A draft US resolution that would designate a Pakistani terrorist Masood Azhar as a global terrorist threatens to be China’s, and possibly Pakistan’s showdown at the OK Corral.&nbsp;

The draft is supported by Britain and France.

The resolution, if formally tabled in the full United Nations Security Council, could force China to justify its ten-year long blocking of efforts to designate Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Jaish-e-Mohammed is believed to be responsible for last month’s suicide attack in Jammu&nbsp;and Kashmir.

At least 40 Indian paramilitary personnel died in the attack that briefly brought Pakistan and India to the brink of war.

China, earlier this month, blocked a French draft resolution presented to the council’s 1267 committee, saying it needed more time to study evidence against Azhar.

Known as the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, the committee was established on the basis of Security Council resolution 1267 adopted in 1999 to create a sanctions regime for Al Qaida and the Taliban.

China has in the past said there was insufficient proof to list the Pakistani militant. In response to the US draft, China’s foreign ministry said this week that a “comprehensive and thorough” assessment was needed before blacklisting Azhar.

The United States, by circulating the draft weeks after the failed French attempt, is in effect saying that China can no longer buy time. The US draft amounts to an effort to put on public display seeming contradictions in Chinese as well as Pakistani policy.

To be sure, China, as a permanent Security Council member, is likely to veto the US draft if it were to be put to the vote.

The veto, however, would put to rest Chinese assertions that Beijing had so far not vetoed Azhar’s blacklisting but “put a hold on the application” to promote “proper settlement of the issue through dialogue.”

The Chinese position was supported by Pakistan’s UN ambassador, Maleeha Lodhi, who cautioned that the Security Council’s terrorism sanctions regime and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money laundering and terrorism finance watchdog, should not be used by powers as a tool to score geopolitical points. Lodhi was pointing fingers at the United States but stopped short of explicitly mentioning it.

“Pakistan has been the principal victim of terrorism, including that supported, sponsored and financed from abroad. But this has not diminished my country’s resolve to eliminate this scourge,” Lodhi insisted.

Pakistan’s support of Chinese obstruction of Azhar’s designation casts, however, a further shadow over the Islamabad government’s so far unsuccessful efforts to convince FATF that it is addressing the group’s criticism. FATF has threatened to put the South Asian state on its blacklist.

FATF’s regional affiliate, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, this week, took Pakistan to task for its allegedly weak implementation of measures against proscribed groups.

A failure to satisfactorily address FATF concerns could impact Pakistan’s application for a financial aid package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Pakistan denies Indian claims that Jaish-e-Mohammed is one of several militant groups supported by the Pakistani military.

Pakistan says it has intensified its crackdown on militants in the wake of the Kashmir attack. The government announced earlier this month that it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people, including Azhar’s brother, as part of its push against banned groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed.

In response, Azhar has denied government claims that he was seriously ill, ridiculed the government’s assertion that it was truly cracking down and warned that the crackdown would spark jihad across South Asia.

He also goaded India in his regular column in Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Al-Qalam weekly. “India’s brain is not working. They are trying to threaten us. But are their threats making us scared? Certainly not. In fact, their threats encourage us. Their threats do the same trick as public appreciation does for a poet reciting his poetry,” Azhar wrote.

China, perhaps inadvertently, helped increase pressure on Pakistan to meet FATF’s requirements by voting this week in favour of a Security Council resolution that criminalises funding of political violence and demands that all countries establish legal frameworks to counter the practice.

The US draft could put China in the difficult position of having to square its shielding of Azhar with its effort to convince the international community that its brutal crackdown on Turkic Muslims in the troubled north-western province of Xinjiang is key to its fight against political violence.

China asserted in a white paper published this month that its counterterrorism policies in Xinjiang that amount to a frontal attempt to alter Islamic practices and involve the incarceration of up to one million people in re-education camps dubbed vocational training facilities were producing results. The paper claimed that the policies were in accordance with the rule of law and protecting human rights.

“Hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of Uyghurs are held against their will in so-called re-education camps where they’re forced to endure severe political indoctrination and other awful abuses,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a speech in Washington on Friday.

Pompeo was speaking after meeting with a former detainee, Mihrigul Tursun, and three other Uyghur activists. Tursun has spoken publicly about allegedly being abused and tortured in detention.

The meeting and Pompeo’s remarks came against the backdrop of moves in the US Congress to out Chinese companies that facilitate the crackdown in Xinjiang.

Major US institutional investors have recently divested from Hikvision, the world’s largest surveillance company that provides technology used in Xinjiang’s re-education camps.

China’s predicament in squaring its protection of Azhar with the justification of its crackdown is unlikely to crack the Muslim world’s wall of silence about what is happening to their Chinese brethren. Western pressure on China threatens to strike closer to home.

To their credit, Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and Indonesian president Joko Widodo have refrained from following in the footsteps of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Kazakh foreign minister Beibut Atamkulov, as well as, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that all have endorsed China’s crackdown.

But Khan’s repeated assertion over a period of months that he lacks information or knows nothing about the situation in Xinjiang, even if scores of Pakistani nationals have complained about the disappearance of spouses and other relatives, is wearing thin.

Pakistani businessmen travelling last September to Beijing to petition for the release of their wives was headline news.

Khan’s insistence that “I haven't heard about that” is hardly a sustainable position. 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

A draft US resolution that would designate a Pakistani terrorist Masood Azhar as a global terrorist threatens to be China’s, and possibly Pakistan’s showdown at the OK Corral.

A draft US resolution that would designate a Pakistani terrorist Masood Azhar as a global terrorist threatens to be China’s, and possibly Pakistan’s showdown at the OK Corral. The draft is supported by Britain and France. The resolution, if formally tabled in the full United Nations Security Council, could force China to justify its ten-year long blocking of efforts to designate Masood Azhar, the head of Jaish-e-Mohammed. Jaish-e-Mohammed is believed to be responsible for last month’s suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir. At least 40 Indian paramilitary personnel died in the attack that briefly brought Pakistan and India to the brink of war. China, earlier this month, blocked a French draft resolution presented to the council’s 1267 committee, saying it needed more time to study evidence against Azhar. Known as the Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee, the committee was established on the basis of Security Council resolution 1267 adopted in 1999 to create a sanctions regime for Al Qaida and the Taliban. China has in the past said there was insufficient proof to list the Pakistani militant. In response to the US draft, China’s foreign ministry said this week that a “comprehensive and thorough” assessment was needed before blacklisting Azhar. The United States, by circulating the draft weeks after the failed French attempt, is in effect saying that China can no longer buy time. The US draft amounts to an effort to put on public display seeming contradictions in Chinese as well as Pakistani policy. To be sure, China, as a permanent Security Council member, is likely to veto the US draft if it were to be put to the vote. The veto, however, would put to rest Chinese assertions that Beijing had so far not vetoed Azhar’s blacklisting but “put a hold on the application” to promote “proper settlement of the issue through dialogue.” The Chinese position was supported by Pakistan’s UN ambassador, Maleeha Lodhi, who cautioned that the Security Council’s terrorism sanctions regime and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an international anti-money laundering and terrorism finance watchdog, should not be used by powers as a tool to score geopolitical points. Lodhi was pointing fingers at the United States but stopped short of explicitly mentioning it. “Pakistan has been the principal victim of terrorism, including that supported, sponsored and financed from abroad. But this has not diminished my country’s resolve to eliminate this scourge,” Lodhi insisted. Pakistan’s support of Chinese obstruction of Azhar’s designation casts, however, a further shadow over the Islamabad