• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • ABOUT CHINA
    • NEWS
    • TESTIMONIES
    • OP-EDS
    • FEATURED
    • GLOSSARY
    • CHINA PERSECUTION MAP
  • FROM THE WORLD
    • NEWS GLOBAL
    • TESTIMONIES GLOBAL
    • OP-EDS GLOBAL
    • FEATURED GLOBAL
  • INTERVIEWS
  • DOCUMENTS AND TRANSLATIONS
    • DOCUMENTS
    • THE TAI JI MEN CASE
    • TRANSLATIONS
    • EVENTS
  • ABOUT
  • EDITORIAL BOARD
  • TOPICS

Bitter Winter

A magazine on religious liberty and human rights

three friends of winter
Home / China / News China

Chinese Spies Tried to Create False “Uyghur Terrorists” in Afghanistan

01/14/2021Massimo Introvigne |

Ten Chinese agents were arrested and quietly expelled after trying to establish a false branch of the defunct East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

by Massimo Introvigne

Xi Jinping with Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Officer, Abdullah Abdullah. Source: PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Xi Jinping with Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Officer, Abdullah Abdullah. Source: PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Last week, a chartered plane left Kabul airport to an unknown destination in China. Aboard were ten Chinese nationals, who had been arrested in Afghanistan on December 10, some in the house of one Li Yangyang, believed to be a high-profile intelligence agent, where weapons, ammunitions, and drugs had also been found.

Initially, the ten were accused of terrorism and of colluding with the Haqqani Network, a military arm of the Talibans. Afghanistan asked Chinese ambassador Wang Yu for a formal apology to have the agents expelled, and told him that without it, they will be tried by a local criminal court.

The Afghans, however, had it wrong. As the investigation proceeded, it came out that the Chinese spies were not trying to support a real terrorist organization but to create a fake one. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) did exist in the past as a group of radical Uyghur Muslims, founded in 1989. What he did, or did not do, is another matter. The group consisted of small groups of Uyghur expatriates in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan. They fought together with the Talibans in different phases of the Afghan conflicts. In 2002, the United States listed ETIM as a terrorist organization connected with al-Qa’ida. In 2003, ETIM leader Hassan Makhdum was shot dead by the Pakistani Army. To his last day, he denied any connection with al-Qa’ida, although he admitted he supported the Talibans.

Not much was heard of ETIM in subsequent years.  In 2008, something called the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIM) started manifesting itself as yet another small-scale ally of the Talibans, with suspected al-Qa’ida connections. It issued threats against the 2008 Beijing Olympics, some of which might have been real, and others created by the Chinese intelligence, not followed by real-life attacks. In February 2010, its leader Abdul Haq al-Turkistani was killed by a missile launched by a CIA UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) in Pakistan. China claimed that ETIM and TIM were one and the same, but others doubted it.

True or false? CCP’s China Central Television shows images of alleged ETIM militants.
True or false? CCP’s China Central Television shows images of alleged ETIM militants.

Most scholars of terrorism  believe there is no evidence that ETIM, or even TIM, was responsible for terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, although more than 200 were attributed to them by Chinese authorities. There were some terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, but ETIM or TIM did not claim responsibility for them. Some were real, others may have been invented by Chinese propaganda. In 2020, the U.S. eliminated ETIM from the list of terrorist organizations, claiming there was no evidence it still existed. The UN Security Council and several countries, on the other hand, still lists ETIM as a terrorist group.

But, if ETIM no longer existed, its trademark was up for grab. It is believed the Chinese agents were in Afghanistan to create a false ETIM, hopefully attract some Uyghur expatriates, perform terrorist attacks, and blame the Uyghur community, thus justifying repression in Xinjiang.

The plot was fooled by the Afghan intelligence, and to avoid problems with China the agents were quietly sent back home. But there is no reason to believe Beijing will not start such games again.

