DISINFO: The US will use Uighur jihadists against China
SUMMARY
The US has removed the designation of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as a terrorist organisation. Washington wants to use the group, linked to terrorist organisations all over the world including Al Qaeda, as a weapon to destabilise China. It is likely that there is cooperation between the Turkish and US secret services to support the ETIM actions both in Syria and in China. As in many other countries, the US uses insurrection movements to destabilise its adversaries, in this case China. What is remarkable in this case is that the ETIM has been allied since its origin with Al Qaeda, while the US seem to pretend to ignore those links.
RESPONSE
Recurrent disinformation narrative about the US supporting terrorist movements around the world. No evidence is provided to support the claim.
It is correct that on November 6, 2020, the US removed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from its Terrorist Exclusion List, which prohibits members of terrorist groups from entering or remaining in the US but this is different from being designated as a foreign terrorist organisation, which carries more substantial penalties including financial sanctions. But contrary to the claim, this removal doesn’t mean at all that the US is going to support this movement in terrorist actions against China.
See other examples of this disinformation narrative, such as claims that the West is supporting terrorists to encircle Russia; that the EU is supporting terrorism against the Syrian state; that instead of killing ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, the US may have evacuated him; that the US is transporting ISIS members to Afghanistan; or that extremists and Nazis are being trained in Ukraine to act in Belarus.