government’s so far unsuccessful efforts to convince FATF that it is addressing the group’s criticism. FATF has threatened to put the South Asian state on its blacklist. FATF’s regional affiliate, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, this week, took Pakistan to task for its allegedly weak implementation of measures against proscribed groups. A failure to satisfactorily address FATF concerns could impact Pakistan’s application for a financial aid package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Pakistan denies Indian claims that Jaish-e-Mohammed is one of several militant groups supported by the Pakistani military. Pakistan says it has intensified its crackdown on militants in the wake of the Kashmir attack. The government announced earlier this month that it had taken control of 182 religious schools and detained more than 100 people, including Azhar’s brother, as part of its push against banned groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed. In response, Azhar has denied government claims that he was seriously ill, ridiculed the government’s assertion that it was truly cracking down and warned that the crackdown would spark jihad across South Asia. He also goaded India in his regular column in Jaish-e-Mohammed’s Al-Qalam weekly. “India’s brain is not working. They are trying to threaten us. But are their threats making us scared? Certainly not. In fact, their threats encourage us. Their threats do the same trick as public appreciation does for a poet reciting his poetry,” Azhar wrote. China, perhaps inadvertently, helped increase pressure on Pakistan to meet FATF’s requirements by voting this week in favour of a Security Council resolution that criminalises funding of political violence and demands that all countries establish legal frameworks to counter the practice. The US draft could put China in the difficult position of having to square its shielding of Azhar with its effort to convince the international community that its brutal crackdown on Turkic Muslims in the troubled north-western province of Xinjiang is key to its fight against political violence. China asserted in a white paper published this month that its counterterrorism policies in Xinjiang that amount to a frontal attempt to alter Islamic practices and involve the incarceration of up to one million people in re-education camps dubbed vocational training facilities were producing results. The paper claimed that the policies were in accordance with the rule of law and protecting human rights. “Hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of Uyghurs are held against their will in so-called re-education camps where they’re forced to endure severe political indoctrination and other awful abuses,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a speech in Washington on Friday. Pompeo was speaking after meeting with a former detainee, Mihrigul Tursun, and three other Uyghur activists. Tursun has spoken publicly about allegedly being abused and tortured in detention. The meeting and Pompeo’s remarks came against the backdrop of moves in the US Congress to out Chinese companies that facilitate the crackdown in Xinjiang. Major US institutional investors have recently divested from Hikvision, the world’s largest surveillance company that provides technology used in Xinjiang’s re-education camps. China’s predicament in squaring its protection of Azhar with the justification of its crackdown is unlikely to crack the Muslim world’s wall of silence about what is happening to their Chinese brethren. Western pressure on China threatens to strike closer to home. To their credit, Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and Indonesian president Joko Widodo have refrained from following in the footsteps of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Kazakh foreign minister Beibut Atamkulov, as well as, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation that all have endorsed China’s crackdown. But Khan’s repeated assertion over a period of months that he lacks information or knows nothing about the situation in Xinjiang, even if scores of Pakistani nationals have complained about the disappearance of spouses and other relatives, is wearing thin. Pakistani businessmen travelling last September to Beijing to petition for the release of their wives was headline news. Khan’s insistence that “I haven't heard about that” is hardly a sustainable position. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL.)

