When foreign media ask Pakistan’s official narrative about the genocide of Uyghur, instead of a satisfactory answer Pakistan’s spokesperson changes the topic.

Politics is one of the major institutions where religion is instrumentalized only for its gain. Pakistan’s official narrative and official statements of condemnation about violence and genocide in China of Uyghur Muslims and violence in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya, and Yemen are quite different. 

Pakistan seems very sensitive and concerned for Palestine and other mentioned countries and as a Muslim country it is a very right attitude but on the other hand, the violence in West China Xinjiang is totally ignored by the same Muslim country (Pakistan). Almost all the religious leaders who are considered as “Tekhadar” of religion are also found absolutely mum in the case of Uyghur.  

When foreign media ask Pakistan’s official narrative about the genocide of Uyghur, instead of a satisfactory answer Pakistan’s spokesperson changes the topic. In an interview to the “Financial Time” Imran Khan was asked about Uyghur, where he had said: “Frankly, I don’t know much about the Uyghur issue”.

Moeed Yusuf (National Security Advisor the Prime Minister of Pakistan) was asked in an interview with Karan Thapar, but he could not respond to the question properly. Shah Mahmood Qureshi was asked a month ago by CNN and he also changed the topic and turn the question to Kashmir and Palestine issues. 

Moreover, Imran Khan in an interview with Jonathan Swan was asked that why he was outspoken about Islamophobia in Europe and the United States but totally silent about the genocide of Muslims in West China, while they have imprisoned more than one million Muslims in re-education camps, also punished Muslims for fasting, praying, even giving Muslim names to their children.

The Prime Minister’s response was quite astonishing that China is a friend, they discuss these things (Uyghur Muslims) behind closed doors. He didn’t say a word against China. He was speechless but why? Because of CPAC or other major investments in Pakistan or he has other hidden pressures? 

We do not understand the complications of politics; the only reality is we are groomed only emotionally enough to be part of instrumentalization. It’s time to contemplate that are we going in the right direction? It’s time to learn to behave sensibly not emotionally.

Salman Wali is from Pakistan. He is currently studying linguistics and Literature at Karakorum International University Pakistan.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not reflect Milli Chronicle’s point-of-view.

Apparently, celebrating the persecution of Xinjiang’s Muslims did not break Twitter rules.

This week, Donald Trump was blocked indefinitely from Facebook. He was also handed a 12-hour Twitter suspension and three of his tweets were deleted.

These moves came after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, with the president’s critics accusing him of inciting and then failing to condemn the violence in which five people died.

Some have pointed to these firms’ inconsistency. Twitter, for example, while censoring Trump, has taken no action against a tweet from the Chinese embassy in the US, which has framed the ethnic cleansing of Uyghurs as a form of re-educative liberation.

“Study shows that in the process of eradicating extremism, the minds of Uyghur women in Xinjiang were emancipated, and gender equality and reproductive health were promoted, making them no longer baby-making machines”, a tweet by the embassy proudly announced.

Apparently, celebrating the persecution of Xinjiang’s Muslims did not break Twitter rules.

The tweet revealed the sinister character of the Chinese government’s propaganda. It also seems as if Twitter felt the outgoing president to be more worthy of online punishment than an authoritarian state persecuting a whole race of people.

Could there be a more telling example of Silicon Valley’s misplaced priorities? The Bad Orange Man, for all his failings, does not come close to the level of evil being perpetrated in Xinjiang.

But in Big Tech execs’ minds, the imagined threat of a Trumpian coup appears to be more concerning than the actual reality of authoritarian China.

But calls to censor Chinese propaganda also miss the point, of course. If anyone thinks blocking a tweet from an arm of the Chinese state will have any positive impact whatsoever on Chinese policy, they are deluded.

And the notion that removing those we do not like from the public space is a good way to challenge or even better understand their ideas is deeply misguided.

The problem with Big Tech censorship is not its inconsistency, although that itself is certainly a concern. It is the censorship itself. The simple fact that social-media firms have the power and inclination to silence people at will – including people as powerful as the US president – is a dangerous threat to free expression. And the idea that this is the most effective response to authoritarianism is absurd.

