Friday, November 16, 2001
Rebellion part of global terrorism: China
BEIJING, NOV. 15. More emphatically than ever before, China is seeking to link a rebellion in its restive Xinjiang region with global efforts against terrorism, saying its battle with Afghanistan-trained Muslim separatists bolsters the world's push toward post-September 11 security. In an invitation-only briefing on Wednesday for a group of Beijing-based journalists, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr. Zhu Bangzao outlined China's stance toward terrorism both inside its borders and across Asia. His assessment: By combating what the government considers a violent, ``splittist'' movement by Turkic-speaking ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, in the country's far northwest, China is striking at a tentacle of the very terror network that felled the World Trade Center two months ago. ``These people have been trained by the international terrorists. So the fight against separatists in Xinjiang is part of the fight by the world against terrorism,'' Mr. Zhu said. ``They have become a part of the international terrorist mechanism.'' Such assertions are not new; China has been making them with varying vehemence since the September 11 attacks on the United States. But the forum - what the Ministry called a ``briefing on terrorism'' - suggests the leadership wants to amplify the message. China has long called its effort to quell Xinjiang's separatist movement an internal affair. But it suddenly stands to benefit by framing the fight as exactly the opposite - despite continuing condemnation of its crackdown by human rights activists. The Government's basic argument - safeguarding against separatist violence - remains. But the shift of the terrorism debate since September 11 presents Beijing with an unusual opportunity to further its own agenda while being seen as embracing the global coalition against Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. China has received no explicit international support of its view on Xinjiang. The U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, in Shanghai last month for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting, said anti-terrorism efforts ``must never be an excuse to persecute minorities,'' an apparent reference to Uighurs. And the U.N. Human Rights Chief, Ms. Mary Robinson, said in China last week that reports of official abuses against Uighurs have increased since the global anti-terrorism campaign began. Uighur separatists advocate greater autonomy and have waged a scattered, low-intensity campaign of bombings, armed attacks and assassinations. Uighurs briefly ran the independent Republic of East Turkestan in Xinjiang before the Chinese communists seized power in 1949. Chinese officials say most Uighurs oppose the separatists, but they draw support from abroad - something seized upon by Foreign Minister, Mr. Tang Jiaxuan, at the U.N. General Assembly this week. ``Opposing `East Turkestan,''' he said, ``is an important aspect of the international anti-terrorist struggle.'' Mr. Zhu said many members of Uighur separatist movements were trained in Afghanistan, presumably by al-Qaida. He rattled off a list of attacks that he called ``clear evidence'' separatist groups in Xinjiang were receiving outside help from Muslim extremists. ``We know they've been getting financial support and other support. It's very hard to find out more,'' Mr. Zhu said. He furnished little proof of any direct link. Mr. Dilxat Raxit, a Sweden-based spokesman for the East Turkestan Information Center, an exiled Uighur group, said persecution against Uighurs continued this week with 22 arrests and two executions of people charged with ``splitting the state'' and ``endangering security.'' No independent verification was available. ``The Chinese Government has deliberately connected terrorism with East Turkestan and has taken advantage of the September-11 incident to purge the Uighurs,'' he said. ``It is the Chinese Government that is the terrorist.'' Mr. Zhu, when asked how China defines terrorism, demurred. He said the world and the region - both China and central Asia - need to devise common definitions. Such beyond-the-borders remarks, more common in recent weeks, suggest China's rhetoric, if not its mindset, is becoming more international. ``That makes me hopeful,'' said Mr. Stephen J. Hood, a China expert at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. ``They always make these claims that they don't want people meddling in their internal affairs. But suddenly they're engaged in this discussion with what to do with international terrorism,'' he said. ``And they open the door now to people saying, `OK, you do recognize there are international standards.'' - AP Quake rocks Xinjiang An 8.1-magnitude earthquake shook a sparsely populated, mountainous region of northwestern China on Wednesday, government seismologists said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage. The quake, which Chinese state television said hit at 5:26 p.m. local time, was centered in the Kunlun mountain area near the border of Qinghai province and the Xinjiang region in the far northwestern part of China, according to an official in the State Seismology Bureau in Beijing. A woman who answered the telephone at the Xinjiang Seismology Bureau in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, confirmed the temblor and said few people live in the rugged region.
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