Masood Azhar issue and crackdown on Uighurs put China in a tight spot

A disagreement between major Indonesian religious leaders and the government on how to respond to China’s crackdown on Turkic Muslims raises questions about the Islamic World’s ability to sustain its silence about what amounts to one of the most concerted assaults on the faith in recent history.

Rejecting a call on the government by the Indonesian Ulema Council, the country’s top clerical body, to condemn the crackdown that has seen up to one million Turkic Muslims detained in re-education camps in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang, Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla insisted that the government would not interfere in the internal affairs of others.

The disagreement could take on greater significance after elections in April next year which incumbent president Joko Widodo is expected to win Widodo’s vice-presidential running mate, Maruf Amin, is the ulema’s council’s chairman. Since joining the presidential ticket, Amin has retained his council position as non-active chairman.

Nonetheless, eager to attract Chinese infrastructure investment, Kalla’s position is in line with a majority of Muslim countries, who have opted to remain silent in a bid not to jeopardise relations with the People’s Republic even if many of them have responded angrily to far less threatening incidents such as the condemnation of British writer Salman Rushdie for his novel, The Satanic Verses; the cartoon depiction in Denmark of the Prophet Mohammed; and the burning of a Quran by an American pastor.

In a similar vein, Mushahid Hussain, chairman of Pakistan’s Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said the cardinal principle of Pakistan-China relations was to refrain from commenting on anything to do with another other country’s domestic issues even though some 200 small Pakistani businessmen have been campaigning for the release of their Uyghur spouses from Chinese camps and either the &nbsp;lifting of travel bans on their children or being allowed to visit them.

&nbsp;“Given the relationship of Pakistan with China, and in the Muslim world, in particular, the Chinese narrative is apparently being accepted across the board as the one that is correct,” Hussain told Associated Press.

By the same token, Turkey with its ethnic and cultural links to China’s Turkic Muslims and past support for Uyghur aspirations has adopted a similar attitude as Chinese investment and financial aid expands.

With the exception of a few protests in Bangladesh and India and critical statements by Malaysian leaders, Muslims across the globe have largely refrained from pressuring their governments to speak out about developments in Xinjiang. If anything, China retains its status of Asia’s top tourism destination for Muslim travellers.

Nabeel Shariff, the founder of UK-based halal holiday company Serendipity Tailormade, struggled with the ethical aspects of promoting Muslim tourism to China, but concluded that “In a way, it makes sure the Uygur community are not forgotten.”

Shariff’s justification notwithstanding, there is little public evidence of the plight of China’s Turkic Muslims being in the Muslim public eye. Muslim and Chinese leaders appear to be betting that the silence is sustainable. That threatens to be a risky strategy.

For one, the crackdown in Xinjiang is expanding to the Hui, China’s non-Turkic Muslims. The autonomous region of Ningxia Hui recently signed a cooperation agreement on anti-terrorism with Xinjiang in a bid to learn from the crackdown on the Turkic Muslims or in the words of the Global Times, a Communist Party organ, “to learn from Xinjiang's experiences in promoting social stability.”

Mounting Western criticism of the crackdown, that is toughest on Muslims, but also targets other religious groups, including evangelists, puts Muslim nations on the spot. The criticism is likely to lead to Western companies boycotting products made in Xinjiang by inmates of the re-education camps, which China describes as institutions for vocational training or people who were recently released but forced to work in factories associated with the crackdown.

An Associated Press investigation published this week tracked the shipment of sportswear from a factory linked to the camps to Badger Sportswear in the United States that supplies university bookshops and sports teams around the country. “We will voluntarily halt sourcing and will move production elsewhere while we investigate the matters raised,” said Badger CEO John Anton.

New Jersey Republican Congressman Chris Smith, a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, called on the Trump Administration to ban imports from Chinese companies associated with detention camps.

A potential black swan is an anti-Chinese sentiment in a number of Muslim countries, some of which have ethnic links to China’s Turkic Muslims, as a result of perceptions of Chinese commercial terms for project finance and loans associated with the People’s Republic’s infrastructure-driven Belt and Road initiative that are perceived to be debt traps.

In an illustration of the risk, Kunaysh Sultanov, a member of the Kazakh parliament and former deputy prime minister and ambassador to China, took issue with the government’s walking a tightrope, attempting to balance its relations with its need to stand up for the rights of Kazaks.

“There should be talks taking place with the Chinese delegates. Every delegation that goes there should be bringing this topic up… The key issue is that of the human rights of ethnic Kazakhs in any country of the world being respected,” Sultanov said after a Chinese camp worker of Kazakh descent who had escaped to the Central Asian republic testified in court about what she had witnessed. 
 
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

A disagreement between major Indonesian religious leaders and the government on how to respond to China’s crackdown on Turkic Muslims raises questions about the Islamic World’s ability to sustain its silence about what amounts to one of the most concerted assaults on the faith in recent history.

