Reviewing terrorism threat on China after the cold war

Abstract

ABSTRACTOver the past three decades, terrorism has directly threatened China's national security and has played a key role in its foreign policy. The nature of terrorism in China is changing, as is the Chinese government's response to the threat. Despite the issue's importance, there is still little knowledge about the changing face of terrorism in China. Thus, this study fills the gap in the literature on this subject by reviewing the terrorism threat against China after the Cold War from 1989 through 2020, based on the global terrorism database. The study's main findings reveal that China is not a significant target of terrorism when compared to other powers. Terrorism in China is domestic and concentrated in four specific districts, chiefly caused by the Uyghurs Uprising. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the BRI did not cause a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks against Chinese citizens outside China.KEYWORDS: Chinaterrorism threatsBelt and Road InitiativeXinjiangterrorist attacksChinese policy Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Ashkelon Academic College.Notes on contributorsMordechai ChazizaMordechai Chaziza is a senior lecturer at the Department of Politics and Governance and the Multidisciplinary Studies in Social Science division at Ashkelon Academic College (Israel) and a Research Fellow at the Asian Studies Department, University of Haifa, specializing in Chinese foreign and strategic relations.Shlomo O. GoldmanShlomo O. Goldman has a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2010) and a Post-doc at the Inter-Disciplinary Center (2014). Shlomo was a scientific advisor at the Ministry of Education (2019–2021) and is a lecturer at several academic institutions in Israel. He was a research fellow at the Herzl Institute for Research and Study of Zionism and History at the University of Haifa about democracies coping with terrorism, specializing in terrorism, international, intra-states wars, and globalization.