a promise which was never fulfilled — so that bilateral relations were not affected. Islamabad has adopted a soft-glove approach towards terrorism and patronised several groups of them for use in Afghanistan and India in furtherance of its foreign policy objectives. Though Uyghur terrorists have been getting sanctuary inside Pakistan for long, its Government has not been able to lay hands on them, nor hand them over to Beijing for trial.
India was among the first countries to condemn the Kunming carnage and to renew the call for more effective international cooperation to deal with this menace. Beijing feels embarrassed because the Uyghur separatists attacks Xinjiang from bases in Pakistan — China’s “all weather friend” — and the attacks have kept on increasing, both in frequency and intensity. In 2012 Beijing had asked Islamabad o hand over six “core” members if the ETIM : Nurmemet Memetin, Abdulkyum Kurban, Paruh Tursun, Tursunjan Edibla, Nurmemet Raxit and Mamat Imin Nurmamet but failed to get them and the terror attacks have continued. Though India, China and Russia have been taking identical positions on the issue of terrorism affecting the region in bilateral interactions and at international forums, such as, the UN, BRICS and SCO, very little has happened by way of co-ordinated action or controlling the menance.
Since the integration of Xinjiang into China from 1949, the Uyghur Muslims have been resentful of Beijing’s rule. In 2009 hundreds of people were killed in street fighting between Uyghurs and Han Chinese, who arrived from other provinces to execute development works, build roads, railways and bridges and set up modern commercial establishments, including banks and explore oil and gas which abound in the region. The Uyghurs started blaming the Chinese authorities for pursuing, discriminatory policies, encouraging migration of the Han population to dilute their majority and not involving the local people in development and using the regions rich mineral wealth for the good of its poor people who, for centuries, had lived mainly on agriculture.
To tighten the noose on terrorists, China recently announced measures to freeze their assets and of their overseas affiliates. The People’s Bank of China said the step was intended to check terrorism in accordance with a United Nations resolution. But, the terrorists have their own assured sources of funding, though some even comes from Gulf Islamist charities which provide ample resources for spreading Islam world-wide and imposing Sharia rule in secular and modern Islamic countries. But the situation has further deteriorated, instead of improving, as is borne out by the increase in terrorist activity inside both Afghanistan, where the US and other forces are due to exit by the end of this year, and China, Beijing has adopted a major strategy to bring about all-round development in the Muslim majority Xinjiang in order to increase incomes and create jobs for the local population, whose level of literacy is below the national average.
Chinese officials blame the United States and some European countries for adopting “double standards” in dealing with terrorism and providing sanctuary to leaders of terrorist movements on the pretext of protecting human rights abuses of the minority community. Terrorists who menace western interests were punished, while others were released. When some countries in West and Central Asia faced disasters and local wars, some ETIM activists received military training and weapons and participated in them, for instance, while evicting the Soviet troops from Afghanistan. Countries adopting double standards had emboldened, the terrorists to indulge in more and more violence in the name of “national liberation” and “democracy” though, in the process, they actually endangered themselves.
Some reforms introduced by Communist China in Xinjiang which clashed with the Muslim social practices were not liked by the people. These related, in particular, to marriage and property ownership, including land, and women were granted equal rights with men and asked to shed the purdah. The Chinese Islamic Association took control of all the mosques in Xinjiang and look after their upkeep and functioning. Prayers are allowed in the 17,000 mosques but no religious propaganda, preaching of hatred or secession is permitted. International Islamist organisations have been fuelling discontent among the Uyghurs and provoking them to revolt in support of their separatist demand and imposition of Sharia Law
Peace in Xinjiang is important for China because the oil and gas pipelines from Kazakhstan to Beijing run through this region, which is undergoing development through connectivity with the countries to the west, as well south, particularly Pakistan. China is building an economic corridor from Xinjiang through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir down to the Gwadar port — which also China built — in order to provide it connectivity to the Arabian Sea and oil-rich Gulf. The existing Karakoram Highway is being widened and upgraded. China has already built one of its longest tunnels through which the proposed railway line form Xinjiang to Pakistan will pass. It is part of Beijing’s effort to help the economically-backward region to take advantage of the planned China-Pakistan corridor and also soften the separatist movement. The corridor will incorporate the 2,000 km transport link connecting Kashgar to Gwadar, which will include an oil pipeline as well. The project received a major boost when control of Gwadar port was transferred to China’s state-owned China Overseas Ports Holding Co ltd in February 2013.
While the difficult terrain has historically been an obstacle to boosting land connectivity, recently many Chinese firms have become wary of the security situation in Pakistan, with the growing intensity of terrorist violence and kidnap of some Chinese engineers. China has deployed several thousands workers, including People’s Liberation Army soldiers, on construction projects in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, over which India has protested on several occasions. Beijing has given the usual explanation that its activities in POK were not” to the detriment” of India’s concerns on the Kashmir issue. China was making only “commercial” investments without prejudice to the Kashmir dispute which India and Pakistan were committed to resolve bilaterally and through dialogue. The corridor involves construction of industrial parks as well, apart from building a railway line and energy pipeline to boost trade.
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