Abstract
China’s desire to avoid being bogged down and mired in the Middle East and North Africa’s numerous wars, conflicts, disputes, and animosities is proving to be a gargantuan, if not impossible, task. Complicating its efforts is the spread of Saudi-inspired Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism in China among both Uyghurs in Xinjiang and more mainstream Hui Muslims. Chinese concern that Saudi Arabia is supporting Salafism in China is one of several potential drivers that could push China to tilt towards Iran despite its declared neutrality in the power struggle between the two regional heavyweights.
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Notes
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Ibid. The Economist
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Ibid. Al-Sudairi
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Ibid. Al-Sudairi
- 117.
Yitzhak Shichor, Dialogue of the Deaf: The Role of Uyghur Exile Organizations Versus Beijing in Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun and Konuralp Ercilasun (eds), The Uyghur Community: Diaspora, Identity and Geopolitics, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017, pp. 121–137
- 118.
Interview with Hamid Mir, 12 April 2017
- 119.
Sean R. Roberts, A “Land of Borderlands:” Implications of Xinjiang’s Trans-Border Interactions in S. Frederick Starr (ed), Xinjiang, China’s Muslim Borderland, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharp, 2004, pp. 226–227
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Graham E. Fuller and Jonathan N. Lipman, Islam in Xinjiang in in S. Frederick Starr (ed), Xinjiang, China’s Muslim Borderland, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharp, 2004, pp. 320–353
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Michael E. Clarke, Xinjiang and China’s Rise in Central Asia—A History, Abingdon: Routledge, 2011, p. 150
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Yitzhak Shichor, The Great Wall of Steel: Military and Strategy in Xinjiang in S. Frederick Starr (ed), Xinjiang, China’s Muslim Borderland, Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharp, 2004, pp. 120–163
- 123.
Closed-door conferences and private meetings witnessed by the author in the period between 2014 and 2016
- 124.
The Associated Press, Thousands of Turks protest China violence, 13 July 2009, http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/thousands-of-turks-protest-china-violence.aspx?pageID=438&n=thousands-of-turks-protest-china-violence-2009-07-13
- 125.
Al-Tamimi, China-Saudi Arabia Relations, p. 91
- 126.
Lillian Craig Harris, China’s Islamic Connection, Asian Affairs, Vol. 8:5, pp. 291–303.
- 127.
Ibid.
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Dorsey, J.M. (2019). Navigating Regional Rivalries and Sensitivities. In: China and the Middle East. Global Political Transitions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64355-7_5
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