Muslim group in China added to U.S. list of foreign terrorists

BEIJING -- The Bush administration has added a violent Muslim group seeking independence for China's Xinjiang province to its official list of foreign terrorist organizations, a senior U.S. diplomat said Monday.

The decision, announced by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage after a day of meetings with Chinese leaders, is the strongest U.S. endorsement yet of China's assertion that it is fighting terrorism, not peaceful dissent, among the ethnic Uighurs who reside in the country's far western stretches.

It was also the latest sign that Washington and Beijing are taking steps to improve relations before President Jiang Zemin's scheduled visit to the United States in October. On Sunday, the Chinese government published regulations on the export of missile technology, meeting a longstanding U.S. demand.

Armitage said the State Department designated the little-known East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist organization several days ago. He provided few details, saying only that "after careful study, we judged ... that it committed acts of violence against unarmed civilians without any regard for who was hurt."

The Chinese government has been pressing Washington for months to include the group on the terrorist list, an act that triggers financial sanctions and immigration controls. In meetings Monday, Chinese leaders expressed satisfaction with the U.S. move, Armitage said.

China has been eager to present itself as a partner in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. But human rights activists have accused the government of using the campaign to justify harsh tactics to suppress political dissent among Xinjiang's 8 million Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims.