About 300 Chinese people are fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, a Chinese state-run newspaper said yesterday, a rare tally that is likely to fuel worry in China that militants pose a threat to security.

China has expressed concern about the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East, nervous about the effect it could have on its Xinjiang region. But it has also shown no sign of wanting to join US efforts to use military force against the group.

Chinese members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) are travelling to Syria via Turkey to join the Islamic State, also known as IS, said the Global Times, a tabloid run by the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party.

China has shown no sign of wanting to join US efforts against the Islamic group

“According to information from various sources, including security officers from Iraq’s Kurdish region, Syria and Lebanon, around 300 Chinese extremists are fighting with IS in Iraq and Syria,” the Global Times reported. Chinese officials blame the ETIM for conducting attacks in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uighurs. But the government has been vague about how many people from China are fighting in the Middle East.

In July, China’s envoy to the Middle East, Wu Sike, cited media reports when he said about 100 Chinese citizens, most of them from the ETIM, were in the Middle East fighting or being trained. China says ETIM militants are also holed up along the ungoverned Afghan-Pakistani border and want to create a separate state in Xinjiang.

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