Tagged With: Afghanistan, Muslim Uyghurs

Massimo Introvigne
Massimo Introvigne

Massimo Introvigne (born June 14, 1955 in Rome) is an Italian sociologist of religions. He is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), an international network of scholars who study new religious movements. Introvigne is the author of some 70 books and more than 100 articles in the field of sociology of religion. He was the main author of the Enciclopedia delle religioni in Italia (Encyclopedia of Religions in Italy). He is a member of the editorial board for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion and of the executive board of University of California Press’ Nova Religio.  From January 5 to December 31, 2011, he has served as the “Representative on combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, with a special focus on discrimination against Christians and members of other religions” of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). From 2012 to 2015 he served as chairperson of the Observatory of Religious Liberty, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to monitor problems of religious liberty on a worldwide scale.

www.cesnur.org/

Related articles

  • Thank You, Friends from Taiwan, You Are Our Special Translators

    Thank You, Friends from Taiwan, You Are Our Special Translators

  • Empowering the Next Generation of Uyghurs to Challenge China’s Genocide

    Empowering the Next Generation of Uyghurs to Challenge China’s Genocide

  • After 26 Years, Uyghurs Remember the Ghulja Massacre

    After 26 Years, Uyghurs Remember the Ghulja Massacre

  • Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back

    Pro-Chinese Propaganda by The World Muslim Communities Council: Uyghurs Strike Back

Keep Reading

  • “Burned Alive” in Urumqi: Why Did God Allow It?
    “Burned Alive” in Urumqi: Why Did God Allow It?

    Uyghur residents were left locked in a building when a deadly fire broke out. A believer’s reflection on why God could have permitted such a horror.

  • More Uyghur Criticism of Donnie Yen: Wasn’t He More Guilty than Will Smith?
    More Uyghur Criticism of Donnie Yen: Wasn’t He More Guilty than Will Smith?

    Will Smith slapped Chris Rock and was banned from the Oscars for ten years. Donnie Yen slapped the Hongkongers and the Uyghurs. He was not banned.

  • “Today I Received Uyghur Girls”: Uyghur Teenagers as Victims of Human Trafficking
    “Today I Received Uyghur Girls”: Uyghur Teenagers as Victims of Human Trafficking

    “Labor transfer agents” in Mainland China boast on social media that new shipments of Uyghur young women have arrived, as if they were just another commercial good.

  • A Uyghur Poet Reminds Us that Uyghurs Are Seeking Justice from the World
    A Uyghur Poet Reminds Us that Uyghurs Are Seeking Justice from the World

    After the Urumqi fire, it is time for the international community to stop the genocide. Perhaps a poem may help.

Primary Sidebar

Support Bitter Winter

Learn More

Follow us

Newsletter

Most Read

  • Cultural Genocide: The Indoctrination of Uyghur Children by Gulfiye Y
  • Wenzhou, Parents Asked to Sign a “Kindergarten Family Commitment Not to Believe in Religion” by He Yuyan
  • Why “Cults” (and “Brainwashing”) Do Not Exist by Massimo Introvigne
  • Pakistan: Ahmadi Mosque Vandalized by Police During Ramadan by Marco Respinti
  • A Uyghur View: Putin Got His Arrest Warrant—Xi Jinping Should Be Next by Kok Bayraq
  • Thailand and Pakistan: No Friends of Uyghur Refugees by Marco Respinti
  • “Do Not Dissolve the Unification Church!” 1. An Award-Winning Journalist Speaks Out by Masumi Fukuda

CHINA PERSECUTION MAP -SEARCH NEWS BY REGION

clickable geographical map of china, with regions

Footer

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief

MASSIMO INTROVIGNE

Director-in-Charge

MARCO RESPINTI

ADDRESS

CESNUR

Via Confienza 19,

10121 Turin, Italy,

Phone: 39-011-541950

E-MAIL

We welcome submission of unpublished contributions, news, and photographs. Each submission implies the authorization for us to edit and publish texts and photographs. We reserve the right to decide which submissions are suitable for publication. Please, write to INFO@BITTERWINTER.ORG Thank you.

Newsletter

LINKS

orlir-logo hrwf-logo cesnur-logo

Copyright © 2023 · Bitter Winter · PRIVACY POLICY· COOKIE POLICY