China’s tweet served to remind us of the truth-twisting, inhuman nature of its propaganda. It is surely better to let people share the embassy’s foul tweet – letting the world know of China’s foul deeds – than to expunge it from our collective online consciousness. Censorship merely puts the issue out of sight and out of mind.

You can’t fight authoritarianism with censorship.

Article first published on Spiked.

Paddy Hannam is editorial assistant at Spiked. He tweets under @paddyhannam.

“If not a genocide, something close to it going on in Xinjiang,” Robert O’Brien told an online event hosted by the Aspen Institute, while highlighting other Chinese crackdowns including one on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

The United States has denounced China’s treatment of Uighur and other minority Muslims in Xinjiang and imposed sanctions on officials it blames for abuses. It has not, though, so far termed Beijing’s actions genocide, a designation that would have significant legal implications and require stronger action against China.

The United Nations estimates that more than a million Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang and activists say crimes against humanity and genocide are taking place there. China has denied any abuses and says its camps in the region provide vocational training and help fight extremism.

O’Brien referred to seizures by US customs of “massive numbers” of hair products made with human hair from Xinjiang.

“The Chinese are literally shaving the heads of Uighur women and making hair products and sending them to the United States,” he said.

US Customs and Border Protection said in June it had detained a shipment originating in Xinjiang of hair products and accessories suspected of being forced-labor products made with human hair.

In June, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labeled as “shocking” and “disturbing” reports that China was using forced sterilization, forced abortion and coercive family planning against Muslims in Xinjiang.

He said last month Washington was considering the language it would use to describe what is happening in the region but added: “When the United States speaks about crimes against humanity or genocide … we’ve got to be very careful and very precise because it carries an enormous weight.”

The state project that has been promoted by the Palestinians is not an Islamic. Rather, they advocate a secular state, and they adopt communist and leftist ideologies of atheistic origins…

The negative perception of non-Muslims about the laws of Sharia is a result of the wrong understanding that some misguided Muslims espouse, especially those who tend to extremism and terrorism, due to a deep ignorance of the rules of Sharia. These misguided have caused their extremist tendencies to offend Islam and Muslims and to show Sharia law in an inhuman manner by altering and falsifying sacred texts and not realizing its linguistic indication and contexts.

Sharia has established that preserving lives and property of people as a primary principle of top priority through clear sacred texts from the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

Therefore, through the Palestinian Cause and other persistent hotbeds of tension throughout Muslim regions around the world, it seems clear that completely misinterpretation, misinformation and obvious wrong ideas are clearly and primarily in violation of this basic principle of Islamic law.

One of the great and miraculous issue about Islam is that despite the well-established belief system, divine moral values, general and specific rules, detailed controls, it does not contradict modernity, science, or coexistence with non-Muslims and good entertainment. In fact, there are many texts in the Qur’an and the Sunnah that encourage continuous logical thinking, keep learning, contemplation, improvement of living conditions, and the pursuit of peace and stability.

Salafism as a title has been misused and some ignorant Muslims have been using it as a sect. Well, it’s not a sect. It’s the original objective methodology in which the original Islam relies on. It relies on the Qur’an, the Sunnah and the pure understanding of the Prophet Mohammed peace be upon him, his companions and the earlier righteous Muslims and their following righteous Muslims. Salafism represents objectivity which is the cornerstone, which Islam was designed by Allah Almighty to fulfill, in order to transcend injustice, sectarianism, racism and extremist patterns, and to help people to avoid excessive patterns of deception, alter religious sacred texts using them in other than their specific indications and contexts.

Most what so-called (Islamic countries) are lagging behind in the fields of stability, security, infrastructure, development, economy, thought and culture. Nevertheless, “some” of governments and peoples of these countries are devoted to giving the Saudis lectures on what should or should not be done. While Saudi Arabia ranks 18th in the G20, and is ahead of many of G20 in many developmental aspects, such as competitiveness and ease of business, ranks 25th in the world in patents, and It has low crime rates. According to some study centers, Saudi Arabia is considered the fifth most powerful country in the world.

Misguided Muslims have been constantly hostile to Saudi Arabia, which is the only state in the world that embraces Sharia as the only source of legislation and embraces monotheism and prohibits manifestations of polytheism, while most of the so-called (Islamic) countries embrace secularism. Well, the case here is that the Saudi authentic objective methodology always has been exposing the various twisted patterns.

Because of ignorance and fanaticism, misguided Muslims do not care about monotheism and Sharia as a supreme objective criteria, they ignore the legitimate Islamic priorities, and they do not focus on extricating their countries and societies from polytheism, secularism, sexual immorality, alcohol and backwardness. That would keep them busy the rest of their lives if they would be seriously interested in the true Islam.

Rather, they engage in subsidiary issues or issues that are outside their legal and Islamic authority, or issues that are not considered central in the first place.

Palestine, Kashmir, Uighurs, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Somalia

Miserable failure to adhere to Islamic objectivity (Salafism: the original Islam) is what sparked these countries and turned them into complex issues and fiery conflict areas.

Well .. their country’s system does not embrace the most important and first of Islamic principle, monotheism and Sharia, and your country ranks at the back globally in various lists and you do not show respect for (Saudi Arabia G20), the only country that embraces both monotheism and sharia systematically and popularly. So how could they claim that they truly care about Islamic causes? Rather, how could they claim that subjects they’re interested in, are pivotal Islamic causes?

Unfortunately, the misguided Muslims think in a distorted way as if they seek to condemn Islam through their practices and intellectual patterns, as they show more concern for the Palestinian cause than for the security and safety of Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, the Qibla, the cradle of revelation, the resting place of the Great Prophet Mohammad (PPBUH), the only country that embraces monotheism and Sharia.

Rather, misguided Muslims keep attacking Saudi Arabia and other Muslims, they constantly antagonize and incite against it, they rejoice in every threat it faces, under false titles and fake arguments – they claim to be Islamic – while their titles and arguments actually contradict the simplest Islamic rules.

How could these misguided people claim to be Muslims? How could they boast about their fake interest in Islamic causes? While they do not celebrate the first and most important Islamic principle (monotheism and Sharia).

This is the biggest symptom of the disease, Islamic Illusion that afflicted many Muslims around the world.

No one claims that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is perfect, for this did not and will never happen except with the Messenger Mohammad (PPBUH), but it’s the best model as a state in this age in implementing the priorities of Islam, such as monotheism and Sharia, doing its best to serve Muslims, the guests of the Lord at Hajj and to serve the Qur’an and the Sunnah. It has NO relations with Israel at all.

Many Muslims look for the illusion of the caliphate by glorifying the defunct Ottoman state that had many polytheism manifestations and it persecuted Muslims and non Muslims, as it built and glorified the graves and shrines and did not care about monotheism, Sharia, the two holy mosques and knowledge – The Ottomans issued a fatwa prohibiting printing books, as it cared to extend its authority, and all its sultans did not perform the obligatory of Hajj.

Even greater, there’re the new Ottomans who glorify Turkey, a country that – constitutionally – espouses secularism, prostitution and sexual immorality, and is full of graves and shrines that have been worshiped, and has the best relations with Israel.

And misguided Muslims today are ready to support the terrorist polytheist regime (Iran) and its terrorist gangs in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, only because they hate monotheism and Sharia, and they carry out and promote hatred against Muslims, especially against Saudi Arabia, the only country that embraces monotheism and Sharia.

Are they really Muslims?

Some Muslims today are ready to blame (Saudi Arabia) for their failure to shoulder their local Islamic and national responsibilities, while their countries are mired in ignorance, polytheism, secularism, extremism, terrorism, hatred, lying, fraud, deception, aggression, backwardness and moral decay.

On a large scale in the so-called (Islamic world), by misguided Muslims, false accusations are continuously being propagated against Saudi Arabia of Zionism and being an agent and that it is a Western intelligence fabrication.

Well, think about as a real Muslims or normal human being with fine logic: is it possible that non-Muslims would establish monotheism and the Sharia? Would non-Muslims build a state that embraces monotheism and Sharia and support it?

Also, many misguided Muslims or fake Muslims like to describe the Saudis as Wahhabis, the evil stigma was invented by the Ottoman occupation hostile to the Arabs because the Arabs have been fighting back and expelled the Ottomans, and because of the monotheism is the profound ground of Saudi Arabian state since its inception in 1744, and they like to describe the Saudis with various inappropriate descriptions that express the extent of racism and distance from Islam.

Let me tell you frankly: misguided Muslims are thus the best soldiers of Satan ever, because they do not respect monotheism and Sharia, they do not respect (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) the only state that embraces them, they do not stop attacking it, and they have not built a state that can be rival to deserve such respect even from purely materialistic aspect.

Do they accept to live this stupidity and naivety?

Islam for peoples and individuals is a comprehensive system of lifestyle that relies first on monotheism (the first absolute value), then on the pillars of Islam, then on Iman (solid faith) and behavioral controls, under a broad value system regulated by general objective rules called (the legitimate purposes).

The legitimate purposes are:

• Protecting Islam (which is based on monotheism first).
• Protecting life of people.
• Protecting mind.
• Protecting offspring.
• Protecting money and property.

Well .. how many countries that:

• Establish monotheism constitutionally and popularly and prevents polytheism?
• Puts protection of lives as a priority over material interests?
• Protects the mind from alcohol, drugs and destructive ideas?
• Protects money and property with right regulations, good infrastructure and sustainable development?
• Criminalizes adultery and sexual immorality?

These are the first priorities in Islam.

Then the following priorities, which are the distribution and hierarchy of roles and responsibilities in Islam, that can sustain the individual, the family, the society and the state to be safe. For the man is the responsibilities of his family to be well taking care of, then for the woman is the responsibilities of her inside family issues to be well taking care of, the minister in the ministry, the manager is in a sector, the businessman or woman in his/her establishment or company and so on. The king, the president or the supreme leader is responsible The firsr for the state and the people to be well taking care of.

And every people – as individuals or as a whole – are responsible for their state, independence and borders, according to the prevailing laws locally. The Pakistani is not responsible for what happens in Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi is not responsible for what happens in Egypt, the Emirati is not responsible for what happens in Lebanon, and the Moroccan is not responsible for what happens in Indonesia.

The leaders and the citizens are entitled to what happens in their country. If the leader ( a person or an institution) decided a specific policy, then you have no right to violate, so you must listen and obey, regardless of correctness of your opinion – you’re entitled to criticize in a proper ways – and this according to Islamic law is explicitly stated in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, then the scholars of the early‏ righteous Muslim ancestors (Salaf).

The head of the state (the king or the president), by Shariah is the one who‘s authorized to decide whether or not it is possible or justified to help people in another country, and he’s the one who decides how and what type of appropriate assistance, and the legislative, supervisory and executive authorities are authorized to implement this.

I present this detailed matters intentionally, so as not to confuse anyone, because many Muslims are immersed in ignorance of Islam and ignorance of Islamic principles and simplest rules, and even in managing usual personal interests, then he/she talks about the caliphate, liberating Palestine and Kashmir, fighting America, China and Zionism..etc.

Even worse, some misguided Muslims who live in London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Washington, Montreal, Buenos Aires, Beijing and Moscow, capitals of Christianity, secularism and atheism. Yet, they feel entitled to brag about criticising (Saudi Arabia), the cradle of Islam and the state that embraces monotheism and Sharia, and they fight it under the pretext of Islam!

The solution to the issues of any country is by following Sharia in order of priorities, through the so-called Objectives or Purposes of Shariah or legal Islamic policy, which relies on the clear sacred texts in the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

If you live in a Muslim country, then you should do your best to reform your country through good word politely and proper planning, and be a walking model in reform and awareness-raising.

And if you live in a Non-Muslim State, – if you can – then the first thing you should do is to return to your country and your Muslim community and to start from there.

And if your country, to which you belong now, or you became belong to permanently, is a non-Muslim State, then you must respect its laws, and invite people to Islam in the ways that national laws allow, and it is not permissible for you to provoke your non-Muslim people or to insult their culture, sanctities and symbols.

