BEIJING, Dec 8 (INP): China released an English-language documentary illustrating in detail that the source of terrorist attacks in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) terrorist group and its interactions with other international terrorist groups.

Titled "The Black Hand - ETIM and Terrorism in Xinjiang," the documentary aired on CGTN on Saturday, one day after the state broadcaster aired a documentary on the overall counter-terrorism work in Xinjiang.

The documentary attracted public attention once it was released. It has been viewed nearly 30 million times and has sparked debate as of press time.

Many netizens commented how the two documentaries showed the severe threat of terrorism in Xinjiang and suggested that Western media, which always groundlessly criticizes China's Xinjiang policies and hype the issue in their reports, should watch them instead of deliberately choosing to be silent on the two documentaries.

Chinese experts said Western media only choose to report what fits their interests and ideological correctness and always neglect the truth about Xinjiang. Their silence on the documentaries also demonstrates their double standards in regards to China's counter-terrorism efforts.

The documentary has three parts on telling China's most direct security threat of terrorism, ETIM's separatist strategy and the long-term fight against terrorism.

The documentary begins with the narration of violent attacks targeting civilians of all ethnic groups that frequently happened in Xinjiang and how the region became a battlefield in China's fighting against terrorism.

The background of development of the ETIM is "Pan-Turkism" and "Pan-Islamism," which were introduced into Xinjiang in the late 19th century. Separatists forces attempted to create an independent state, the so-called "East Turkistan" to split Xinjiang from China.

The ETIM was reportedly founded by Hesen Mexsum, a man from Xinjiang's Kashi, in 1997. It has claimed responsibilities for a series of attacks in several Chinese cities, including the Tiananmen Square car bombing in 2013 in Beijing, and the terrorist attacks at the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan Province in 2014.

Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing said here that ETIM is one of the four "East Turkistan" terrorist groups identified by China's Ministry of Public Security. The World Uyghur Congress has also got involved with terrorist attacks that happened in China and it is the main organization to defend other terrorist groups.

INP/J/AJ