China: Shining a Spotlight on ETIM

In the run-up to the summer Olympics in China, Beijing has implemented stringent security measures to guard against terrorist attacks — and any politically motivated protest that could embarrass the regime. To help justify the measures, the government has shined a spotlight on the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in the far reaches of northwestern China, home to the Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group perhaps even more distinct in China than their Tibetan neighbors. While ETIM may currently pose a threat, it is not as great as Beijing claims, nor is it likely to make much of an impact during the upcoming Olympics. Still, China’s obsessive focus on ETIM may have exacerbated the very problem that Beijing hoped to solve.