What are 5,000 Chinese fighters doing in Syria?

Up to 5,000 ethnic Uighurs from China’s violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang are fighting in various militant groups in Syria, the Syrian ambassador to China Imad Moustapha said on Monday, adding that Beijing should be extremely concerned about it.

China is worried that Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic language, have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for militants there, having travelled illegally via Southeast Asia and Turkey.

Moustapha told Reuters on the sidelines of a business forum that while some of the Uighurs were fighting with Islamic State, most were fighting “under their own banner” to promote their separatist cause.

 

Read More: What are 5,000 Chinese fighters doing in Syria? – Middle East – Jerusalem Post