Returnees from Syria… “time bomb”  threatening China’s security

Shaimaa Hefzi

China has come to face a multitude of challenges following reports that confirmed the return of many Uygurs taking part in the fighting in Syria, lest they should commit violence at home.

In fact, foreign fighters in Syrian pose a potential major threat to their countries in what is referred to as “post-war in Syria” stage. Huge damage is feared due to the activities of the returnee extremists.

Uygurs

The Uygurs who live in Xinjiang, northwest China, are Muslims of Turkish origin, who have been engaged in enmity with the central government in Beijing, because of the difference in the dominant values in both. In addition, the Uygurs are looking forward to gaining autonomy, or even get thoroughly separated from China.

Over the past year, the Uygurs have been linked to a series of incidents of violence which the Chinese government termed “acts of terrorism.” In 2009, huge rioting erupted in Xinjiang’s regional capital of Urumqi, which left more than 200 civilians dead, mostly from the majority Han Chinese. In May, 2014, a bomb blast hit Urumqi’s Railways Station, killing 30 people.

According to the reports, many Uygurs have joined Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, and Takfiri Salafism, and  some of them have fallen into the hand of extremists.

A study themed “Salafism in China, and its Jihadi-Takfiri descendants,” published in May, 2018, said that Chinese Muslims who were educated overseas, or who studied teachings of Islam at the hands of Salafists, strongly contributed to disseminating hardline thoughts among Muslims in the country.

As Uygurs  came into direct contact with extremists from al-Qaeda and Daesh, many of them, as well as from other minorities in China, gained a takfiri tendency from fellow prisoners, in particular during the second half of the 1990s.

Syria… a haven for Uygurs

Uygurs paid human trafficker to help them get to Turkey, then to Syria, where they could receive training on arms, then they would return home to China. Syrian and Chinese officials estimate that more than 5000 Uygurs went to take part in the war in Syria, and hundreds of them joined Daesh.

A report published by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) , September 2019, under “Foreign fighters in Syria’s Idlib face last stand,” said that since 2015, Idlib, northern Syria, has been home to a complex array of anti-regime forces, secular rebels, Islamists, Syrian jihadists with ties to Al Qaeda – and their foreign counterparts.

The non-Syrians included fighters from Uzbekistan, Chechnya and China’s ethnic Uygurs minority.

“These are people who cannot be integrated into Syria really, under any circumstances, who have nowhere to go and who may just be ready to die in any case,” the AFP quoted Sam Heller, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group as saying.

According to the AFP report, anger pushed many Uygurs to fight side by side with  Daesh, and others stuck by al-Qaeda, as miltants of the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), headed to Syria to help oust the regime from Idlib in 2015, after they had gained fighting experience in Afghanistan before.

They honed their skills alongside the Taliban or al-Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, before heading to Syria as allies of al- Qaeda’s then-branch there, the report said.

“From there, they raided weapons stocks and ever since have been among the most potent factions in the north, so they’re not a joke,” says Mr Heller.

Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) 

TIP will likely fight hard in an all-out assault, probably as a key battlefield ally for HTS, says Tore Hamming, a specialist on Islamist militant movements at the European University Institute.

The “South China Morning Post” published a report in December 2017, under “Anger in China drives Uygurs to fight alongside al-Qaeda in Syrian war in preparation for revenge.”

It stated that since 2013, thousands of Uygurs travelled to Syria to train with the Uygur group TIP and fight alongside al-Qaeda, playing key roles in several battles.

But the end of Syria’s war may be the beginning of China’s worst fears.

“We just wanted to learn how to use the weapons and then go back to China,” the report, relayed by AP, quoted one fighter.

Chinese officials expect that the country could fall victim to terrorism, as Uygur men are affected by the global extremism ideology. In the meantime, comprehensive anti-terrorism measures have been in place in Xinjiang, creating a massive policing state.