Palestinian Cause

Back to the Palestinian Cause, the Islamic rules are clear and transparent, so if the Palestinians couldn’t win by military means in a way that saves innocents, then Allah Almighty does not burden them beyond their power. Rather from the purposes of Sharia, in the situation of certainty or high probability of the inability to achieve victory that can save innocents, then it is Islamic obligation to hold peace in order to save lives and properties.

This can be applied to Palestine, Kashmir, the Uighurs, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan, and every place in which Muslims are exposed to the affliction of war or occupation, as the primary responsibility rests with the people of the country themselves, as far as they can, in conditions of the overwhelming expectation of victory.

Indeed, the law of Allah Almighty prohibits political conflict and political change except according to Shariah rules and regulations, so that seeking change for the better must not lead to worse consequences or disastrous as a result, such as revolutions, demonstrations, mob protesting and endless wars.

I would like to say this clearly and loudly:

The Palestinian Cause is not a primary issue in Islam, rather it belongs to what’s so-called (Legitimate Islamic Policy), to calculate and evaluate the expected gains and the consequences that could result from any decision that the state can go with.

And a mercy from Allah, one of the most important purposes of Sharia is to protect the lives of people (Muslims and non Muslims) , and Allah Almighty has established the absolute reality of His mercy when He said: (Allāh does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity), (The Holy Qur’an, 2 Al-Baqara- Ayah 286), and the Messenger of Mercy Mohammad (PPBUH) said: (If I ordered you to do something, then do of it as much as you can), Sahih al-Bukhari 7288.

If the leadership of your country believes that it is unable to help other Muslims militarily, politically or economically, then you must respect that, and continue to assist and support and improve local legal methods in a manner that does not contradict the principles of Islamic law.

As a Muslim individual in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Britain, France, America, China, Russia, Morocco, or South Africa, you are not responsible, according to Islamic laws, for Palestine, Kashmir, Syria, or any place other than your country.

But why?

I’ll repeat that.

A. There is a hierarchy in the distribution of roles and responsibilities in Islamic laws.

B. Every Muslim exerts his efforts to the best of his ability according to Islamic legitimate responsibilities, while not inconsistent with the supreme Sharia rules and regulations.

It’s one of your responsibilities as a Muslim to be a model of Islam walking on earth, to please Allah Almighty first, to show people the greatness of Allah’s religion, so you invite them to Islam with your high manners and knowledge, and to establish Allah’s proofs against them.

If you adopt an extremist or a terrorist ideology, or any immoral pattern – according to Islam-, politically, socially, economically or militarily, or you behave aggressively, then you necessarily become an anti-Islam, and even peaceful non-Muslims become better than you for Islam.

The moral and legal rules of Shariah are objectively determined by divine authority, not your delusions, no matter how you claim and flaunt to be a Muslim.

As for corrupt illusions, romantic dreams, wishful thinking, and false aspirations promoted by corrupt ideologies, such as Shiism in (Iran), Sufism and Naqshbandi in (Turkey), and some other regimes and groups, this matter is the most dangerous of all profoundly, as it corrupt for people their lives here and hereafter, and distort the pure image of Islam in consideration and awareness of Muslims themselves, not alone consideration and awareness of non-Muslims.

Corrupt regimes hostile to Islam, such as Iran and Turkey, and their followers and fans from the corrupt groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, ISIS, Takfir groups, and Shiite militias in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, you see for yourself the results of their corruption, where polytheism, massacres, extermination, destruction and crime have become a regularly wherever they are able to influence.

Al-Aqsa Mosque, despite its importance and position for Muslims, is not more important than the souls of the Palestinians and all Muslims, rather the Holy Ka’ba itself as it is despite the greatness of its place and its position in Islam, is not more important and greater than the souls of the Saudis and all Muslims.

The state project that has been promoted by the Palestinians is not an Islamic. Rather, they advocate a secular state, and they adopt communist and leftist ideologies of atheistic origins, or extremist ideologies claiming Islamic legitimacy, while it is actually otherwise.

