China is worried about Uyghur fighters getting high positions in the Syrian army. They’re talking about the Turkistan Islamic Party, or TIP. These fighters are connected to groups wanting to break away from China’s Xinjiang region. This is what Fu Cong, the Chinese representative at the UN, said and that China is troubled by these reports about fighters and the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, getting these important roles.
Six foreign fighters got top Syrian military jobs recently, including three Uyghur fighters from TIP. Zahid, now a Brigadier General, and two other guys, Mawlan and Abdul Salam, now colonels. These promotions happened after al-Julani took power in Syria. He had a coup against Bashar al-Assad. Then al-Julani told all the rebel fighters to join the army.
The ETIM, or TIP, is a group that wants Xinjiang, which has a lot of Uyghur Muslims, to be independent. They want to make it East Turkestan.