The Uighur population in China has suffered a long history of persecution. In 1997, the Uighur’s protested their repression at the hands of the Chinese government. This led to a long period of mass arrests and torture that continue to this day. The Chinese government handed over the Uighurs to the US, claiming that they were involved in terrorism. Housed at Guantanamo Bay, these detainees were found to be completely innocent and since China refused to take them back, they were relocated to Bermuda. Given their second-class status in China, many sought sanctuary in Azad Jammu Kashmir. That some of them have turned to violence should not come as a surprise. Violence is never a solution to repression but China is equally wrong to conflate the Uighur struggle for basic rights with international terrorism. And it compounds the error by shifting the blame to Pakistan. This incident alone should not be enough to damage our relationship with China but it should teach us to be more wary. Our alliance with China, like all bilateral relationships, is based on need, not love. A mutual distrust of India sparked and sustained relations but that may be changing as China seeks greater economic ties with India. And the Uighur problem has forced China to seek friendship with traditional foe Russia, which is dealing with its own Muslim separatists. No alliance is permanent and the Chinese accusation should serve as a reminder that even with and ally as close as Beijing, we need to be careful.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 3rd, 2011.
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@malik: Good points. In case you don't know, Pakistani Establishment has been deliberately settling Pujnabi Sunnis in Pakistan controlled Kashmir that includes Azad Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan and other northern areas, all with the aim of changing the demographics. This has been going on for the past six decades. This is one big reason why the Shia, who were once the vast majority in Gigit-Baltistan-Northern areas, are opposing Pakistani occupation of their lands.
@Amjad: What Pakistanis do not or refuse to understand is the so called UN mandate is as good as dead and was acknowledged by Musharaf. If you guys really want to take that mandate seriously, whole of Kashmir has to be de-militarized. Get rid of all your security forces from Pakistan occupied Kashmir, let all the Pandits go back to their home and get back the territory illegally presented to China then talk about the mandate.If Kashmiris see themselves as part of Pakistan why so few of them prefer to join your country?
What Indians don;t understand is that Muslim Uighurs are not Pakistani- this is a region that is part of China and only borders the north of Pakistan. Many of them may be intermarried in Pakistan but these people are not Pakistani. Kashmiris see themselves as part of the Pakistani nation and there is a United Nations mandate asking India to allow Kashmiris the right to vote on their own future. There is no such resolution on Xingchiang. That is a big difference. All of the Kashmiri in Pakistan from Allama Iqbal to Nawaz Sharif do not forget our duty to Kashmir. The Chinese need to work out problems with Uighur criminals on their own.
@Aneez: The answer is Pakistan ? Protect Muslims in your country first. Hang yourself ! Killing Balochis, Pashthuns in FATA, now slowly Karchi, Whats next mate ? Islamabad ? First look after people of different sects in your country. I am clueless to react to your comment. Your country is really short of a very good human being as a leader. Just try and improve the livelihood of every Muslims (including Ahamedis) and minorities. You people never bother about neither Muslims nor Non-muslims of your country. But shout on other countries without any shame. I can understand what makes you guys to sound like this (Nuke). The world is waiting patiently including china and some Muslim countries. They really know how dangerous you guys are. They know when to start and finish off the drama and take Islam to where it was (If it was a peaceful religion).
Why the Uighurs should be allowed to go to Azad Kashmir? I thought Kashmir is meant for Kashmiris.
How would you like it if Muslims from Gujarat and Kerala are allowed to settle down in Indian Kashmir?
@zhou xusheng:
U are known by the company you keep..Now Chinese get to taste their own medication that they unleashed on North East India. Not only Pakistan India to supports Uyghurs freedom
@ Bangash and Frank - please stop kidding us with your pseudo intellectualism. Intelligent, well educated people like you have misled Pakistan and Pakistanis into our delusions. People like you can never accept responsibility for what Pakistan has done wrong. We have no moral compass. We do whatever we want and put the stamp of religion on it to make it legitimate.
We don't actually follow a religion but we use religion as an excuse and reason to do lots of awful things.
Frank - Pakistan "harboured" OBL. You won't admit to it. You probably think it's a conspiracy. But the world knows it's true. The blood is on Pakistan's hands. The Chinese would not make such an allegation if it weren't true. They are our "true" friends remember?
