Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in China: the need for a constructive approach

Later with economic liberalization and China opening up to the world, a little bit of the terrorism situation in China changed at least the picture started to get out. The greatest terrorist concern that China faces is from separatist organisations affiliated with the Muslim Uighur minority, the majority of whom live in China's western Xinjiang Province. The Uighur people, who number around twelve million, are unique from the Chinese in terms of ethnicity, culture, and history. Their beginnings were situated to the west of China in the Turkish peoples, their language is closely linked to Turkish languages, and their faith is founded on Islam. They also have their customs. To understand what exactly going on in the region we need a much closer look at the scenario.

Terrorism:

One of the biggest threats from Xinjiang province is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), some small-time organizations were also active from time to time but didn’t last long enough to make any significant impact and there were actions by individuals without any affiliation to organizations. The government is successful in preventing terrorist attacks and suppressing the growth of terrorist organizations in the eastern part of China, most of the separatist movement and extremist activity is limited to the western part and Xinjiang province mostly.

 The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)

“The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) was designated a terrorist organization by Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, the United States, and the United Nations in 2002.”[1] It also referred to itself as the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) or the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP). According to the United Nations Security Council ETIM has maintained close ties with the Taliban, Al-Qaida, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan since its inception. It was founded by Hasan Mahsum, a Chinese citizen from Xinjiang who was killed by Pakistani troops in October 2003. Abdul Haq currently leads ETIM and was a member of Al-Shura Qaida's Council in 2005.

The main sources of finance for ETIM activities were Usama bin Laden (dead) and Al-Qaida, ETIM has tight financial ties with Al-Qaida. as well as an organised crimes such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, abduction, extortion, and looting. ETIM finds and recruits criminals and terrorists who have escaped China, and discreetly supplies them with terrorist training. ETIM has received major backing from Al-Qaida and the Taliban, as well as Usama bin Laden, and has sent individuals to Al-Qaida and Taliban training camps. Following completion of training, ETIM members have flown to Afghanistan, Kashmir, the Russian Federation's Chechnya, and China to carry out terrorist and other violent activities. ETIM is also contemplating utilising Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as transit countries for the unlawful movement of fighters. The ETIM moved a significant amount of its presence into Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The movement of the organization was due to the crackdown of the government on the organisations, this movement worked in benefit for the organization and increased their web of ties with other Jihadi organizations like Taliban and al-Qaeda.

The ETIM was involved in various bus bombings in China, assassinations shootings and even knife attacks done by the group. They tried to hijack a plane in 2008 and attacked security forces in China. ETIM spread its wings to foreign nations as well, there were confirmed and speculated attacks by ETIM in foreign nations, they have done numerous attacks against Han Chinese people in Pakistan and they plotted attacks in Norway and Dubai as well, ETIM even successfully conducted an attack in Beijing in 2013 which was the first terrorist attack in Beijing in the recent history at that time.

The incidents of terrorism increased in numbers after the 1990s, and the population of Uygur Muslims also increased rapidly in the past decades. China has around 40 million Muslim population. And around 25 million of that population residing in Xinjiang province.

Counter-Terrorism:

From the discussion, it is safe to say that China does have a terrorism problem, that requires a strict counter-terrorism policy. China has developed a long-term strategy for combating the root cause of terrorism based on the ideological imperatives of Xi Jinping, this is a part of the effort to support the centenary goals of the PRC, this includes the need to actively guide people of all ethnic groups in improving their sense of identification with our great country and assisting them in identifying with the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics

China has a controversial and complex approach to the evolving ethno-religious tensions. When talking about the minorities it has been said that the minorities will have nothing but “bright prospects for the future if they bind their destiny to that of the entire Chinese nation”.

