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Over the latter half of the 20th century, relations between China and Pakistan were anchored in large part on both countries' strategic interest in balancing India as a regional power. The Karakoram Highway, which runs for 500 miles between the two nations, is representative of those collective interests. However, says Ziad Haider of the Henry L. Stimson Center, since the Highway was opened in 1982, the "all-weather" friendship between the nations has come under strain. A growing Islamist movement in western China has threatened to disrupt the trade and people-to-people contacts that the Highway was supposed to facilitate. Intensified conflict surrounding Afghanistan and the al Qaeda involvement have brought into focus the rising militancy of Muslim Uighur separatists in China's Xinjiang region and made Beijing especially anxious. To mollify China's concerns, Haider says, Pakistan has become a full-time ally in Beijing's 'war on terror', clamping down on Uighur settlements and on religious schools used as training grounds for militant Islamists. But, Haider cautions, China and Pakistan should be careful not to restrict the movement of innocent Uighurs along the Highway and across the border. Otherwise, Uighur separatists could find their ranks filled with new recruits - an un-welcome development for both China and the world. - YaleGlobal
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Clearing Clouds Over the Karakoram Pass
Sino-Pakistani cooperation in fighting terrorism improves relations, but other challenges may arise
Ziad Haider
YaleGlobal, 29 March 2004
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Although billed as a 'friendship highway', the Chinese-built Karakoram Highway has carried Chinese arms into Pakistan and allowed passage of trained Islamic insurgents into China. |
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ISLAMABAD: The Karakoram Highway, running from China's Xinjiang Uighur
Autonomous Region to Pakistan, is more than a symbol of the two
countries' "all-weather" friendship. It is a strategic link that brings
China directly to South Asia. This 500 mile-long highway has, however,
been buffeted by Islamic radicalism. Growing Chinese pressure has forced
the Pakistani government to take on the new challenge brought by the
flow of militant ideology and arms along this crucial artery of
Sino-Pakistani relations.
Since its opening in 1982, the Highway has facilitated trade and
people-to-people contact between the two countries. It has increased
China and Pakistan's control over their frontiers and capability to deal
with security threats from India and elsewhere. Upon its completion,
China's deputy Premier Li Xiannian publicly stated that the Highway
"allows us [China] to give military aid to Pakistan." What Li had not
foreseen is that China's opponents could also go in the other direction
- bearing arms and threatening China's security.
That new threat has emerged in part from Pakistan's religious links with
the Uighurs, who have long agitated against Chinese rule. The Uighurs
are a Muslim people of Turkic origin. They continue to feel culturally
and politically alienated from the Han Chinese, the majority ethnic
group in China. In the 1990s, some Uighur groups resorted to terrorism
in pushing for independence, though most Uighurs have peacefully made
their voice heard. Their political ambitions have shifted away from
demanding independence to calling for greater autonomy and reforms,
including increased economic opportunities and religious freedom.
Beijing, however, has viewed any sign of protest as a threat to its
control over a region whose abundant natural resources and strategic
location vis-a-vis Central and South Asia make it indispensable to
China.
In the early eighties, all was still quiet on the western front. The
Highway was opened during a period in which Beijing began to relax its
political and economic grip on China. Uighurs greatly benefited from the
freedoms afforded to them; some began traveling to Pakistan to conduct
trade, or in transit to perform the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Others enrolled in Pakistani schools. Many Uighurs settled and raised
families in Pakistan. Free exchange and movement along the Highway, as
well as stable Uighur-Beijing relations, proved pivotal to friendly
Uighur-Pakistan relations.
For many Uighurs, though, Beijing's concessions remained too narrow.
Increased Han Chinese settlement in Xinjiang and job discrimination were
major sources of friction, as were family planning policies. The income
gap between Xinjiang and other provinces also continued to increase
throughout the 1980s.
As Uighur discontent fused with increasingly authoritative policies, the
region descended into a vicious cycle of violence that lasted through
the 1990s. Incidents ranged from Chinese authorities firing on innocent
Uighur protesters to Uighur separatist groups setting off bombs in
Xinjiang's capital city, Urumqi, during Deng Xiaoping's state funeral in
1997.
Along with suppressing dissent within Xinjiang, the Chinese government
sought to insulate Uighurs from external forces that could destabilize
the region. At the top of Beijing's agenda was stemming the flow of
Islamic ideology and militant Uighurs along the Karakoram Highway.
Many Uighurs who crossed into Pakistan in the eighties enrolled in
madrassas that promoted radical views. They studied under the patronage
of groups such as the Jamiat-i-Ulema Islami and were recruited to fight
in the Soviet-Afghan war. At the end of the war, the Highway funneled
them back into Xinjiang where they joined violent Uighur nationalist
movements.
With the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, China's fears were further
compounded. The Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a
jihadi group with ties to Al-Qaeda, began to recruit Uighurs from the
vast network of Pakistani Deobandi madrassas. Chinese authorities have
claimed that more than one thousand Uighurs fought in Afghanistan
alongside the Taliban and Al-Qaeda during Operation Enduring Freedom.
The influence of radical Islam on the Uighur separatist movement is
clear, but it remains limited. Uighurs practicing a moderate Sufi form
of Islam, and the Chinese government's success in restricting religious
activities may explain this. Nevertheless, China has been quick to
capitalize on the global war against terror to launch a 'Strike Hard'
campaign in Xinjiang. This campaign has resulted in mass arrests,
summary sentencing, and rampant executions.
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China's efforts to consolidate its hold on Xinjiang have forced Beijing
and Islamabad to maneuver around potential roadblocks and avoid damaging
their relationship. In 1992, after a failed uprising near Kashgar
resulted in 22 deaths, China closed its road links with Pakistan for
several months. In 1999, the Chinese authorities lodged a protest with
the Pakistan Interior Ministry upon the arrest of sixteen Uighurs who
claimed to have received guerrilla warfare training in Pakistan-based
camps. Chinese fears of Islamic fundamentalism within its borders have
also disrupted land-based trade. The Sino-Pakistan land-based trade
agreement that expired a few years ago has yet to be renewed.
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