It’s our Islamic duty as Saudis and non-Saudis to expose the emotional, moral, religious, political, economic and military blackmail to which we as Saudis and Muslims around the world have been exposed to, in the name of the Palestinian Cause or other causes. Independence is not more important than the lives of people, which are not supposed to be sacrificed, according to Islamic Shariah laws.

The Palestinian Cause has been the spearhead of all projects hostile to Islam and Muslims, especially against the Saudis, whereby Saudi Arabia (the monotheism and Sharia state)’s image has been distorted and has been fought against across the so-called (Islamic world) in the name of the Palestinian illusionary cause.

The Muslim Brotherhood terrorist group, the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization ISIS, terrorist and criminal Iranian regime, the aggressive and terrorist Turkish regime, the most corrupt of all, and other corrupt regimes and groups..

All of them have been using the Palestinian Cause to kill Muslims, to harm them, and to destroy their countries, societies, security, and national capabilities. It’s enough for you that the sinister (Iranian-Turkish-Qatari evil axis with the Western atheist left) sponsored the so-called (Arab Spring) project, which turned the countries into unrivaled devastation and turned the people into gangs, thieves, or just terrified innocent people who cannot live properly or settle for anything.

All of these parties that use Islamic Causes, especially the Palestinian to blackmail Muslims, especially to blackmail Saudi Arabia, have not provided anything to the Palestinians or other Muslims for past 70 years. No independence, no state, no dignity, no rights, no development, no prosperity, not even humanitarian aid.

Whereas Saudi Arabia (the state of monotheism and Sharia) has been at the forefront of donors for decades, especially for the benefit of the Palestinians. The Palestinian Authority’s budget relies mainly on Saudi support, and in return Turkey and Iran have not provided any real aid to any people on Earth, rather both consumed their economies and capabilities in exporting polytheism, immorality, hatred, conflicts and wars.

Turkei Al-Owerde is Editor-in-Chief and Political Analyst of the Herald Report. His knowledge of the religious undertones of most Muslim Terrorist Organizations makes his many “conflict analysis” a valuable source of information for many security experts from around the world. He regularly tweets under @Turki_AlOwerde.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used to send shockwaves to Beijing with his outspoken support of China’s Uighur minority, a predominantly Turkic-speaking Muslim group in Xinjiang that is subject to horrific human rights violations. “The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide,” Erdogan said in 2009, when he was prime minister. And it wasn’t just empty words: Turkey has been a safe haven for Uighurs fleeing persecution ever since the Chinese Communist Party took control of Xinjiang in 1949 and hosts one of the largest Uighur diaspora populations in the world.

Then came a sudden, unexpected switch. In 2016, Turkey arrested Abdulkadir Yapcan, a prominent Uighur political activist living in the country since 2001 and initiated his extradition. In 2017, Turkey and China signed an agreement allowing extradition even if the purported offense is only illegal in one of the two countries. Since early 2019, Turkey has arrested hundreds of Uighurs and sent them to deportation centers. And Erdogan’s remarks have turned diplomatically bland, just like any Uighur-related coverage in newspapers controlled by Erdogan and his supporters.

Erdogan’s remarkable U-turn has a simple explanation: His regime and Turkey’s economy are in crisis. With few other friends, Ankara is counting on Beijing to patch things up, and that requires adherence to Beijing’s talking points. Erdogan’s problems are mounting: Turkey’s economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which has devastated its primary economic sector, tourism. As Erdogan tightens his control over the central bank and the courts, foreign reserves are shrinking, the trade deficit is rising, and the Turkish lira is plunging. Once seen as a model of democracy and economic development in the region, Turkey is now an authoritarian country; on the Liberal Democracy Index compiled by the University of Gothenburg’s V-Dem Institute, Turkey now ranks among the bottom 20, closer to China than the developed countries to which it once aspired. Western companies and investors, once attracted to Turkey’s fast-growing economy and population, are staying away.

