Xi Jinping urges China’s central Asian neighbours to help step up extremism fight
China's president called on Central Asian states to increase efforts to tackle 'terrorism, extremism and cyberterrorism' at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tajikistan
President Xi Jinping urged Central Asian states to step up the fight against religious extremism and cyberterrorism, Chinese state media said, as Beijing reaches for help across its borders in addressing security concerns in its restive Xinjiang region.
Beijing says separatist groups in the far western region of Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uygur minority, are seeking to form their own state called East Turkestan and have links with militants in Central Asia as well as Pakistan.
“[We] should make concerted efforts to crack down on the ‘three evil forces’ of terrorism, extremism and separatism.”
The government says such separatists are influenced by militant groups’ training videos and audio from beyond its borders, though experts dispute their influence and reach.
“[We] should make concerted efforts to crack down on the ‘three evil forces’ of terrorism, extremism and separatism,” the official Xinhua news agency said late on Friday, citing Xi’s speech in Tajikistan to the heads of state of other Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members.
“Currently, [we] should focus on combating religion-involved extremism and internet terrorism,” Xi said, adding that the group’s Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure (RCTS) should enhance efforts to combat drug trafficking.
