Sino-Islamic connection

The Sino-Islamic connection or Islamic-Confucian connection refers to the idea of an alliance or diplomatic and military cooperation between Islamic states and the government or military-industrial complex of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The idea seems to be somewhat broadly defined to account for either a type of cooperation or a complete actual military alliance of sorts (because predicting accurately which will occur is a difficult task).

Supporters of the theory cite PRC aid to Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and the sale of PRC arms to Iran. Furthermore, the PRC and Pakistan both have geopolitical reasons to regard India as an enemy, or at least a competing state. During the Cold War, the PRC was active in the Non-Aligned Movement, whose members included some Islamic states. Also during the Cold War, both the PRC and many Islamic states made anti-Western statements. Supporters of the theory regard the Sino-Islamic connection as hostile to the West, with the PRC acting as the arms supplier of militant Islam. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an international organization, brings together the PRC and a number of predominantly Islamic states.

Detractors of the theory do not believe that any such systematic connection exists. They note that the PRC government has historically had trouble with Muslim minorities (some of them separatists) in the western part of China, although not with Muslim minorities in the rest of the country.

The theory is advocated by Samuel P. Huntington in his writings on the clash of civilizations.

Arguments against such alliance

Muslim minorities

China's problems with its Muslim minorities (esp. the Uyghur and the Hui) are on the increase. In 2004 China's biggest known outbreak of ethnic violence occurred in the Henan province between thousands of Hui Muslims and Han Chinese, leaving several people dead. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3982537.stm] There are also some Uyghur terrorist organisations. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, PRC cooperation with the United States in counterterrorism and PRC crackdowns on alleged Uyghur terrorists have made it more difficult to argue for a Sino-Islamic connection.

However the PRC continues to enjoy strong relations with Islamic countries like Iran and Pakistan, which makes some claim that the problems with the Uyghur is not related to the Sino-Islamic alliance.