Bangash - no, we are ruining it ourselves with stupidity like this but more importantly, our lack of economic growth and stability vis-a-vis India is ruining our relationship with China. They are the most capitalistic of all people in the world. They don't have principles beyond "Grow and get rich". Pakistan offers them little in that direction and they first wanted to encircle our neighbors India but as India keeps booming, they want more trade with India.
We can keep kidding ourselves about our "strategic geographic location" but let's be honest. If all trade with Pakistan ended tomorrow, what would the rest of the world lose out on? A few cheap t-shirts, some good mangoes, and some footballs? Bangladesh would be more than happy to pick up the slack. Trust me. People there work very hard - I've seen it.
Indian supported terrorists now attacking China so as to ruin Pakistan-China relationship.
I don't think anything can be clearly understood, given that our source of information is media. Now, even if we get information about people's perception, we can't know the whole picture, as some are very apt at directing it (people's persception).
Trying to underestand any situation, which is not so simple, with a simple model, any simple model, may it be clash of civilization, religious brotherhood, economic interests, regional dominance, racial descrimination, or borgeoua is nothing but naivety.
A combination of many factors are at play here too.
@zhou xusheng: Welcome to ET my dear Chinese friend. I am from India and we Indians value your friendship even though we compete with each other especially on economic front and would like to surpass you one day in this field. Although you have made a good defence regarding your treatment towards Muslims yet your track record of treatment of Muslims, Tibetans and pro-democracy communities in China is rather dismal which needs to be reviewed by your government. Good luck to you. R S Johar, India.
Time to send the non-state actors on the fields of Uighour province....
Please refer to a dictionary for the meaning of the word 'harbour'. Pakistan did not harbour these terrorists and China did not accuse us of doing so. The Pakistan army has already killed the leader of this terrorist movement. Pakistan will never allow anyone to use its soil to attack or to harm China in anyway. If these attacks had any Pakistani connection (and it has not been established that they have) you can be sure the ISI is already hunting for the people involved. They will be dealt with.
Going by this it appears Pakistan is the first country in the world who does not seek (or need?) friends
@Aneez: First try to protect your citizens including your minorities, your self-respect and honour before embarking on your 'divine' duty.
Thats funny and unbeliveble to say Chinese muslin receive second-class status, Dear if u dnt know Chinese law and politics, plz dnt lie to others, In China, muslin they can have more than 1 child, and they dont need pay any money for high education, in university every muslin student spend very low money on food( than other students), each university have special restruant for muslin student, such duty, city construction and so on, our goverment really do lots to muslin.If u have chance, plz visit our country and then decide ur mind. and u can find Chinese muslin get more basic right than other nations in China.
WHy do muslims, when they become a significant minority, ask for a seperate nation?
This incident could turn into a headache and leave the country friendless. I fear that Shuja Pasha will have to run a lot more frequently to China trying to placate the ever weather friend. The Chinese have a simple strategy to counter the separatist movements in Xinjiang and Tibet - flood the regions with Han Chinese and change the demography and ethnic composition. India has never played such nasty tricks in Kashmir but no appreciation for the same as it is the enemy. Time seems to be running out but the Establishment has neither the inclination or the will to stem the rot. Cosmetic moves to try and rectify the situation are merely band aid when the requirement is a major surgery.
What's happening in Kashmir is open to the world to see, India never hide anything but that is not the case with Xinjiang (Uighurs) where numerous atrocities committed by Chinese military are entirely hidden, what we are getting is meagre. But it won't justify the existence of Terrorist Training Centres in Pakistan, now this is an irritant and it may soon change as wrath.
It is actually a clash of civilisation. China wants to capture global economy, not to say Indian market, whereas Pakistan want to capture Muslim Ummah and create a Islamic Caliphate, India included. Pakistan's commitment to Islamic brotherhood too is "higher than Himalayas and deeper than the ocean".
If Chinese are merciless and can massacre thousands of their own people, the Pakistani strategic assets are not less deadly, battle hardened, blood thirsty. One should watch and see, how these clash of civilization will be fought in the battle fields of Uighur province.
why there are so much muslim independance movements in non muslim countries ? Russia, China, India, Philipines, Thailand .......
why there is so much of unrest in muslim countries ? Liberia, Libiya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan .....
Ramadan Kareem to everybody.
This is a great editorial. I agree that Pakistan's alliance should be based on need, not love. However, many Pakistanis have developed a blind-love affair with China and turn a blind eye to China's bloody persecution of their Muslim neighbour - the Uyghurs. It is indeed shameful that a country like Pakistan which presents itself as the champion of Muslim rights in fact supports an atheistic country like China's brutal persecution of Muslims.
