Al Qaeda in China?

Last night on the NBC evening news, the reporter mentioned the "terrorist attack" in Kashgar, China - 2 Uighur separatists had allegedly killed 16 border patrol officers, and may have been a part of the East Turkestan Independence Movement (ETIM), which seeks to establish a Muslim state, East Turkestan, out of the Uighur-dominant Chinese province called Xinjiang. But what particularly struck me about this report was that ETIM was billed to be linked with Al Qaeda. I did a double-take, Al Qaeda? In Xinjiang? I couldn't decide what was more ridiculous, the claim that Al Qaeda was operating in Xinjiang, or that the most respected American news outlet was making it.

It's extremely obvious to me that China is using the words "terrorism" and "Al Qaeda" only to get the US to go along with the ride. The same tactic was attempted by billing the Tibetan freedom-fighters as terrorists, but the West didn't take the bait. In this case, though, they have, at the expense perhaps of the independence movements in both East Turkestan and Tibet. ETIM is recognized as a terrorist organization by both China and the US. But if only the West actually could see beyond their own Islamophobia, Western media would see that East Turkestan shares a lot more in common with Tibet than it does with Al Qaeda, and if they saw this then maybe they'd stand with East Turkestan as firmly as it does with Tibet.

But maybe it's a good thing. After all, the West's round of criticisms against China following the March Tibetan uprisings was so full of Yellow Peril anxiety that the sinister Fu Manchu himself was debunked for failing to "control Tibet properly" Which brings us back to this old, and at the very same time, new topic - Tibetan independence and China's human rights record. Criticisms against China in its handling of the March uprisings in Tibet did nothing but produce "much resistance from Chinese officials so far" according to Avaaz.org. So instead, they're trying a different approach, thankfully, a more supportive and peaceful one - "The Olympic Handshake." Go ahead and sign it I say!