By Kevin Peters
The Diplomat
Image Credit: Andrew An via Flickr.com
On November 12, U.S. President Barack Obama sat down with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to discuss joint cooperation on a range of international issues. Xi described the talks that took pace during Obama’s three day visit as “constructive” and outlined six priorities in building what he refers to as a “new type of great power relationship.” Among the six priorities discussed between the two leaders were joint efforts in counterterrorism.
Beijing had already announced prior to the APEC summit that it was aiming to work alongside the U.S. in its counterterrorism efforts. On October 31, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hong Lei told reporters at a press conference that, “China is willing to start cooperating with the international community in striking out against terrorism.” Driving this newfound willingness to engage with the U.S. on counterterrorism are recent events in China’s far western province Xinjiang.
In the past year alone, hundreds of people have been killed in China in violence linked to Uyghurs, a Muslim Turkic-speaking ethnic group native to Xinjiang. The highest profile attacks occurred at a train station in Kunming and at a vegetable market in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. While Uyghur advocacy groups cite heavy-handed repression as reasons for the violence, the scale of recent attacks, the manner in which they were carried out, and the fact that civilians have been targets suggest that China does indeed face a domestic terrorist threat.
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