September 11, 2001 revived global interest in Islam but because 90-91 per cent of its population belongs to the Han ethnic group we do not read much about China in this context. China has been facing "Muslim" unrest in the strategically important, resource-rich north-west province of Xinjiang for a long time. Beijing witnessed major protests in May 1989 against Salman Rushdie's book Satanic Verses and the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy revolt of June 1989 was spearheaded by a Uyghur. China's long and durable relationship with Pakistan, seen by us solely in anti-Indian terms, actually has a distinct Muslim and West Asia perspective as well, as pointed out by John W. Garver in his very recent Protracted Contest in which he also points out that China's diplomatic and deterrent support for Pakistan has weakened just as its military assistance has not diminished.

There are differing estimates on the size of China's Muslim community since the Chinese census canvasses ethnicity and not religion. Official figures are about 20 million, which is slightly less than 2 per cent of the total population. The Indian scholar Rafiq Zakaria in his The Struggle for Islam places the proportion at 10 per cent. Dru Gladney of the University of Hawaii, an acknowledged authority, in his Muslim Chinese gives a range of 2-4 per cent.

Around half of the Muslim Chinese belong to the Hui nationality who have their own autonomous region of Ningxia. The Uyghurs are the second-most populous Muslim nationality and dominate Xinjiang. Han migration promoted by Beijing has radically altered the demographic mix in Xinjiang as it has in Xizang (Tibet). Other provinces with significant Muslim population include Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan, Guizhou and Beijing itself. Guizhou is China's poorest province, followed by Xizang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai, Chongqing and Xinjiang. The gap between these provinces and Shanghai and Guangdong has increased in the past two decades. That is why the focus of China's Tenth Five Year Plan (2001-05) is the massive development of its western region that covers these provinces. India's own growth plans for its eastern and north-eastern regions can be linked to China's "remake the west" campaign.

Muslims have played a crucial role in Chinese history. The most colourful of them is perhaps the eunuch admiral Zheng He, the subject of Louise Levathes' fascinating When China Ruled the Seas. Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He's fleet made seven epic voyages reaching all the way up to the east African coast. It was a stunning achievement. The first two expeditions brought Zheng He to Calicut. The Chinese wanted cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric and pepper, while they offered silk, porcelain and lacquerware. Calicut is described in glowing terms in the chronicles of the admiral's colleague, another Muslim, Ma Huan. Zheng He was to die in Calicut itself in 1433 but was buried in Nanjing. Incidentally, the Kerala-China link has an even more ancient history-according to legend Damo, among the most revered Buddhist figures in China, was originally a Namboodiri. In contemporary times as well, distinguished Keralites have moulded our China policy-K.M. Panikkar, Krishna Menon and the K.P.S. Menon clan, with the grandfather serving as our envoy in Beijing during 1947-48, the son during 1985-87 and the grandson now in his third stint in Beijing as ambassador.

In June 2001, presidents of six countries-China, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan-formally launched the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). This is basically a Chinese initiative in order to build bilateral relations, promote regional cooperation to China's advantage specially with reference to central Asian hydrocarbon resources and counter America's influence in world and regional affairs. This assumes special importance given that China's net oil imports now account for about a sixth of consumption and are growing. The SCO's main objective is to fight a war against the three evils of international terrorism, religious extremism and ethnic separatism.

Following September 11, which has led to an increased US military presence in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and with the growing bonhomie between America and Russia, the SCO faces an identity crisis. China's designs on resource-rich Siberia are a flashpoint in its relationship with Russia and Japan is very much part of this equation. There also are question marks over China's relationship with Pakistan. What will happen, for instance, to the Chinese project to develop the strategic Gwadar port on the Baluchistan coast near the Iranian border? The SCO is obviously of interest to India but we must not be ensnared into any arrangement that has anti-American overtones, just as we have to resist American efforts to build us up as a bulwark or counter-weight to China as well as the efforts of our own Sinophobes to match China's military buildup.

(The author is with the Congress party. These are his personal views)