A series of terrorist attacks during the last ten days in the Xinjiang province is drawing attention to the new prospect of an Islamist jihad against China. Timed to coincide with the opening of the Beijing Olympics, the violence in China’s has claimed more than 30 lives.Despite the boldness of their recent attacks in Xinjiang, where western China meets Central Asia, Pakistan and India, the Islamic extremists are unlikely to pose a significant threat to the games themselves, which are being held under a massive security cover. Chinese officials say so far there has been no clear evidence to tie the terrorist attacks to known Uighur ethnic separatist groups. Xinjiang has a long history of separatist demands from the Uighurs, who are of Turkic ethnicity and Islamic faith.The big question is whether there is a new radical Islamic dimension to the restiveness in Xinjiang that China has managed to contain until now. There is growing speculation that the new Islamist elements in Xinjiang might have links to the global jihadi network now entrenched in borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan.In the past, top Pakistani officials had confirmed the presence of Uighur Islamic extremists training in its border regions along with terrorists from around the world. The scope of jihadi activity against China has been seen as modest, at least until recently.After the current wave of terror attacks, Beijing might have to devote a lot more attention to the rapidly deteriorating situation on the Pak-Afghan border. Until now Beijing has been secure in the knowledge that it could rely on Pakistan to deal with Islamic militants targeting China. If the Pakistan Army begins to lose the war on terror on the Durand Line, China may have to deal with an entirely different situation.Meanwhile the Pakistan Prime Minister’s adviser on internal security, Rehman Malik was in Beijing this week briefing the Chinese officials of his government’s efforts to curb the sources of international terrorism on its soil.Education diplomacyWhile India’s HRD Ministry continues to block India’s premier higher education institutions like the IITs and IIMs from setting shop abroad, China has unveiled plans to establish its first university abroad, in Pakistan.Last week, China and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the Pakistan-China University of Engineering, Science and Technology in Islamabad. A consortium of seven Chinese universities is participating in the project, and is expected to bring its own faculty, curriculum and degrees. It will also establish a technology park along with the university to promote advanced research.The consortium includes Beijing’s Tsinghua University, the Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, and North China Electric Power University. The university expects to kick off with a few courses this year. A campus is expected to be fully operational in about five years. It is a matter of time before many of our neighbours in the subcontinent and in Asia will start pressing Beijing for similar projects. Thanks to our HRD, India will be desperately playing catch up in an area that it had a natural lead.Iraqi oilIndia might also have to scramble to keep pace with China’s energy diplomacy in the Gulf. As the security situation continues to improve in Iraq, China is moving in quickly. Reports from Baghdad say Iraq’s oil minister will visit China before the end of August to clinch a deal to develop the Ahdab oilfield south of Baghdad and construct a power station next to it.The Chinese National Petroleum Company had signed a 650-million-dollar deal with the government of Saddam Hussein in 1997 on developing the Ahdab oil field. The new government in Iraq would like to renegotiate terms to bring it in tune with the draft Iraqi oil law unveiled in 2007.The renewed deal is likely to be worth much larger than the original figure, estimatedat around 1.2 billion dollars. The Ahdab field is in Wasit provincebordering Iran. When the deal was signed in 1997, planned production was 90,000 barrels per day. That exploration agreement was suspended due to UN sanctions.The writer is a Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohan@ntu.edu.sg
