China's Far West provinces (inc. Tibet)

[davidbfpo]

Now this is interesting, notably the numbers involved and the report starts with:

A few months ago, in a remote town in Idlib province, northern Syria, an unusual foreign militant presence alarmed Syrian locals. The fighters were reportedly of the Muslim Uighur minority from Xinjiang province in Western China. For a population which has grown used to the multinational nature of the militancy, two aspects of these new fighters struck them: their large numbers and their ethnicity. A year ago, they were barely hundreds of Uighur fighters, belonging to the Al-Nusra Front-allied Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). Today, according to several sources in the province, there are a few thousand Uighur fighters, and many of them arrived with their families after a long and treacherous journey from China and central Asia.

Link:http://english.alarabiya.net/en/pers...fighters-.html

From a "lurker":

Some interesting tidbits in here, but also gross errata. that frustrating mix...

[davidbfpo]

A "broad brush" overview and hat tip to WoTR:http://warontherocks.com/2016/04/cou...hur-militants/

A small taster:

Beijing’s strategy can be condensed into three prominent — but inherently conflicting — themes: domestic crackdown, repatriation from abroad, and non-interference.

[davidbfpo]

From Radio Free Asia a short report that illustrates that violent incidents are not being publicly reported by the PRC authorities, such as this presumably grisly attack:

As many as 28 may have died following a knife and bomb attack by a group of ethnic Uyghurs on a police traffic checkpoint in Kashgar on June 22, 2015...

Link:http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uygh...016164050.html

[AdamG]

The Islamic State is now setting its sights on China, releasing on Monday a half-hour video in which they pledged to “shed blood like rivers” in attacks against Chinese targets. Experts say it’s the first threat the terrorist organization has leveled against China.

http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-...res-why-2017-3

[davidbfpo]

An unusually long commentary by the BBC's China Editor and the title ''All-out offensive' in Xinjiang risks worsening grievances'.

So China is just like many other nations facing terrorism:

In Xinjiang, recent attacks may be small, but Beijing needs to show its public that it is doing something about them, even if that something is ineffectual or worse, counter-productive.

She concludes:

So China will go on failing to win the battle for hearts and minds in Xinjiang, and failing to convince the outside world that its offensive there is a clear-cut battle between good and evil.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-39137420

[Bill Moore]

http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-...res-why-2017-3

Always remain leery of the label expert, it is over used by the media to increase the impact of their stories. ISIS declared war on China in 2014, if not sooner, when published their map of the Caliphate that included western China. In 2009 al Qadea published a video declaring war on China, and both al Qaeda and ISIS made open threats against China last year.

This isn't just based on the perception that China is abusing its Uighurs, but historical grievances over China taking over that part of the Muslim world. If China supports Assad and Iran in Syria the terrorist threat to China will further increase.

[Bill Moore]

Another China expert accepts the unpleasant truth of China's trajectory towards deepening totalitarianism at home and abroad. The author goes into sufficient detail to show the clear linkage of how Xi's ideology deliberately aligns with Stalin, and why Xi thinks deviating from it would pose an existential threat the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The language in the previous posts describe how Xi leverages technology to revitalize Mao's Mass Line concept, and condition people to think along party lines. As the author in the article points out, ideology is the critical component of Mao's, and now Xi's totalitarianism.

Mao’s discursive advantage was Marxist-Leninist ideology. Language was not just a tool of moral judgment. It was an instrument for shaping acceptable behaviour and a weapon for distinguishing enemies and friends. This is the subtext of Mao’s most famous poem, Snow. Communist ideology enabled him to “weaponise” culture in a way his imperial predecessors had never managed.

https://nb.sinocism.com/p/engineers-...ul-ideology-in

Engineers of the Soul: Ideology in Xi Jinping's China by John Garnaut

Some now say he has become a China hawk, but I see it as more the evolution of a sophisticated China watcher who believes in seeking truth from facts, no matter how difficult it may be to accept the reality of the direction Xi and the CCP appear to be taking China. This is a trajectory I have found myself on, along with many of the most experienced foreign China watchers I know.

Stalin described artists and authors as "engineers of the human soul." They simply served for promoting the party and its views. In other words, art and writing was purely propaganda intended to as means to facilitate cultural and ideological security.

Xi uses the same ideological template to describe the role of “media workers”. And school teachers. And university scholars. They are all engineers of ideological conformity and cogs in the revolutionary machine.

Among the many things that China’s modern leaders did – including overseeing the greatest burst of market liberalisation and poverty alleviation the world has ever seen – those who won the internal political battles have retained the totalitarian aspiration of engineering the human soul in order to lead them towards the ever-receding and ever-changing utopian destination.

Combine the findings in this article, with the insights from the previous article, "The CCP Vision and Future of Chinese History," you'll gain a greater appreciation of incidious threat the CCP poses.