Xinjiang Media reports and scholarly studies of terrorism in contemporary China frequently focus on members of the largely Muslim
Uyghur ethnic group, who are concentrated in the northwestern province of
Xinjiang. The local Uyghurs generally identify more closely with the cultures of Central Asia and have historically resisted attempts at assimilation into
Han Chinese culture. From 1933 to 1934, Uyghurs founded a short-lived
Islamic republic, and the Soviets supported Communist Uyghur rebels in the
Ili Rebellion from 1944 to 1949 against the
Republic of China and the
Second East Turkestan Republic, before the
Incorporation of Xinjiang into the People's Republic of China in 1949. China accused the Soviets of engineering riots, and improved the military infrastructure there to combat it. In the 1980s, Chinese authorities relaxed some of their repressive policies against ethnic minorities, and loosened border controls which allowed Uyghurs to travel to the Mecca Pilgrimage. During this period, some Uyghurs came into contact with radical Islamist groups operating in Central Asia and Pakistan, while others studied in Quranic schools associated with Islamist movements. The increase in
fundamentalism has been linked to the Islamic revival of the 1980s, following
Deng Xiaoping's political reforms which sought to reduce the suppression of religion by promoting atheism, which was widespread during Mao's rule.
Rémi Castets has commented that this led to a "more militant logic using Islam as an instrument for distinguishing Uyghur values from the non-clerical and atheistic values promoted by the Chinese authorities." Following the
fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia, the Chinese government feared a resurgence of separatist movements, as well as the spread of radical Islam in the region, which could destabilize its infrastructure in Xinjiang. During this time, countries such as
Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan offered asylum to Uyghur refugees, and recognition to groups pursuing independence. There is no single Uyghur agenda, and grievances of Uyghurs against the Chinese government are generally political in nature. While some Uyghurs desire an independent state in line with Turkic ethnic groups of Central Asia, others desire an autonomous relation with China while retaining their distinct culture, whereas others desire extensive integration with the Chinese political system. Such violent groups have been noted as frequently splintering, merging, and collapsing, which makes claims difficult to substantiate. Scholars have indicated that violence in Xinjiang is based on an assortment of ideologies, and there is no single dominant ideology among the Uyghurs. As
James A. Millward wrote, incidents have "been discontinuous and characterized by a variety of ideologies, Islam being only one of them." Islam, Pan-Turkic nationalism, and Uyghur nationalism are all factors in unrest in the Xinjiang region. Instances of violence by ethnic Uyghurs against security forces, organs, or infrastructure of the state are far more common, but are distinguished by scholars from terrorism aimed against the civilian population. On 28 October 2013, five Uyghurs drove a jeep into Beijing's Tiananmen Square, set the gas tank on fire, killing two civilians and injuring more than forty bystanders. These Uyghurs had jihadist flags and there was evidence of their ties to ETIM. TIP (ETIM) sent the "
Turkistan Brigade" (,
Katibat Turkistani) to take part in the
Syrian Civil War, most noticeably in the
2015 Jisr al-Shughur offensive. The leader of TIP (ETIM) in Syria is Abu Rida al-Turkestani (). There have been no terrorist attacks in Xinjiang since 2017 following the Chinese government's responses against it such as
mass surveillance, increased arrests, and a system of
re-education camps, estimated to hold a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minority ethnic groups.
Tibet Tibet, the homeland of 6.5 million Tibetans, about half of whom live in the
Tibetan Autonomous Region ("Tibet") and slightly more in the neighbouring provinces of
Qinghai, Yunnan,
Gansu and
Sichuan, lies for the most part within the People's Republic of China. For centuries, Tibet resisted Chinese influence and control, with varying effectiveness. During periods when China was dominant, little more was involved than a Chinese governor and a garrison in
Lhasa and Chinese administration in border areas such as
Amdo and
Kham with mixed populations of Tibetans and Chinese; no attempt was made by the Chinese to displace the Tibetan aristocracy or political and religious institutions of Tibet. From 1912 until 1950, Tibet experienced a period of
de facto independence from Chinese rule, following the fall of the
Qing dynasty. However, in 1950, the
Chinese annexed Tibet and its outlying areas, occupied it, displaced Tibetan political and religious institutions, and assumed governance of the nation.
Tibetan resistance since 1950 has taken a variety of forms, including instances of armed resistance that have been described as terrorism by Chinese authorities. Discontent surrounding the Chinese-implemented
land reforms and assimilation policies in Tibetan areas led to revolts and intermittent warfare, although the
Chinese central government took care to delay or lengthen the implementation of certain programs in comparison to the rest of the nation. Some Tibetan paramilitary groups during the period, such as
Chushi Gangdruk, received covert material and training support from the
Central Intelligence Agency and the
Taiwan-based
Kuomintang government. The resistance culminated in the
1959 Tibetan Rebellion. The uprising was suppressed by Chinese forces, leading to the flight of the
14th Dalai Lama and some 100,000 other Tibetans to India. Ogden credits the low incidence of conventional terrorism in Tibet to an undereducated population, swift and harsh responses to terrorism by the Chinese state, and the pacific influence of Buddhism. Notable instances of violence against civilians include a series of attacks in 1996 in the Tibetan capital of
Lhasa, and a bombing in a public square in the city of
Chengdu in April 2002, which Chinese authorities allege were carried out by Tibetan separatists. Authorities have also ascribed terrorist motives to Tibetan exiles who call for independence, and to Tibetan monks who travel to India without government authorization. ==Terrorism in contemporary China==