China's Far West provinces (inc. Tibet)

[bourbon]

Yes, disturbances are a regular occurrence in rural China, but Xinjiang is a flashpoint. Xinjiang is going to be China’s future Achilles Heel, if it isn’t already.

[davidbfpo]

On ICSR's blog 'Jihad in China', which opens with;

Islamist terrorism and extremism in China is a very difficult subject to research. A general sense of paranoia casts a shadow over the it and a great paucity in direct and accurate information means that people often have very little that is empirical or tangible to add.

None of this is to say that the problem does not exist.

(Ends with)It seems that there is some sort of a terrorist threat to China from violent Islamist networks. But what remains unclear is to what degree this threat is able to conduct any sorts of operations within China or to what degree al Qaeda and affiliate networks are able (or want) to manipulate it for their own ends. Currently, the jihad in China seems more aspirational than operational. At the same time, if events in Hotan are confirmed, it looks like the tinderbox of ethnic friction and disenfranchisement that might offer an outlet for such extremism to latch on to continues to exist.

Link:http://icsr.info/blog/Jihad-in-China

[davidbfpo]

China has said Islamic extremists were behind an attack on the eve of the Muslim fasting month in the restive western region of Xinjiang that left 11 people dead....

An initial police investigation found that the leaders of the group behind the attack had learned about explosives and firearms in Pakistan at a camp of the separatist "East Turkestan Islamic Movement," it said.

Police shot dead five people and arrested four others after they stormed a restaurant, set in on fire after killing the owner and a waiter, and then ran onto the street and hacked to death four people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-violence.html

I accept the only report cited is the official PRC news agency, although there are usually travellers in Kashgar travelling along the Karakoram Highway to Pakistan.

What is more interesting is the attack on a restaurant and the murders in the street. Extreme violence face to face and I expect in the knowledge there is no escape is not a good sign. My knowledge of the region is poor, could this be the first suicide terrorist attack? So breaking "the mould" and local, Muslim traditions?

There is a different BBC report:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14356532

[bourbon]

Originally Posted by davidbfpo

What is more interesting is the attack on a restaurant and the murders in the street. Extreme violence face to face and I expect in the knowledge there is no escape is not a good sign. My knowledge of the region is poor, could this be the first suicide terrorist attack? So breaking "the mould" and local, Muslim traditions?

Much of the violence in Xinjiang in recent years - and many of the attacks ascribed to East Turkestan groups there, have been with edged weapons, blunt instruments, or crude incendiary devices. Contrast this with ETIM in Pakistan (and Afghanistan?) who appear to be supplied with small arms and explosives, and “ETIM” in Xinjiang looks like the junior-varsity B-squad.

[davidbfpo]

A backgrounder on the BBC by an academic on the troubles in Kashgar and Xinjiang Province; which ends with:

The dire situation of the Uighurs in Xinjiang is at the root of the conflict. Only when the real culprits - poverty, marginalisation and discrimination - are defeated can the conflict be satisfactorily resolved.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14384605

Alas political power rests far beyond the Uighurs. "Draining the swamp" is laudable, sadly too much weighs against anything happening.

[davidbfpo]

This thread was called 'China's Far West' and is a better home for recent posts on insurgency / terrorism/ public disorder in China's western provinces than the thread on China's emergence as a super power.

I've re-named this thread as 'China's Far West provinces: a Small War'. On reflection I've also left in the Central Asia forum, not Asia-Pacific where most threads on China appear.

[davidbfpo]

A commentary on the issues in Xinjiang and their effect on Sino-Pakistani relations:http://raffaellopantucci.com/2011/08...ani-relations/

Taster:

The fact that we have seen similar instances of serious violence in Xinjiang on a relatively regular basis over the last few years suggests some deep-seated anger is bubbling just below the surface. Whether this is directed by external parties is unclear, however.

[davidbfpo]

From the NYT:

The American organization, the SITE Intelligence Group, posted the video, by the Turkistan Islamic Party, on its Web site on Wednesday, reporting that it had been issued in late August. In the video, according to SITE, the group’s leader, Abdul Shakoor Damla, claimed that attacks in July in Hotan and Kashgar, two southern Xinjiang cities, were acts of revenge for the Chinese government’s repression of the region’s ethnic Uighur population.

Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/09/wo..._r=1&ref=world

[davidbfpo]

Not unexpected, although I do wonder if this will be seen by those aspiring to join the violent Jihad as inspirational.

Four members of the Uighur minority have been sentenced to death over attacks in China's restive Xinjiang province, which left 32 people dead.

The men were found guilty of murder, arson and running a terrorist organisation, state media reported.

Two others were jailed for 19 years for their roles in separate incidents in Kashgar and Hotan in July.

Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14926413

[Ray]

Chinese Muslims banned from fasting in Ramadan

Amid fresh arrests, restrictions on fasting and prayers at mosques, Uighur Muslims are suffering under the latest episode of Chinese government crackdown on their ethnic minority in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

“If any religious figure discusses Ramadan during the course of religious activities, or encourages people to take part, then they will lose their license to practice,” Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Munich-based World Uighur Congress, told Eurasia Review on Friday, August 5.

No Fasting

Beijing slapped severe restrictions on Chinese Muslims as the holy fasting month of Ramadan started.

As for Muslim members of the government throughout Xinjiang, the government forced them to sign “letters of responsibility” promising to avoid fasting, evening prayers, or other religious activities.

“Fasting during Ramadan is a traditional ethnic custom, and they are allowed to do that,” an employee who answered the phone at a local government neighborhood committee office in the regional capital Urumqi said confirming the restrictions.

“But they aren’t allowed to hold any religious activities during Ramadan,” she added.

“Party members are not allowed to fast for Ramadan, and neither are civil servants.”

As for private companies, Uighur Muslim employees were offered lunches during fasting hours.

Anyone who refuses to eat could lose their annual bonus, or even their job, Raxit added.

Officials have also targeted Muslim schoolchildren, providing them with free lunches during the fasting period.

A Uighur resident of Beijing said students under 18 are forbidden from fasting during Ramadan. Moreover, government campaigns forced restaurants in the Muslim majority region to stay open all day.

More restrictions were also imposed on people trying to attend prayers at mosques.

http://muslimvillage.com/2011/08/06/...ng-in-ramadan/

People can still carry on with deprivations and social injustice.

However, it is a different matter when religion is trifled with, more so with the Muslims, who are, amongst all religions, more zealous in observing the rites and rules of their Faith.

While other religions have changed with the times, but not so Islam since from the 10th Century, Ijtihad has been discontinued.

Ramadan or Ramazan is a Islamic religious event which has great importance for all Muslim.

But then the Chinese are also correct in their own way since they do not allow religion to upset stability or tranquillity as it is a departure from their concept of egalitarianism.

And they are very sensitive about 'foreign' religions like Christianity and Islam.

[bourbon]

China seeks military bases in Pakistan, by Amir Mir. Asia Times, 26 October 2011.

ISLAMABAD - While Pakistan wants China to build a naval base at its southwestern seaport of Gwadar in Balochistan province, Beijing is more interested in setting up military bases either in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan or in the Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA) that border Xinjiang province.

The Chinese desire is meant to contain growing terrorist activities of Chinese rebels belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) that is also described as the Turkistani Islamic Party (TIP).

The Chinese Muslim rebels want the creation of an independent Islamic state and are allegedly being trained in the tribal areas of Pakistan. According to well-placed diplomatic circles in Islamabad, Beijing's wish for a military presence in Pakistan was discussed at length by the political and military leadership of both countries in recent months as China (which views the Uyghur separatist sentiment as a dire threat) has become ever-more concerned about Pakistan's tribal areas as a haven for radicals.

Beijing believes that similar to the United States military presence in Pakistan, a Chinese attendance would enable its military to effectively counter the Muslim separatists who have been operating from the tribal areas of Pakistan for almost a decade, carrying out cross-border terrorist activities in trouble-stricken Xinjiang province.

[davidbfpo]

An insight into a region we rarely know much about, although I expect we've noted this international group and muttered "So, what?".

I refer to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (the Chinese-instigated regional grouping encompassing nearby Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia).

According to the analysts and diplomats at the table, China's influence is based on cooperation, development and mutual interests. China's 'soft power' (a term that is not popular in Beijing) is its ability to let countries develop at their own rate. When China looks to the region, it sees nations that are beset with problems, but ones that China cannot and should not address. Instead, Beijing has constructed the SCO.

