BEIJING (Reuters) - China called on Thursday for international support for its campaign against Islamic separatists as part of a global war on terrorism.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said ethnic Uighur militants agitating for an independent state of East Turkestan in the northwestern region of Xinjiang had links with international terrorist groups.
Beijing's call puts Washington in an awkward position ahead of the first meeting between President Jiang Zemin (news - web sites) and President Bush (news - web sites) at an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (news – web sites) summit in Shanghai next week.
Washington wants Beijing's support for its war on terrorism but has accused China frequently of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, including curbs on religious freedom, arbitrary detentions and executions without due legal process.
``Several East Turkestan organizations have openly expressed in their mission statements that they would resort to violent means in anti-China activities,'' Sun told a news conference.
``These acts have also incurred immense public resentment among Chinese people, so the fight against East Turkestan is also a part of the international campaign against terrorism.''
Last month, China appeared to link its backing for Washington's war on terror to U.S. support against separatists in Xinjiang, Tibet and Taiwan, but a Foreign Ministry spokesman later denied there was any connection.
BOMBINGS AND ASSASSINATIONS
Sun said there was evidence that Uighurs had links with international terrorist groups and had carried out bombings, assassinations, kidnapping and robberies in China and abroad.
``In this respect, we will continue consultations with relevant sides, including the United States, and hope that this cause can win understanding and support as part of the worldwide campaign against terrorism,'' Sun said.
Earlier this week, China and the United States resumed a human rights dialogue suspended after U.S. jets bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Sun declined to say if the United States raised Xinjiang again.
It was not immediately clear why Sun referred to ``East Turkestan organizations'' when China usually refers to independence activists in Xinjiang as ``splittists.''
But some diplomats said China may be trying to associate Uighur militants with Islamic extremists in Afghanistan (news - web sites), now the target of U.S.-British military strikes, and to differentiate them from independence activists in Tibet and Taiwan.
China also calls Tibet and Taiwan independence activists ''splittists,'' but they enjoy strong support in the United States.
``I believe that this is a very important change in China's government policy,'' said Zhu Feng, director of the International Security Program at Peking University.
``Stressing the East Turkestan issue is in fact saying that China's stance against separatists in Xinjiang is linked with the U.S. fight against terrorism.''
SECOND HEARING
Zhu compared Xinjiang to Chechnya (news - web sites).
Russia has won a second hearing in the West on its two-year crackdown on Chechen separatists, arguing that it is fighting the same sort of Islamic terrorism as the United States.
``In the beginning, China's Xinjiang issue drew a lot of criticism from the United States over human rights,'' said Zhu.
``China wants the Western world to know about China's threat from terrorism and to let the U.S. accept this.''
Uighur militants have been blamed for sporadic attacks, including bus bombs in the Xinjiang capital Urumqi in 1997 which killed nine people.
A police official in Urumqi told Reuters on Thursday the city was launching a fresh campaign against violent crime, including separatism and terrorism, to last until December.
Hong Kong's Ming Pao daily said Urumqi authorities had captured 210 religious extremists and separatist leaders.
And the semi-official China News Service said local officials had called on religious leaders to help preserve ''Xinjiang's stability and the motherland's unity.''
China has also said it had closed its border with Afghanistan and stepped up security in the area.
Chinese analysts and Western diplomats say a small number of Uighurs have been trained in camps in Afghanistan.
But most have little interest in Islamic extremism and are more concerned about winning greater religious, cultural and economic freedom from Beijing than establishing a pure Islamic state, according to many Western analysts and Uighur leaders.