Officials warn of global religious extremism threat to China
BEIJING — Chinese officials are issuing new warnings about the spectre of global religious extremism seeping into the country, following reports of fighters from China’s Muslim minority fighting alongside militants in Syria and Iraq.
Sharhat Ahan, a top political and legal affairs party official in Xinjiang, on Sunday became the latest official from a predominantly Muslim region to warn about China becoming destabilized by the “international anti-terror situation” and calling for a “people’s war.”
Over the past year, regional leaders in Xinjiang, home to the Uighur (pronounced WEE-gur) ethnic minority, have ramped up surveillance measures and police patrols and staged massive rallies intended to showcase the power of the security forces.
Those demonstrations are intended to “declare war against terrorists, to showcase the party and the government’s resolve to fight terror, resolve to preserve public safety and (China’s) mighty combat strength,” Ahan told officials gathered in Beijing for this month’s National People’s Congress.