A police crackdown meant to quell militants in China’s rugged frontier of Xinjiang has failed to prevent a surge of attacks, and analysts say Beijing’s tactics may actually be encouraging more violence among the region’s usually moderate Muslims.
How China deals with Xinjiang is a concern for the rest of the world. The vast area of deserts and mountains borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and several Central Asian republics and is home to a sizable Muslim population that could be a valuable ally in the global struggle against Islamic extremism.
The latest wave of attacks on security forces — the worst in a decade — began last week, just days before the Olympics’ opening ceremony on the opposite end of the country, some 2,800km to the east.
No group has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombings and stabbings, but police have blamed terrorists among the Uighurs — a Muslim ethnic minority of about 8 million people who have long chafed under Chinese rule.
Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, believes the violence is a sign the latest “Strike Hard” campaign is driving more Uighurs toward militant Islam. Human rights groups say what began as a campaign against organized crime, drugs and pornography has become a cover to crack down on Uighurs.
“Although Uighur militant groups in Xinjiang were thoroughly crushed in the 1990s, it seems that a new generation of militants has stepped up to take their place,” Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said about the recent violence.
“The attackers are young, and apparently even included two women in Kuqa — I believe a first in the recent history of violent militancy in the region,” Bequelin said.
“I think following the Olympics, there will be a crackdown in Xinjiang like never before,” said Yitzhak Shichor, a political scientist and China specialist at the University of Haifa in Israel.
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