Xinjiang and the War against Terrorism

Abstract

The chapter briefly discusses the ethnic makeup of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwestern China, focussing on the Uygurs, who are both Turkic and Islamic. It analyzes the impact of the September 11, 2001 Incidents and the War against Terrorism on XInjiang and the Uygurs, and vice versa. It argues that China had been engaged in its own war against terrorism, separatism and religious extremism since 1996, and that George Bush's war was actually not as important for China as might be supposed. However, it also argues that the Chinese government used Bush's war on terror for its own purposes and as a reason for stepping up its own war against terrorism and Uygur separatism.