China is facing a network of militants entrenched in neighboring states, but authorities, especially in Pakistan, are trying to stamp out violence and protect China’s interests, the governor of China’s Xinjiang region said on Wednesday.
China has blamed incidents of violence in Xinjiang on Islamic separatists who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan.
Some Chinese officials have blamed attacks on Muslim militants trained in Pakistan, though China’s Foreign Ministry has refrained from public criticism of Pakistan.
Xinjiang’s governor, however, was more explicit.
“We have certainly discovered that East Turkestan activists and terrorists in our neighboring states have a thousand and one links,” Nur Bekri said on the sidelines of China’s annual meeting of parliament, when asked about a Pakistan connection with attacks in Xinjiang.
“But officials, especially in Pakistan, have said over and over again they oppose any violent activities directed against China and will maintain China’s national sovereignty and core interests,” he said. Both Chinese and Pakistani officials have in the past said that the militants based in western China have ties to the Pakistani Taliban and other militants in northwestern Pakistani regions along the Afghan border.
Officials in Kashgar, a city in south Xinjiang, said a stabbing attack there in late July was orchestrated by members of the separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement who trained in Pakistan before returning to China. Bekri said he was assured of Pakistani support in the campaign against militancy.