Chinese Communist Party officials harden rhetoric on Islam
BEIJING — China’s ruling Communist Party is hardening its rhetoric on Islam, with top officials making repeated warnings about the spectre of global religious extremism seeping into the country and the need to protect traditional Chinese identity.
Shaerheti Ahan, a top political and legal affairs party official in Xinjiang, on Sunday became the latest official from a predominantly Muslim region to warn political leaders gathered in Beijing for this month’s National People’s Congress about China becoming destabilized by the “international anti-terror situation.”
Over the past year, President Xi Jinping has directed the party to “Sinicize” the country’s ethnic and religious minorities, while regional leaders in Xinjiang, home to the Uighur (pronounced WEE-gur) ethnic minority, have ramped up surveillance measures, police patrols and demonstrations amid an uptick in violence blamed on Islamic separatists.
Although some scholars question whether global jihadi networks have indeed penetrated the country, top Chinese officials, including those overseeing areas outside Xinjiang, are increasingly echoing certain strands of international discourse to back up claims that Islamic extremism is growing worldwide and needs to be rolled back.