Rise of Chinese militants in Syria’s battlegrounds
BEIRUT: Many don’t speak Arabic and their role in Syria is little known to the outside world, but the Chinese fighters of the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria are organised, battlehardened and have been instrumental in ground offensives against President Bashar al Assad’s forces in the country’s northern regions.
Thousands of Chinese militants have come to Syria since the country’s civil war began in March 2011 to fight against government forces and their allies. Some have joined the alQaeda’s branch in the country previously known as Nusra Front. Others paid allegiance to the Islamic State and a smaller number joined factions such as the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham.
But the majority of Chinese militants are with the Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria, whose vast majority are Chinese Muslims, particularly those from the Turkic-speaking Uighur majority native to Xinjiang in China. Their growing role in Syria has resulted in increased cooperation between Syrian and Chinese intelligence agencies who fear those same militants could one day return home and cause trouble there. The Turkistan Islamic Party is the other name for the East Turkistan Islamic Movement that considers China’s Xinjiang to be East Turkistan.
Like most militant groups in Syria, their aim is to remove Assad’s secular government from power and replace it with strict Islamic rule. Their participation in the war comes at a time when the Chinese government is one of Assad’s strongest international backers.