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.
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