Taiwanese academics have downplayed the impact of a recruitment drive in China launched by the Islamic State (IS) group, which they say is aimed at soliciting potential members to wage war against China.
The IS released a Chinese-language recruitment song, calling on potential members to “pick up weapons to rebel.”
The move came after the IS issued a declaration of the establishment of a new Islamic state in regions of Iraq and Syria that it now controls.
The declaration also showed the territory the IS plans to occupy in the next five years, which includes a significant area of Xinjiang.
National Chengchi University Institute of International Relations director Arthur Ding (丁樹範) said that China might be concerned about the IS’ moves, but Taiwan is a culturally diverse society and tends to be tolerant of most religions, making it less likely to come under attack from the IS than China.
In 1949, 82 percent of people living in Xinjiang were Uighurs. In the decades since, a government-sponsored influx of Han Chinese has changed the province’s ethnic makeup, and by 2010 Xinjiang’s 10 million Uighurs accounted for just 46.3 percent of the population, according to that year’s census.
A government crackdown on Islamic separatism and disputes over use of the region’s natural resources between Uighur and Han ethnic groups continues to deepen ethnic polarization in Xinjiang, stoking the fires of dissatisfaction among Uighurs who might pay attention to the recruitment message, Ding said.
National Taiwan University Department of Political Science associate professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民) said that Beijing’s move to dampen Islamic separatism was based on the knowledge that separatists are related to the IS and have become a potential target for recruitment.
According to media reports, 300 Chinese citizens who identify as Uighur’s have traveled to Israel and Syria to join the IS.
The IS group’s release of new jihadi songs in Chinese could signal its intention to propagandize its ideas to the Uighurs, Chen said.
There have been concerns that China could become a target of the IS after the Chinese national flag appeared in an IS propaganda video on Nov. 24 titled No Respite.
The Chinese national flag was one of 60 national flags, including Taiwan’s, that appeared in the video.
China has not made clear its stance on whether it would launch an attack against the IS, Chen said, but he predicted that Beijing would not change its existing position for fear of antagonizing the IS.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days. A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement. The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said. On
NO RIGHT: After 38 years of martial law under the former KMT government, the KMT is the least qualified to accuse others of harboring such intentions, DPP officials said The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of creating a stir on social media by implying that the government supports martial law, adding that the KMT is the least qualified to criticize others after decades of martial law in Taiwan under the former KMT regime. After South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol late on Tuesday night declared martial law (which was rescinded six hours later), the DPP caucus issued a statement on Thread saying that Taiwan’s legislature was facing a situation similar to that in South Korea, which had prompted Yoon to declare martial law. “The South
Singapore is to allow imports of Taiwanese raw pork for the first time in 15 years, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday. The Singapore Food Agency has approved imports of fresh pork produced by New Taipei City-based Cha I Shan Foods, which had obtained a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification from the ministry to export to Singapore, it said. The ministry said it had hoped Singapore would permit Taiwanese fresh pork imports in addition to processed pork products. Singapore agreed to accept Taiwanese fresh pork after completing a document review and a virtual tour of Cha I Shan Foods’ packing
‘FACT-BASED’: There is no ban, and 2 million Taiwanese have traveled to China this year, which is more than the 285,000 Chinese who visited Taiwan, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of shifting the blame for Beijing’s tourism ban on Taiwan, continuing a war of words that started in the past week. The council’s remark came hours after its Chinese counterpart on Friday accused the government of creating barriers to the resumption of reciprocal group tours across the Taiwan Strait. The TAO accused the MAC of releasing untruthful information and dragging its feet on the tourism sector’s call to establishing ferries linking Pingtung County to China’s Pingtan Island. The MAC failed to respond to overtures to restore direct flights and raised the
RSS