China’s appetite for expansion into Western Asia and Europe offers Erdogan a lifeline. Cooperation has expanded exponentially: Since 2016, the two countries have signed 10 bilateral agreements including on health and nuclear energy. China is now Turkey’s second-largest import partner after Russia. China has invested $3 billion in Turkey between 2016 and 2019 and intends to double that by the end of next year. Cash flowing in from China has become critical for Erdogan’s regime and has strengthened the president’s hand at crucial moments.

When the lira’s value dropped by more than 40 percent in 2018, the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China provided the Turkish government $3.6 billion in loans for ongoing energy and transportation projects. In June 2019, in the wake of Istanbul municipal elections that indicated crumbling support for Erdogan, China’s central bank transferred $1 billion—the largest cash inflow under a swap agreement between the two countries’ central banks that was last renewed in 2012. As Erdogan’s popularity has dwindled this year amid the coronavirus crisis and a severe currency shortage, China came to the rescue again in June. Beijing is now allowing Turkish companies to use the Chinese yuan to make trade payments, allowing them easier access to Chinese liquidity—another step up in financial cooperation.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) offers Turkey a source of fresh cash—and Beijing a strategic foothold on the Mediterranean Sea.

As part of the infrastructure-building initiative, Turkey completed a railroad from Kars in eastern Turkey via Tbilisi, Georgia, to Baku, Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea, from where it links to transportation networks to China. In 2015, a Chinese consortium bought 65 percent of Turkey’s third-largest container terminal, Kumport, in Istanbul, acquiring a pivotal position in container transportation. Chinese investors also helped salvage Erdogan’s own poorly managed megaprojects. In January 2020, a Chinese consortium bought 51 percent of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge connecting Europe and Asia across the Bosporus after revenue projections failed and the Italian-Turkish consortium controlling the bridge wanted out.

The BRI projects help shore up Erdogan in other ways. They have reinforced Turkey’s strategy to assert itself as a transportation corridor and have boosted Erdogan’s political brand by promoting him as someone who can develop infrastructure, attract funds, and undertake large-scale projects. And the cash keeps coming: This year, China’s Export and Credit Insurance Corp. committed up to $5 billion for Turkey’s Wealth Fund, to be used for BRI projects. The fund’s limited transparency and accountability raise further concerns about where the money is going and Turkey’s ability to repay.

Energy, another sector whose development has been key to Erdogan’s power, has seen even greater investment under the BRI umbrella. China is providing $1.7 billion to build the Hunutlu coal-fired power plant on the Mediterranean Sea, projected to produce 3 percent of the country’s electricity when it is completed. Ankara plans to sign a deal with China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. to build Turkey’s third nuclear power plant.

Beyond infrastructure, Sino-Turkish cooperation involves deepening bilateral military and security ties, including in intelligence and cyberwarfare. Turkey’s Bora ballistic missile—modeled on the Chinese B-611 missile, introduced in 2017, and deployed in the Turkish military operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in May 2019—is a product of bilateral defense cooperation, as was the participation of Chinese military officers in Turkey’s Ephesus military exercise in 2018.

Huawei, which has been designated a national security threat in the United States and elsewhere due to its ties to the Chinese government and military, has no such opposition in Turkey. Its share in the Turkish market has grown from only 3 percent in 2017 to 30 percent in 2019. Allegations about Chinese use of telecommunications infrastructure for state surveillance and suppression are especially worrisome in Turkey, where the population relies on the internet and social media for information due to strict control of other media channels. Another Chinese technology company, ZTE, took over 48 percent of Netas, Turkey’s key telecommunications equipment manufacturer, in 2016. Netas manages pivotal projects including the new Istanbul Airport’s telecommunications and the digitalization of national health data.

For now, strengthening relations between China and Turkey appears to benefit both sides. China has found a highly strategic foothold in Turkey—a NATO member with a large market for energy, infrastructure, defense technology, and telecommunications at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. For Turkey and Erdogan, China provides desperately needed resources to fund high-profile megaprojects and maintain the veneer of development despite the crippling economic reality underneath. Just as importantly, Chinese cash helps Erdogan avoid seeking help from Western-dominated institutions such as the International Monetary Fund, which would require him to commit to reforms and other measures that could undermine his unfettered control over the country’s economy.

Article first published on ForeignPolicy.com.