A spectrum of counter-terrorism policies is being used by China to counter 

·        Violent Terrorismthe need to actively guide people of all ethnic groups in improving their sense of identification with our great country and assisting them in identifying with the Chinese nation, Chinese culture, and the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

·        Ethnic separatism

·        Religious extremism

The Han Chinese population in the Xinjian region also increased significantly from 7% in 1940 to more than 45% of the population in the province now. This influx of a large Han Chinese population is also considered a strategy of the Chinese government. China is reportedly implementing Document Number Nine (or Document No. 9), more properly the Communiqué on the Current State of the Ideological Sphere, which talks about 7 dangerous western values and teaching those values is forbidden in the region according to the reports. It is a confidential internal document of the government. This also involved a few characteristics that are related indirectly to counter-terrorism in the region. China has used a “strike hard” policy campaign to control the militancy in the region, they increased the security personnel present in the region by many folds which increased manpower and spending in the region. Cutting off the internet and mobile communications, identification checks in common in the region. 

China released a series of white papers in 2019 to justify its actions in Xinjiang province. Which explained the views of China’s government on the Xinjiang region and explained their actions with assessment. One of the assessments says that “Law-based de-radicalisation has been launched in Xinjiang to deal with illegal religious activities, illegal religious publicity materials, and illegal spread of religions through the Internet, which has effectively curbed the breeding and spread of religious extremism”.[2]

The western media has always been ready to show their views on powerful countries like China and Russia which don’t live and breathe on western terms, sanctions were imposed on China, and many western countries diplomatically boycotted the recent Winter Olympics which were held in China, there were reported grave human rights violations and Xinjiang province, the western media called it an ongoing “genocide” on Uygur Muslim population in the province. China has also retaliated with similar sanctions against the European and accused them of spreading lies. The representatives from China retaliated by citing the invasions by the USA in the name of the “War on Terror” and mentioned the suffering it caused in the Middle East region.

The Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of China Zhao Lijian commented on the counter-terrorism policy in the Xinjiang region, Zhao tells that the “violence and terrorism have inflicted the greatest harm on the human rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and counter-terrorism and de-radicalization are the greatest protection for the human rights of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.” Zhao also tells that there has been no violent terrorist attack in Xinjiang for five years.?he said that the region is currently enjoying security, stability, development?and prosperity,?and?the?people?there?live a happy?and?fulfilling?life. He also mentioned that this is the finest example of Xinjiang's counter-terrorism and de-radicalization operations' efficacy. I believe that foreign visitors visiting Xinjiang from all walks of life, including the High Commissioner, will be able to form impartial and fair conclusions. China strongly believes that the Chinese dream can only be achieved only when all citizens actively participate in the national renewal and rejuvenation process.

Policies of China against religious freedom sound draconian but they didn’t target any specific religion as in Islam but the restrictions apply to all religions. As China doesn’t have a free media, the amount of accurate data coming from China regarding Xinjiang province is hard to verify as people use multiple sources to verify a data, the Terrorism is a war every country is fighting for a long time, without defeating it permanently, China did commit grave human rights violations according to the reports that came out from Xinjiang province but the particular narrative of China is actively being circulated in media and being used to criticize China relentlessly all the while many far more serious human right violations are going on currently across the world. China’s policies are getting more attention from the western media than any other country that is not an ally or a supporter of the west. China is getting this special attention due to its current position as the rising superpower in the world. China will continue to need a strict counter-terrorism policy to ensure the security and stability of the western part of the state. It may need to reconsider a few aspects of the policy which are discriminatory and violate some basic human rights in light of the international scrutiny but China hasn’t shown any signs of reconsidering the policy and is unlikely to do so until and unless any rapid change in and around the situation.

Notes

[1]Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement: A Case Study of a New Terrorist Organization in China

John Z. Wang https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306624X03255803?journalCode=ijoe

[2] The State Council (2019), “Full text: The Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang”, The People’s Republic of China, 18 March 2019, http://english.www.gov.cn/archive/white_paper/2019/03/18/content_281476567813306.htm 

Pic Courtsey-Ling Tang at unsplash.com

(The views expressed are those fo the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)