Immediately after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Chinese President Jiang Zemin picked up the phone and called US President George W. Bush to express his condolences.
At the same time, he promised that China would support the fight against international terrorism.
Jiang Zemin's actions led to some raised eyebrows in China, as the anti-American sentiment in the country was strong.
Only the year before, George Bush had designated China as the United States' greatest strategic enemy.
The Defense Alliance The NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999, when three Chinese journalists were killed, was also strongly remembered by many Chinese, and the fact that Zemin now openly showed arch-enemy US support was not welcomed by all.
Fast results
Jiang Zemin's actions quickly yielded results.
After China supported the United States in the UN Security Council, the United States agreed to classify the Uighur liberation movement ETIM (East Turkish Islamic Movement), followed by both the EU and the United Nations.
Thus, the Uighurs had become terrorists in the eyes of the world.
During the 2000s, 300-400 so-called internment camps were built in Xinjiang.
An estimated one million Uighurs have been forcibly detained.
In the camps, they are forced to learn Mandarin and about Chinese majority culture.
Testimonies to human rights organizations tell of how women were forcibly sterilized and forced to work in the cotton fields.
Satellite images show that 16,000 mosques have been demolished.
China was hoping for support
China hoped that as an ally in the global fight against terrorism, it would gain the understanding and support of the outside world for its harsh actions in Xinjiang.
Beijing also wanted to gain legitimacy for its fight against Falungong and against Taiwan's separatist aspirations.
But in recent years, Western criticism of the handling of Uighurs in Xinjiang has increased, and the US Secretary of State recently called the action in Xinjiang genocide.
Although Uighur separatists were behind a series of terrorist attacks around China in the 2000s, few international terrorist experts want to equate ETIM with terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and IS.
In addition, the Chinese definition of terrorism has been expanded to include anything that can be described as separatist or extremist and therefore could potentially threaten the country's stability and national security.
Peaceful demonstrations and political opposition with demands for independence are also considered terrorism: as the arrest of democracy activists in Hong Kong has shown.
The UN terrorist stamp of ETIM has now been removed and China's actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang have met with strong opposition in the world and are a sensitive political issue that looks set to deteriorate China's relations with many other nations for a long time to come.