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| Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) |
By Kendrick Kuo
Regular “Peace Missions” conducted under the SCO have been the best-known component of its efforts.
The effects of the Tiananmen Square incident continue to ripple through China, but surprisingly little has been said about what China has done in the field of counterterrorism. A vehicle ran through crowds of tourists and was lit on fire in front of the entrance to the Forbidden City under the gaze of Chairman Mao Zedong’s portrait. Official Chinese media have labeled this incident a terrorist attack and made links with the mysterious East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) with alleged ties to al-Qaeda and transnational jihadist elements. If the official narrative is to be believed, this marks a milestone in the history of terrorism in China: the effects of terrorism in the PRC’s restive west, long trumpeted by Beijing as the justification for its “strike hard” campaigns and strict regulation of the region, have now touched China’s east.
China’s policies in Xinjiang are well documented by Western and Chinese analysts alike. On the one hand, those who doubt the official line about Uyghur jihadists fomenting insurgency in Xinjiang point to socioeconomic discrimination, a lack of religious freedom, and Han-Uyghur ethnic tensions as the drivers of the region’s conflicts. On the other, those who accept the official line oftentimes place the “Uyghur issue” in the classic framework of liberty versus security. While curbing freedoms in Xinjiang for Uyghurs is unfortunate, so the logic goes, it is a necessary evil for the sake of stability. Setting this controversial debate aside, if China is truly concerned with a terrorist threat, what has it done to develop counterterrorist capabilities?
Read the full 3 page story at The Diplomat