How China fights terrorism

Posted On Thursday, February 19, 2009
When the special envoy of the Chinese Government He Yafoi visited New Delhi recently at the height of the tension between India and Pakistan over the Mumbai terror attack he counseled restraint in handling the situation in the interest of peace and stability in South Asia. Though China also faced terrorism, on a much smaller scale than India and Afghanistan, it was dealing with the criminals with a combination of measures including use of force and addressing the people's problems which were often exploited by enemies of the country. Beijing has also been advising Pakistan to cooperate with India in countering terrorism and resolve bilateral problems through dialogue and peaceful means.

China's advice carries much weight with the Pakistani political and military establishments because of the "special friendship" the two countries have forged over the decades and with Beijing going out of its way to bolster Pakistan's defence with the infusion of armaments and nuclear technology. Even though Pakistan's foreign Minister Qureishi announced his Government having given a "blank cheque" to China to resolve the impasse with India, it is doubtful if the military establishment is interested in peace with India, as opposed to confrontation, which has been the main instrument of its survival and dominance over all aspects of life in Pakistan.

The bombing incidents before last year's Beijing Olympics had reminded the world of the existence of a secessionist movement in China's muslim Majority Xinjiang province. The resource-rich, strategically placed region located on the borders of Central Asia, was rocked by violent unrest last year, including the killing of 27 people (I6 belonging to armed police) blamed on militants seeking an independent state called East Turkistan. In one day the separatists targeted super-markets, hotels and government offices in kashgar and kuqa regions killing I2 people. The police killed ten people in retaliatory fire, seven of them terrorists. This was a rare incident involving two women terrorists belonging to the Uighur community, one of whom blew herself up.

Taking advantage of the lax security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, many Uighur separatists have been taken by Al Qaeda and other terror outfits for training to these two countries. After fully indoctrinating motivating and arming them, they are sent back to Xinjiang to fight for separation. The fact that terror incidents erupted all of a sudden last year shows that China's entreaties to Pakistan to dismantle the terrorism infrastructure in its tribal areas also have not yielded result. Only in one instance was a group of Uighur separatists caught by Pakistan in its Frontier province and handed over to China for trial and punishment. Apart from China as a target, these Al Qaeda-trained militants are dispatched to other countries also for terrorist activities. The Federally Administered Tribal Area still remains the nursery of terrorists belonging to various nationalities conducting their operations in the region and China's Xinjiang province.

Even though China has allowed freedom of religion, it is keeping a strict watch over the activities of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the principle separatist organisation, which is banned, and other separatist groups. There are reports of money flowing from some Gulf countries for establishing mosques and madrassas for the Muslims in the province. The syllabuses of these madressas are carefully scrutinized to ensure that no fundamentalist or separatist content seeps in and the mosques are not used for preaching secessionism and establishing an Islamic caliphate. The terror incidents on the eve of the Beijing Olympics focused world attention on the problem of terrorism faced by China and made the government take some security-related and other steps to minimise the damage and deal with the problem on long-term basis.

At a conference of over 500 deputies from the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region last month Regional Chairman Nur Bakri urged that the fight against terrorism, separatism and religious extremism should be taken up resolutely as it is going to be a long drawn-out battle. Maintaining social stability has been a fundamental task and the threats to it needs to be met. It was going to be an "acute, complicated and long-lasting task". Threats must be nipped in the bud and violent terrorist activities preempted. The Government was determined to intensify the fight against three forces - terrorism, separatism and religious extremism -- in some high-risk areas to deal them a heavy blow. He urged his people to take a clear cut stand against ethnic separatism and "illegal activities being carried out under the cover of religion.

At the same time, government officials are being asked to pay greater attention to the people's problems to ensure social stability. Local governments should spare no effort to solve people's problems especially those arising from denial of justice, land acquisition, house allocation, restructuring of enterprises which sometimes involves retrenchment and social security issues. Most of the separatists involved in terror attacks were ethnic Uighrs who were driven by religious extremism to launch a jihad. But, such attacks have been isolated, the police claims through a series of security-related steps, including greater surveillance and watch over the movement of the separatists belonging to various outfits and also receiving help and inspiration from other countries. The Chinese Government is determined not to allow any quarter to violence and forces challenging its territorial integrity. It has named eight terrorists, all Chinese Uighurs who are missing and has urged all countries to help in tracing them, arresting them and handing them over for trial. But, so far there has been no response and the terrorists are presumed to be hiding in safe havens in some countries.

Though most of China's economic development has taken place along the eastern coastal region, the central and western areas are also receiving attention. Xinjiang is home to nearly 8 million Uighurs out of a total population of 20 million and is China's largest political sub-division. As development proceeds, more and more then Chinese engineers, skilled workers and others have moved into Xinjiang. The GDP of the region rose by nearly 80 per cent between 2004 and 2008. It has a wealth of oil and mineral resources which are being systematically tapped. The oil reserves of Western China account for more than 60 per cent of the country's total reserves. The Government has built a 4,000km gas pipeline to directly link Xinjiang reserves to the energy guzzling industrial region of Shanghai on China's east coast.

The quick development of the region has widened the rich-poor divide and it is marked along ethnic lines. The increase in population has also led to an increase in unemployment among the youth. This is one region where the Chinese Government's one-child policy was never observed and there was no way to enforce it, considering the illiteracy and relative backwardness of the region, apart from religious taboo against controlling births. Owing primarily to religious reasons many Uighur families are reluctant to send their children to Government run schools and instead, enroll them in religious madrassas to ensure study of Uighur and Turkic culture. But the young persons among out of these madrassas are unable to get any type of jobs with respectable salary. The realisation is now dawning that the children must also be proficient in Chinese and English to be able to do well in life.

There are other problems, like displacement of people due to land acquisition for large projects and not getting enough share of the employment industrialization creates due to lack of qualifications and language constraints. To prevent separatists form moving freely within the country and outside, some travel restrictions have been imposed and there is greater monitoring of Uighurs traveling outside in search of employment. The pre-Olympics terror incidents led to tightening up of security and resentment among the people and also diverted attention from development and other problems facing the people. People mostly talk of bread and butter problems and blame some extremist elements for having created the present situations. While dealing firmly with terrorism, the Chinese government has assured them that their developmental and other problems shall not be neglected.

MK Dhar, NPA