A disagreement between major Indonesian religious leaders and the government on how to respond to China’s crackdown on Turkic Muslims raises questions about the Islamic World’s ability to sustain its silence about what amounts to one of the most concerted assaults on the faith in recent history. Rejecting a call on the government by the Indonesian Ulema Council, the country’s top clerical body, to condemn the crackdown that has seen up to one million Turkic Muslims detained in re-education camps in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang, Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla insisted that the government would not interfere in the internal affairs of others. The disagreement could take on greater significance after elections in April next year which incumbent president Joko Widodo is expected to win Widodo’s vice-presidential running mate, Maruf Amin, is the ulema’s council’s chairman. Since joining the presidential ticket, Amin has retained his council position as non-active chairman. Nonetheless, eager to attract Chinese infrastructure investment, Kalla’s position is in line with a majority of Muslim countries, who have opted to remain silent in a bid not to jeopardise relations with the People’s Republic even if many of them have responded angrily to far less threatening incidents such as the condemnation of British writer Salman Rushdie for his novel, The Satanic Verses; the cartoon depiction in Denmark of the Prophet Mohammed; and the burning of a Quran by an American pastor. In a similar vein, Mushahid Hussain, chairman of Pakistan’s Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said the cardinal principle of Pakistan-China relations was to refrain from commenting on anything to do with another other country’s domestic issues even though some 200 small Pakistani businessmen have been campaigning for the release of their Uyghur spouses from Chinese camps and either the lifting of travel bans on their children or being allowed to visit them. “Given the relationship of Pakistan with China, and in the Muslim world, in particular, the Chinese narrative is apparently being accepted across the board as the one that is correct,” Hussain told Associated Press. By the same token, Turkey with its ethnic and cultural links to China’s Turkic Muslims and past support for Uyghur aspirations has adopted a similar attitude as Chinese investment and financial aid expands. With the exception of a few protests in Bangladesh and India and critical statements by Malaysian leaders, Muslims across the globe have largely refrained from pressuring their governments to speak out about developments in Xinjiang. If anything, China retains its status of Asia’s top tourism destination for Muslim travellers. Nabeel Shariff, the founder of UK-based halal holiday company Serendipity Tailormade, struggled with the ethical aspects of promoting Muslim tourism to China, but concluded that “In a way, it makes sure the Uygur community are not forgotten.” Shariff’s justification notwithstanding, there is little public evidence of the plight of China’s Turkic Muslims being in the Muslim public eye. Muslim and Chinese leaders appear to be betting that the silence is sustainable. That threatens to be a risky strategy. For one, the crackdown in Xinjiang is expanding to the Hui, China’s non-Turkic Muslims. The autonomous region of Ningxia Hui recently signed a cooperation agreement on anti-terrorism with Xinjiang in a bid to learn from the crackdown on the Turkic Muslims or in the words of the Global Times, a Communist Party organ, “to learn from Xinjiang's experiences in promoting social stability.” Mounting Western criticism of the crackdown, that is toughest on Muslims, but also targets other religious groups, including evangelists, puts Muslim nations on the spot. The criticism is likely to lead to Western companies boycotting products made in Xinjiang by inmates of the re-education camps, which China describes as institutions for vocational training or people who were recently released but forced to work in factories associated with the crackdown. An Associated Press investigation published this week tracked the shipment of sportswear from a factory linked to the camps to Badger Sportswear in the United States that supplies university bookshops and sports teams around the country. “We will voluntarily halt sourcing and will move production elsewhere while we investigate the matters raised,” said Badger CEO John Anton. New Jersey Republican Congressman Chris Smith, a member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, called on the Trump Administration to ban imports from Chinese companies associated with detention camps. A potential black swan is an anti-Chinese sentiment in a number of Muslim countries, some of which have ethnic links to China’s Turkic Muslims, as a result of perceptions of Chinese commercial terms for project finance and loans associated with the People’s Republic’s infrastructure-driven Belt and Road initiative that are perceived to be debt traps. In an illustration of the risk, Kunaysh Sultanov, a member of the Kazakh parliament and former deputy prime minister and ambassador to China, took issue with the government’s walking a tightrope, attempting to balance its relations with its need to stand up for the rights of Kazaks. “There should be talks taking place with the Chinese delegates. Every delegation that goes there should be bringing this topic up… The key issue is that of the human rights of ethnic Kazakhs in any country of the world being respected,” Sultanov said after a Chinese camp worker of Kazakh descent who had escaped to the Central Asian republic testified in court about what she had witnessed. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Xinjiang crackdown: China and the Islamic world’s Achilles Heel

China has allegedly detained dozens of Chinese Muslim women in its restive Xinjiang province, located in the north-western part of the country, for marrying Pakistani men belonging to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region of Pakistan.

