Unnecessary evil: China's Muslims aren't terrorists. So why did the Bush administration give Beijing the green light to oppress them?

Washington Monthly, Dec, 2002 by Joshua Kurlantzick

The Bush administration has done little to back up its words. When Ronald Reagan visited Moscow in 1988, as the Soviet Union, like China today, was confronting serious internal tensions, he gave a major public speech about freedom and human rights. Unlike Reagan, Bush has not used visits to China to seriously highlight concerns about repression in Xinjiang or even bargain for the release of a leading Uighur like Kadeer. Instead, the president has praised Jiang for standing "side by side" with the United States in the war on terrorism.

Even the State Department, which has taken a relatively tough line on China, has backpedaled, its officials recently arguing that some "credible reports"--namely, Beijing's assertions--had described that Uighurs trained in al Qaeda camps. And on a recent trip to Beijing, intimidating Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage did not just soft-pedal America's criticism. Armitage thrilled Beijing by announcing that Washington had placed one obscure Uighur separatist group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, on America's official list of terrorist organizations. Never mind that the group is virtually unknown and that most independent experts on Uighur matters are unconvinced that it exists.

Beijing Fling

Washington does seem to have reaped some rewards from its concessions to Beijing. China recently passed new statutes aimed at controlling exports of missile technology, chemical weapons, and other weapons of mass destruction. China has also stayed out of Washingtons way as the United States has pursued its campaign in Afghanistan. And the Chinese appear willing to forgo using their Security Council veto power to block an invasion of Iraq.

But Chinas cooperation is easy to exaggerate. Although Beijing appears to have given help in some areas--allowing, for instance, the FBI to open a branch office in Beijing--diplomats say China has offered little substantive assistance to the anti-terror effort, sharing only limited amounts of its intelligence with either the FBI or the CIA. In an appearance before the House International Relations Committee, Colin Powell admitted as much, stating that the United States "didn't get much of a response" from Beijing.

What's more, while Beijing has signed accords on controlling exports of weapons of mass destruction, it has failed to curb its exports of dual-use technology. Chinese state-linked firms reportedly continue to sell chemical and biological weapons components to Iran, which is allegedly actively expanding its arsenal of such weapons and attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Eight Chinese companies have been barred from doing business with the U.S. government and may be slapped with further sanctions. (China has denied these allegations of assisting proliferation.) Chinese state-run companies also reportedly continue to provide advanced missile components to China's longtime ally Pakistan, which uses this technology to build missiles capable Of carrying nuclear warheads. And Pakistan in turn is suspected of providing weapons of mass destruction technology to North Korea, the country which recently shocked the world by admitting it was developing nuclear weapons.