BEIJING, Oct 19 (Reuters) – China’s Premier Li Qiang called on Monday for deeper security and intelligence cooperation with Tajikistan to fight what Beijing views as extremism and separatism, and said he hoped the country would take “strong measures” to protect Chinese citizens.
China has long feared violence in Central Asia could spill over into its far western region of Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uyghur people. China says Uyghur militants were behind a string of past attacks in Xinjiang.
Li told Tajik President Emomali Rahmon that the two countries should deepen cooperation on law enforcement and security, and strengthen intelligence exchanges and sharing, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
China and Tajikistan should jointly fight the “three evil forces” — a term Beijing uses to describe terrorism, separatism, and extremism — and safeguard regional peace and stability, Li added.
Human rights groups say China has severely repressed the Uyghur people and curtailed their religious, cultural and linguistic rights. China denies any abuses have taken place.
Li is not the only high-profile foreign official visiting resource-rich Central Asia this week, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio travelling on Sunday to Uzbekistan. Li was in Uzbekistan before going to Tajikistan.
China, which has a remote, mountainous border with Tajikistan, is a major investor in the country.
Late last year, five Chinese nationals were killed in Tajikistan in attacks the authorities said were launched from neighbouring Afghanistan.
Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic of around 11 million people with a secular government, has tense relations with the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan. It has previously warned of drug smugglers and illicit gold miners working along the frontier.
Tajikistan endured a brutal civil war in the 1990s after the Soviet Union broke apart, during which Rahmon initially rose to power. The country is closely aligned with Russia, which maintains a military base there.
(Reporting by Liz Lee and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Kate Mayberry)
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