This issue was addressed in a unanimously passed resolution of the Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly, which was disclosed by the Pakistani lawmakers on Sunday.

According to the resolution passed, it has called the Pakistan government to take urgent steps to secure the release of over 50 Chinese wives, who according to them, was taken into custody last year when they were in their native towns of the Xinjiang province visiting their relatives, the Voice of America reported.

The deputy speaker of the assembly, Jafferullah Khan, was quoted by various media outlets as saying that the Chinese women were rounded up during an anti-terrorism drive by China on the ethnic Uighur Muslim community in Xinjiang.

The women are married to GB men, most of them who are affiliated with trading activities through the Khunjerab Pass, the only land route linking Pakistan and China. The mountain pass is situated about 4,500 meters above the sea level.

Regional lawmakers have asserted that the history of inter-caste marriages between GB and Xinjiang is decades old, and both the border regions share extremely close cultural ties.

They have insisted that the detained Chinese women had no links to any radical terrorism and were absolutely innocent.

The Chinese and Pakistani federal officials are yet to react to the allegations levelled in the resolution.

In the recent years, religiously motivated violence in Xinjiang province has been a thorn in the flesh for Chinese officials. They have blamed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), who are responsible for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in and beyond the province.

The ETIM is believed to have ties with militants operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively.

The separatist group was founded by Uighur militants, in response to the alleged government suppressions on religious and cultural expression, a charge Beijing has denied it as &quot;baseless&quot;.

The GB region is the gateway to a massive economic cooperation deal, called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), initiated by Islamabad and Beijing.

The building of the $62 billion economic corridor is a combination of building roads, rails, power plants and economic free zones in Pakistan.

Thousands of Chinese are currently working on the CPEC project in Pakistan. When built, it will link Gwadar to Xinjiang region in China, through Khunjerab Pass, giving Beijing a secure and shortest trade access to international markets.

This issue was addressed in a unanimously passed resolution of the Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly, which was disclosed by the Pakistani lawmakers

China has allegedly detained dozens of Chinese Muslim women in its restive Xinjiang province, located in the north-western part of the country, for marrying Pakistani men belonging to Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region of Pakistan. This issue was addressed in a unanimously passed resolution of the Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly, which was disclosed by the Pakistani lawmakers on Sunday. According to the resolution passed, it has called the Pakistan government to take urgent steps to secure the release of over 50 Chinese wives, who according to them, was taken into custody last year when they were in their native towns of the Xinjiang province visiting their relatives, the Voice of America reported. The deputy speaker of the assembly, Jafferullah Khan, was quoted by various media outlets as saying that the Chinese women were rounded up during an anti-terrorism drive by China on the ethnic Uighur Muslim community in Xinjiang. The women are married to GB men, most of them who are affiliated with trading activities through the Khunjerab Pass, the only land route linking Pakistan and China. The mountain pass is situated about 4,500 meters above the sea level. Regional lawmakers have asserted that the history of inter-caste marriages between GB and Xinjiang is decades old, and both the border regions share extremely close cultural ties. They have insisted that the detained Chinese women had no links to any radical terrorism and were absolutely innocent. The Chinese and Pakistani federal officials are yet to react to the allegations levelled in the resolution. In the recent years, religiously motivated violence in Xinjiang province has been a thorn in the flesh for Chinese officials. They have blamed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), who are responsible for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in and beyond the province. The ETIM is believed to have ties with militants operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan respectively. The separatist group was founded by Uighur militants, in response to the alleged government suppressions on religious and cultural expression, a charge Beijing has denied it as "baseless". The GB region is the gateway to a massive economic cooperation deal, called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), initiated by Islamabad and Beijing. The building of the $62 billion economic corridor is a combination of building roads, rails, power plants and economic free zones in Pakistan. Thousands of Chinese are currently working on the CPEC project in Pakistan. When built, it will link Gwadar to Xinjiang region in China, through Khunjerab Pass, giving Beijing a secure and shortest trade access to international markets.

China accused of detaining Muslim women married to Pakistani men