The Economist: The Uyghur militants in Syria threaten Chinese government
The Economist newspaper, indicated that the leader of the Turkistan Islamic Party issued a statement, as the Syrian regime was about to collapse, which read, “The Chinese infidels will soon taste the same torment that the infidels tasted in Syria, God willing”.
The Turkestan Islamic Party is made up of Uighur fighters from China’s Xinjiang region and aims to create an Islamic state spanning Xinjiang and other parts of Central Asia.
The Chinese government has long expressed concern about the Turkistan Islamic Party’s presence in Syria, and in 2016 began holding monthly talks with the former Syrian regime to share intelligence on the group’s movements, according to the Associated Press reported.
On December 31, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman called on all countries to recognize the violent nature of the Turkistan Islamic Party and eliminate it.
But other countries may have little to fear from the group, according to The Economist.
Like many jihadists, the Turkistan Islamic Party used to wave a black flag with the Shahada written in white.
Now, the British newspaper adds, it carries a version of the flag of East Turkestan, the Uighur name for Xinjiang.
“The Turkistan Islamic Party has no real interest in global jihad, no complaints about the West, and is focused on the independence of their homeland,” Sean Roberts, a researcher at George Washington University, told the Economist.
As the group has become increasingly Islamist, it has gained support in Xinjiang, according to Uighur activists.
Although three of its members have recently been promoted to senior ranks in the Syrian army, the TIP is unlikely to be allowed to use Syria as a springboard for action abroad, says The Economist, as the country’s new government, desperate for cash, will be keen to please China, and the TIP is expected to submit to any disarmament program, with the leader of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, Ahmed al Sharaa (al Julani), making his position on the Uyghur clear, ‘I sympathize with them, but their struggle against China isn’t our struggle”.
