Xinjiang separatists biggest challenge to China’s security, stability, says official
Islamist separatists in western China pose the “most prominent” challenge to the country’s security, economy and social stability, the China Daily newspaper quoted a top security official as saying on Friday.
Beijing has long said it faces a determined campaign by a group known as the East Turkestan Independence Movement, or ETIM, in the far western region of Xinjiang where hundreds of people have been killed in the past few years in attacks and unrest between ethnic Uygurs and the majority Han Chinese.
“[ETIM] is the most prominent challenge to China’s social stability, economic development and national security,” Cheng Guoping, State Commissioner for counterterrorism and security, was quoted as saying.
The comments come about a week after a video purportedly by the Islamic State group surfaced showing Uygurs training in Iraq, vowing to plant their flag in China and saying that blood will “flow in rivers”.
Underscoring the region’s importance in the eyes of China’s ruling Communist Party, President Xi Jinping attended a Xinjiang delegation meeting on Friday on the sidelines of the country’s annual parliamentary session, one of a select group of provincial and regional meetings Xi joins every year.
