Deteriorating security in Syria and Iraq poses a severe risk to China, with the two countries becoming a training ground for “terrorists” from Xinjiang, a senior Chinese diplomat said.

Wu Sike, China’s special envoy on Middle East affairs who travelled to the region last week, said about 100 militants from China were in the Middle East. He said most were from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an ethnic-Uygur Muslim separatist group from Xinjiang.

Not all would return to China after training as some stayed in the region to fight, Wu said.

… Rohan Gunaratna, of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, said the East Turkestan Islamic Movement had created its own unit in Syria, which was controlled by militant leaders in Waziristan, Pakistan.

“There are about two dozen fighters. They include Chinese who have travelled through Turkey to Syria,” he said.