By Shannon Tiezzi
Interactions between Uyghur militant groups and other terrorist networks pose a growing concern for China.
The Jerusalem Post reports an Israeli analyst has warned a Chinese delegation that Chinese extremists are becoming increasingly involved in international operations. According to the report, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) analyst Jacques Neriah believes that there are “1,000 Chinese jihadists” being trained at a base in Pakistan, and thousands more have joined the fighting in Syria. JCPA director Dore Gold (who is also a special foreign policy advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) warned China that these fighters abroad will pose “certain risks” when they return to China.
Beijing is already well aware of the risks of increased connections between Uyghur terrorist groups and more established organizations such as al-Qaeda or the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which claimed responsibility for the deadly attack at Pakistan’s Karachi airport earlier this month. Chinese militant organizations like the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP, considered by some to be the successor group to ETIM) have increasingly interacted with other terrorist networks as they share space in Pakistan’s tribal regions. As ETIM trains with other groups, its own methods have become more sophisticated, including a huge increase in the number of online materials ETIM posts to attract and train new members.
Read the full story at The Diplomat