China puts a Uighur Christian on trial. Will that keep Al-Qa'eda happy?

I referred a few days back to the reports that Al-Qaeda and similar groups might be targeting China as a result of the murderous ethnic riots in Xinjiang, and wondering how the Chinese Government might respond. Well, now we know.

A trial begins tomorrow. Predictably, a Uighur stands before the court. His name is Alimujiang Yimiti. Is he accused of running amok and slaughtering Han Chinese in the turmoil earlier this month? No – not even the Chinese can pin that on him. He has been in custody for the last 18 months. And he’s not even a Muslim – he’s a Christian. As usual, his wife and mother have been told by authorities that they will not be allowed to attend.

Although the general assumption is that his crime is bearing Christian witness among the Uighurs, he will be charged with “revealing State secrets”. Well, we are invited to reflect, that’s pretty serious. It’s hardly a sign of tyranny – you get prosecuted for that over here. The problem is that, under Chinese law, any information which has not been specifically released by the government’s information office is a state secret. The great dissident Wei Jingsheng got 15 years in 1979 for revealing that China was fighting a war with Vietnam, although many Chinese families had already found this out the hard way.

Chinese law is useful like that: most of the really severe laws from the Mao era have never been specifically repealed, only selectively applied. Until recently (and I would guess it’s still the case) it was illegal to have sex outside marriage, which has frequently come in useful when persecuting off-message Chinese or blackmailing their lovers.

But back to Mr Yimiti. Heaven knows what he might have revealed – probably that it’s hot in Xinjiang in summer – but the timing of his trial comes in very useful. The Chinese leadership can make it clear that they’re not against Muslims – “honest, Osama, we’re not ” – but just against Uighur troublemakers, who, it is implied, are quite likely to be Christians – and Christians who try to convert Muslims! “Come on, Osama, you can’t blame us for that!”.

Maybe that might keep Al-Qaeda off their backs in North Africa. Either way, it’s nice to be able to sock it to those who oppose the national religion: “There is no god but Mao, and Hu Jintao is his prophet…”

(Hat tip: Christian Solidarity Worldwide)