History of ISKP’s War Against China: Killing of Mine Worker Marks Latest Act
On January 21st, 2025, Islamic State’s Khurasan Province (ISKP) jihadists using automatic rifles shot a Chinese mining worker to death in Afghanistan’s Northeast Takhar Province while being driven with his interpreter to the Dasht-e-Qala district when their vehicle was ambushed. The Islamic State (IS) officially claimed the attack not long after, which is the latest in ISKP’s intensifying campaign of targeting foreign nationals.
ISKP has become the spearhead of the global IS movement’s anti-China militant and propaganda campaign. Previous violence against Chinese nationals includes the May 2017 kidnapping and execution of two Chinese teachers in Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, the deadly December 2022 assault on a Kabul hotel frequented by Chinese nationals, and a January 2022 suicide bombing outside of the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry building just as a Chinese delegation was scheduled to arrive.
ISKP has a growing list of grievances with China, which have driven its anti-China propaganda rhetoric and actions. These include the persecution and religious suppression of Uyghur Muslims, China’s perceived imperialism and economic exploitation of Islamic resources, its foreign policy and relations with IS’s stated enemies such as Pakistan and the Taliban, and more.