Terrorism and political violence continue to challenge governments and societies around the world. Rising powers often discover that the “price of admission” to the global stage involves a certain amount of terrorist violence, a lesson the United States understands all too well. As terrorism scholar Martha Crenshaw wrote in 2001: “Since the late 1960s the United States has been a preferred target, the victim of approximately one-third of all international terrorist attacks over the past 30 years.”Footnote ¹ As China rises in power and expands its global presence, particularly with its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, it may confront the same type of terrorism challenge that has plagued many other countries for decades.

Thus, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in China: Domestic and Foreign Policy Dimensions is particularly relevant and timely. The rationale of the book, as explained by editor Michael Clarke, is based on the premise that much of the post-9/11 analysis of terrorism has tended to focus on its effects on Western countries. Terrorism in Asia has received comparatively less coverage and analysis. This book seeks to fill this gap by focusing on China, a country that has attempted to link, justifiably or not, its own domestic terrorism challenge with the larger global campaign against terrorism sparked by the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Clarke has assembled an impressive group of scholars and analysts who first exchanged ideas at an academic conference in Australia in 2016. Edited books that derive from academic conferences sometimes suffer from uneven quality or disjointed flow. Fortunately this problem is largely avoided thanks to careful editing and conscientious (and updated) revisions by the writers. In his introduction and first chapter, Clarke establishes the parameters of the book's coverage. The plight and status of the Uyghurs, an ethnic Turkic minority in China—and their ties, alleged and demonstrated, to political violence—play center stage throughout the book. In that context, three broad themes can be distilled.

The first theme relates to Uyghur separatism, political violence, and the Chinese government's response. Although clearly there have been a number of attacks involving Uyghurs or instigated by Uyghurs, some writers see the threat of Uyghur-linked political violence as overstated and more linked to local grievances rather than as part of the larger international jihadi movement, at least until recently. More concerning, they argue, has been the Chinese government's response, which is generally characterized as draconian and punitive. Such responses include a hyper technical approach to Uyghur surveillance, incarceration, and reeducation. This includes facial-recognition surveillance cameras on streets and buses, and campaigns to extract DNA and fingerprints for monitoring, among other intrusive measures. “The Party thus seeks to strengthen and deepen its ongoing campaign to assimilate Turkic Muslims into mainstream Chinese society through a combination of hard and soft power” (p. 40).

Such government efforts have inadvertently resulted in the second main theme of the book: the internationalization of the Uyghur cause. Clarke makes the point that while terrorism in China was once largely isolated in the country's northwest, it has now spread in such a way that “Uyghur militancy and terrorism increasingly impinge upon Chinese interests in Central Asia, the Middle East and South East Asia” (p. 17). As China tightens controls in Xinjiang, many Uyghurs are hiring migrant smugglers to facilitate travel outside of China. Some go to Pakistan, Turkey, or Syria. Syria's foreign minister asserted in July 2013 that “at least thirty Uyghurs had traveled from ‘jihadist’ training camps in Pakistan to Syria via Turkey and that the Syrian government was sharing its intelligence on the Uyghurs with Beijing” (p. 26).

A third theme relates to China's increasing vulnerability to terrorism more generally as it expands its presence around the world, particularly with the Belt and Road Initiative and associated investment activities. China's trade with Middle Eastern countries, for example, has increased by 600 percent in the past decade. Consequently, “the expansion of Islamic terrorism and extremism in the Middle East poses a particularly grave threat to China's national security … [and] … China's expanding footprint in [the Middle East] makes it more vulnerable to terrorism risks and attacks” (p. 143). As Chinese investments and the presence of its nationals increase in other parts of the world—such as South Asia, Africa, and Latin America—Beijing's exposure to terrorism and political or criminal violence (including kidnappings) may increase as well, notwithstanding China's preferred “non-interference” posture. Such incidents could “precipitate Chinese nationalist responses at home” (p. 144). This could, in turn, put greater pressure on the Chinese leadership to consider external military intervention much in the same way the United States and other powers have intervened overseas following significant terrorist attacks.

Overall, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in China dares to take on a very complicated, difficult, and emotional topic for which dependable data is often difficult to obtain. The writers have done a commendable job elucidating a subject that would be of interest to anyone studying China or transnational violence. The chapters are written clearly and offer a diversity of views and perspectives. This book would likely be of interest to scholars and practitioners alike.