High in the teeth of snowcapped peaks, where camels graze in alpine pastures, young soldiers with sun-chapped faces and guns at the ready are trying to keep Afghanistan's radical Islam out of China.
Amid threats of US military action, China has tightened border security in its western Muslim region of Xinjiang, which touches both Pakistan and Afghanistan and is the site of China's own simmering Muslim separatist problems.
Soldiers who Pakistani traders say once let border traffic pass freely now stop and carefully search the buses, trucks and vans that groan over the Khunjerab Pass. The crossing lies at 4,934m in the Karakoram mountains, where Pakistan and Xinjiang meet.
PHOTO: AP
The soldiers question travelers and scrutinize documents. The apparent aim: to keep out the influence of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and their guest, Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born suspect in the destruction of the World Trade Center.
"The Taliban may be fierce, but we are brave," said Li Junjun, a 21-year-old border guard who looked teddy-bearish in his military-issue fur hat and baggy camouflage overalls. "You've nothing to fear in China. The People's Liberation Army will protect you."
Chinese leaders in Beijing, 3,480km to the east, worry about instability and Afghan refugees fleeing possible US attacks. They fear that could add to unrest among Chinese Muslims.
Xinjiang, Chinese for "New Frontier," is a rugged land of vast deserts and towering mountains. Its lush oases once supported camel trains that traveled the legendary Silk Road.
For years, separatists from Xinjiang's largest ethnic group -- the Turkic-speaking Uighurs -- have waged a low-intensity campaign of bombings, armed attacks and assassinations.
The separatists are few and disorganized. Chinese officials say most Uighurs oppose them. But they draw support from Uighurs abroad and in Xinjiang who resent heavy-handed Chinese rule and an influx of settlers from the country's dominant Han ethnic group.
Some separatists have received military training in Afghanistan. They reportedly fought alongside the Taliban, Afghanistan's ruling Islamic movement, and with extremists in Central Asia and rebels in the Russian region of Chechnya.
The route into China from Pakistan is the Karakoram Highway through the towering Karakoram and Pamir ranges. The mountains are a daunting barrier to attempts to cross into China, and soon snow will make passes inaccessible.
Chinese border officials say they haven't seen any refugees and, because of the inhospitable conditions, don't expect any. Beijing dismisses Pakistani news reports that bin Laden is hiding in China.. Yet, officials are taking no chances.
The Khunjerab Pass was closed for one day after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Guards said they will shut the border again if the US launches its expected retaliation against Afghanistan for harboring bin Laden.
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