Associate Professor Michael Clarke describes the domestic and international dynamics of counter-terrorism in China for the ASPI Counterterrorism Yearbook 2019.

China’s problem with terrorism has until recently been largely isolated to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in the far northwest of the country. However, this has changed as Uygur militancy and terrorism increasingly impinge upon Chinese interests in Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East. China’s response to the issue of terrorism is now framed by domestically and internationally oriented postures.

Domestically, Beijing’s explicit framing of Uygur opposition as directly inspired or supported by externally based militant jihadist organisations has served to justify the implementation of a pervasive security state in Xinjiang, defined by a hi-tech surveillance apparatus and the mass internment of up to 1million Uygurs in ‘re-education’ facilities.1Internationally, the existence of Uygur militants abroad, particularly in Afghanistan and Syria, fighting under the banner of the al-Qaeda affiliated ‘Turkestan Islamic Party’ (TIP) has generated a more prominent profile for CT in Chinese diplomacy throughout Central Asia, South Asia and the Middle East.

Crucially, these dynamics have combined to stimulate changes in the ideological, legal and institutional underpinnings of Chinese CT policy. Those changes can largely be seen as a response to Chinese perceptions that radical Islamist-inspired Uygur terrorism poses threats not only to the security of Xinjiang but also potentially to Chinese interests in key geopolitical regions in President Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy agenda, the Belt and Road Initiative.

Read Michael Clarke’s chapter and the ASPI Counterterrorism Yearbook 2019 in full following the link below: