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Man claiming to be researcher showed up at Guangzhou campus and helped members of ethnic minority go to Malaysia, sources say

Uygur students in Guangzhou have been warned to stay away from “outsiders” after several were recruited by a suspected religious extremist and had been missing since last year, various sources told the South China Morning Post.

A man claiming to be a US national conducting social science research visited the campus of the South China Normal University [SCNU] last year. Sources said the man recruited several Uygur students, gave them money and arranged for them to flee to Malaysia.

It is not clear if Malaysia was their final destination, or whether they were headed for Turkey or Syria, as some believe.

The recruiter was believed to be a member of an extremist religious group, according to a source who did not elaborate. A mainland terrorism expert said this was not an isolated case.

He said similar terrorist recruitments had been reported over the past two years at universities in Guangzhou, Beijing and Xian.

“The recruitment network of Islamic State has already spread to Beijing and Xian as well as Guangzhou,” said Professor Yang Shu, an expert on Central Asia at Lanzhou University in Gansu province.

The SCNU noticed the absence of some Uygur students but first treated them as missing person cases, sources said. But the authorities later intercepted a Uygur student who tried to leave the campus and join the recruiter. “[The student] was busted on campus and confessed. Their plan was revealed,” a source said.

The authorities kept the incident secret. Shortly afterwards, all Uygur students in Guangzhou were issued verbal but stern warnings that they must stay away from strangers and people not belonging to the school.

The self-claimed “American scholar” apparently went to SCNU without the school administration’s approval. It is not clear how long he stayed there or how he gained entrance to the campus.

SCNU imposes stringent security regulations requiring all non-university personnel to register their personal information before they can enter.

“The man told students that he was a social science scholar and was conducting on-site research. He handed out questionnaires to students and paid them 50 yuan [HK$63] for each conversation as a means to begin his brainwashing,” one of the sources said. “As it turned out, the man represented an extremist religious group. A few students suddenly disappeared from the campus. Their families and friends couldn’t find them.”

School administration refused to comment on the situation. There are more than 100 Uygur students studying at SCNU.

“Guangzhou has more foreigners than other mainland cities so if someone approached students from a similar religious background, they would probably be received warmly,” another source said.

Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the British-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, said he was not surprised that terrorist recruitment had spread to the Guangzhou campus.

“University is traditionally where radicalisation happens because it’s fertile ground for political ideas,” Pantucci said, adding the greater the suppression of certain ideologies among young people, the more likely they would be drawn to the ideas.

The executive chairman of the World Uygur Congress, Dolkun Isa, said he had heard of such activities in universities but he could not confirm any of the sources’ information.

“If these things really did happen, it is of course very sad and unacceptable,” Isa said, adding the congress did not support Uygurs fleeing Xinjiang, their homeland in China’s far west.

“Part of the reason Uygur [students] are so easily brainwashed is because they are deprived of the right to correct Muslim teaching as religious schools and classes [are stifled],” Isa said.