Opinion

Why jihadists of the world won’t unite against Chinese action in Xinjiang

China declines to designate militant groups like Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organisations, despite Western insistence on the same

In seeking an antidote to Western antagonism, these groups are inclined to stay silent on Xinjiang and keep Beijing on their side

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Police officers stand guard in the old city in Kashgar, in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China, on May 3, 2021. Photo: Reuters

Mohammed Sinan Siyech completed his doctoral degree from the Islamic and Middle East Studies Department at the University of Edinburgh and is a non-resident associate fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi.

Published: 9:15am, 4 Aug 2022

In recent years, China has found itself in the cross hairs of jihadist groups. When a suicide bomber attacked a mosque in northern Afghanistan last year, Islamic State Khorasan linked the attack to China’s repressive actions against Uygur Muslims. This comes on top of the attacks that Uygur militants under the umbrella of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement have launched on Chinese. Could China be in danger of becoming the next big jihadist target globally?

At the same time, the animosity towards China is by no means unanimous among the world’s militant groups. In 2020, for instance, Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, called for closer relations with the Asian superpower.

Back in 2019, Hamas, the Palestinian militant group proscribed by many Western actors as a terrorist organisation, praised China for its stance on the Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem. Moreover, China declines to designate either of the two groups as terrorist organisations, despite Western insistence on the same.

Clearly, China has different relations with different Jihadist groups. Some of the main motivating factors behind China’s stance on groups like Hezbollah and Hamas include trade and anti-US posturing.