The purpose of the SCO is not to supplant the EU, US or Russia, but rather to create a mechanism. We were told our tendency to view the SCO as a 'NATO of the East' — a view we pointedly said we did not concur with — was merely a product of a Western bias built on the assumption that some sort of China threat lurks behind every corner. The SCO is young and regionally focused. Afghanistan, they reassured us, was something the SCO had always been concerned about and would address in the future.

So far, it has done very little.

Link:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...-its-role.aspx

There is a telling couple of phrases at the end, which i will copy to the main thread on China as an emerging superpower.

China is the world's foremost rising power and her influence will be felt wherever she pops up. As we sat down to a sumptuous meal around a large garlanded table after our discussion, our new Chinese friends gave us no sense of having really thought through the implications of what their newfound accidental influence means.

The impression was rather that China is stumbling onto power it does not want, and with which it doesn't know what to do.

[Ray]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/KL19Ag01.html

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/0...74R02M20110528

http://observerlhs-observations.blog...xperience.html

I believe it is now done!

[davidbfpo]

Since the disorder and crackdown in 2009 the situation in Urumchi has changed according to visitors. Within the police there was criticism of the sizeable Uighur minority in the police for failing to respond properly, tension remains high and the amount of inter-communal interaction - outside work - has fallen off, e.g. eating out. State institutions require staff to provide security 24/7 and to ensure there is a capability to work beyond normal operating hours (hospitals, schools etc).

Some see a difference between long established Han residents and the "incomer" Han, both legal and the substantial numbers who are undocumented and are less restrained in tolerance of other cultures.

As the population balance changes some within state security envisage increasing stability, citing when a minority dips below 10% locally national experience shows that disputes end.

In the 2000 Census in Urumchi / Urumqi found Uighurs were 12.8% and Han Chinese 75.3%; I would have expected this has altered since then.

Link for demography:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinjiang

[AdamG]

The Chinese people are increasingly frustrated with the Chinese Communist Party and the political situation in China is "very, very delicate," U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke said on Wednesday.

"I do believe that there is a power of the people, and there is a growing frustration among the people over the operations of government, corruption, lack of transparency, and issues that affect the Chinese people on a daily basis that they feel are being neglected," Locke told NPR's Steve Inskeep during a Wednesday interview, part of a media blitz Locke is conducting during his visit to Washington.

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/po..._very_delicate

[AdamG]

China cut off internet in area of Tibetan unrest

Internet connections and mobile phone signals were cut for 30 miles around scene of clashes in Sichuan, state media reports

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...tibetan-unrest

See also
http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=5097

[AdamG]

At least 12 people were killed Tuesday in riots near the Chinese city of Kashgar in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, state media reported. The report provided no details on how the violence began, but there have been periodic outbreaks of antigovernment violence in Xinjiang Province by restless members of the Uighur ethnic group.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/wo....html?src=recg

[Ray]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...?newsfeed=true

I appears China is getting a bit uncomfortable with Pakistani sponsored terrorism.

[Ray]

Chinese authorities have asked Pakistan to hand over members of the extremist East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) believed to be operating out of the country, naming six terror suspects in a list issued on Friday that described the group as the "most direct and real safety threat that China faces".

The six men were “core members” of the ETIM, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement. They were identified as Nurmemet Memetmin, Abdulkyum Kurban, Paruh Tursun, Tursunjan Ebibla, Nurmemet Raxit and Mamat Imin Nurmamat – all Uighurs, the ethnic Turkic Muslim minority from China’s far-western Xinjiang region which borders Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

While the ministry's statement stopped short of stating directly their links to terror camps in Pakistan – it only mentioned "a South Asian country” – a separate statement from the Chinese government issued last year identified Mr. Memetmin as having trained terrorists in Pakistan to carry out attacks in the city of Kashgar that left at least 20 people dead.

Mr. Nurmamat was also believed to be in Pakistan, according to Chinese analysts. The Ministry of Public Security said he had fled China after an explosion triggered accidentally at a bomb-making terror unit in Shache, Xinjiang that was plotting an attack in October 2009.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/interna...cle3287906.ece

[JMA]

Originally Posted by Ray

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012...?newsfeed=true

I appears China is getting a bit uncomfortable with Pakistani sponsored terrorism.

Don't blame them, but what will they do about it?