China doesn't love Pakistan. China simply needs Pakistan to put India in check and divert India's attention away from China and focus on Pakistan. As long as Pakistan and India are eternal enemies, China has all the gains. In fact, China is gaining on both sides. Pakistan should wake up to this reality and start telling China to stop the persecution of Uyghur Muslims instead of allowing China to accuse Pakistan for its alleged support of Uyghur militants. The Uyghur Muslims will continue to fight for their rights whether or not Pakistan or any country supports them or China. East Turkestan is the land of Uyghur Muslims, not atheistic Chinese. The Uyghur Muslims are being oppressed by atheistic China so they will naturally fight for their rights no matter what they are accused of by China. As long as China doesn't stop its persecution of Uyghur Muslims and respect their legitimate rights, the struggle continues and Pakistan should stand on the right side of history supporting the freedom struggles of Muslims instead of aiding and abetting an evim empire aimed at the complete annihalation of a Muslim people who contributed so much to the Muslim world.
pakistan needs to deal with the mischievous mullahs who have literally destroyed pakistan and its reputation worldwide and now they are attacking china! when are we going to cease making excuses and hide under conspricies?
I am not surprised with the Chinese reaction. The Chinese are reacting exactly like any other self respecting nation would do. Its only a matter of time before this friendship higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the ocean comes to its logical friends. For the Chinese, the rights of Han Chinese exceeds the rights and feelings of a bunch of Muslim Uighurs. Very few people like to have a suicide bomber as their best friend. And that's the only commodity that Pakistan offers the world. I was expecting this relationship going south all along. The Chinese have only one true friend - the Chinese.
What are the odds of the ISI explicitly supporting the liberation of Muslim-majority Xinjiang from secular/oppressive/undemocratic Chinese rule? The Chinese appear to actually be doing everything in Xinjiang (including re-populating) that Paksitan falsely accuse the Indians of doing in their beloved Kashmir. Are "brother Muslims" a hundred miles away any less worthy of Pakistan's support?
Now that Pakistan has made enemies of India, the US, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia (all of whom accuse it of sponsoring terrorist activity against them), only China remains (until now). Furthermore, such a pretext would allow their mullah/military complex to hog an even larger share of public expenditure (which might otherwise be wasted on development) than they already are.
Pakistan's visceral hatred of India has led it to forget the first lesson of diplomacy - no permanent friends, only permanent interest.
Pakistan's permanent interest is "hatred of India". So it's friendship of China who Pakistan figured was also India's enemy!!
But in the meanwhile, Chinese "interests" not being permanent have also shifted. China and India are on target to reach $100bn trade by 2015. Increasingly Chinese are being left out of the lucrative Indian market due to it's perceived distrust in India - in part due to it's 'close' friendship with Pakistan. Perception of 'encirclement' of India due to it's friendship with China has also allowed USA to get unprecedented access in India. While India was anti-US in the past, China can only blame it's friendship with Pakistan for US being able to make inroads into India. Just imagine a US-India joint military exercise on the Tibetan border - practising a thrust across Tibet - just when Japan and Taiwan and the South China Sea countries becoming more belligerent and getting driven into the arms of USA too?
China has figiured out that it's 'higher and the himalayas' friendship with Pakistan is getting them more problems and "strategic losses" vis-a-vis USA than any concrete benefit. Hence the re-calibration by China. Hence the Gwadar dis-ownership statement and now this!!
it's all plain to see....
as long as persecussion of muslims continue at the hands of the chinese pakistan will support the smuggle through peaceful means or through jihad. Pakistanis dont support our government stand on this issue.
"We need to be careful." What a joke! What you need to do, which you will NEVER do, is de-brainwash your society, stop teaching extremism, and stop tolerating extremism. Fat chance!
Higher than Himalayas and deeper than the Oceans, we spare no one. We have no friends, only "others" who we are committed to bringing our brand of justice to. We are the new thekeydars of the muslim world.
i dont take urgur side because i know they are cooks theifs and liars.ask any pakistani who have visited xingjiang and he will tell you more about them
China accusation is much of a ploy not to shoulder unviable economic burdon which Pakistan would have imposed on it, after leaving the American bandwagon. This is China's first step to dump Pakistan with more to follow soon.
no one is your friend if you are not your own friend yourself.......
Unfurtunate muslims world peoples and shamless leaders.