China is using its heightened crackdown against Uighur separatists to emphasize the similarities between its Islamic militant problems and those of Central Asian states. Beijing is trying to regain the influence it lost in the region to Washington and Moscow after Sept. 11. The biggest beneficiary from this competition may be the Central Asian states themselves.
Analysis
Communist Party and security officials from China's northwestern Xinjiang province held a press conference for foreign journalists May 27 to discuss terrorism, separatism and economic development in the region. The officials reiterated Beijing's call for the United States to hand over some 300 ethnic Uighurs from Xinjiang who were captured while fighting alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The Chinese also revealed that Pakistani authorities had detained the third-ranking member of a separatist Uighur organization and returned him to China. The press conference followed reports a week earlier that officials in Kyrgyzstan had detained two suspected Uighur separatists who are accused of assassinating a key moderate Uighur leader and shooting members of a Chinese delegation in the country in 2000. The two were also handed over to Chinese authorities.
Analysis
Communist Party and security officials from China's northwestern Xinjiang province held a press conference for foreign journalists May 27 to discuss terrorism, separatism and economic development in the region. The officials reiterated Beijing's call for the United States to hand over some 300 ethnic Uighurs from Xinjiang who were captured while fighting alongside the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The Chinese also revealed that Pakistani authorities had detained the third-ranking member of a separatist Uighur organization and returned him to China. The press conference followed reports a week earlier that officials in Kyrgyzstan had detained two suspected Uighur separatists who are accused of assassinating a key moderate Uighur leader and shooting members of a Chinese delegation in the country in 2000. The two were also handed over to Chinese authorities.