Concerns grow over rise in Chinese jihadis in Syria
Analysts say battle-hardened Islamists may pose national security threat, especially in Xinjiang
The rise of Chinese jihadis in Syria poses an increasing security threat to China and is forcing Beijing to rethink its Middle East strategy, analysts say.
Unlike other major powers such as the United States or Russia, China has long limited its participation in the region’s affairs.
But Beijing has been concerned with the national security threat posed by Islamist fighters in Syria who hailed from Xinjiang and returned to China, said Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
Rami Abdurrahman, who heads the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – which monitors casualties on all sides in the conflict – estimated there were about 5,000 Chinese fighters in Syria, most of whom were fighting with the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) in northern Syria.
Li gave a much smaller figure, saying there were about 300 Chinese fighters in Syria.
Yin Gang, a Middle East expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that while exact figures remained unclear, the number of Chinese fighters in Syria was likely to have multiplied from the few hundred of two years ago.