Militant Uyghurs in Syria threaten the Chinese government

AS REBELS STORMED across Syria late last year, eventually toppling the country’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, some were accompanied by fighters from a foreign militant organisation—one with ambitions that extend far beyond Damascus. These men had roots in the Chinese region of Xinjiang and were members of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), a group which aims to establish an Islamic state spanning Xinjiang and other parts of Central Asia.

The history of the TIP is fuzzy, including name changes, alleged ties to jihadist organisations and assertions of responsibility for attacks on Chinese targets. The group was established by Uyghur refugees from Xinjiang in Pakistan in 1997. Over the next decade it developed links to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. China and several other countries, such as Britain, view the TIP as a terrorist organisation. Leaders in Beijing have used its actions to justify their repression of the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

China’s abuses in Xinjiang, where it is accused of arbitrary detention and forced labour, have caused tens of thousands of Uyghurs to flee the country. In the 2010s many travelled to Turkey, where they struggled. Across the border in war-torn Syria, rebels in control of the area around Idlib offered the Uyghurs a haven. It is not known exactly how many went. Most were civilians. But in 2017 Mr Assad’s ambassador to China said that between 4,000 and 5,000 Uyghurs were fighting in Syria.

Some of these Uyghur militants joined Islamic State. The majority, though, are associated with the TIP. When Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant rebel group in Syria, took Aleppo in a surprise attack on November 29th, it rolled into the city with TIP fighters. A week later, with Mr Assad about to fall, Abdul Haq al-Turkistani, the TIP’s leader, released a statement. “The Chinese disbelievers will soon taste the same torment that the disbelievers in [Syria] have tasted, if God wills,” it read.

The Chinese government has long expressed concern about the TIP’s presence in Syria. In 2016 it began holding monthly talks with the Assad regime to share intelligence on the group’s movements, reported the AP. On December 31st a Chinese foreign-ministry spokesperson called on all countries to “recognise the violent nature” of the TIP and “crack down on it”.

But other countries may have little to fear from the group. Like many jihadists, the TIP used to wave a black flag with the shahada, or Muslim profession of faith, written in white. Now, though, it sports a version of the flag of East Turkestan, the Uyghur name for Xinjiang. “The TIP has no real interest in global jihad, nor gripes against the West,” says Sean Roberts of George Washington University. “Their focus is the independence of their homeland.” As the group has come to seem less Islamist, it has gathered support in Xinjiang, according to Uyghur activists.

How much does China have to fear from the TIP? The group has claimed attacks inside the country, and been officially blamed for many more, but it is not clear how many of these were actually its doing. And though three of its members were recently promoted to the Syrian army’s upper ranks, the TIP will probably not be allowed to use Syria as a staging ground for action abroad. The country’s new government, desperate for cash, will want to please China. The TIP is expected to be subject to any disarmament programme. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of HTS, has made his stance towards the Uyghurs clear: “I sympathise with them, but their struggle against China is not ours.”

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