IDLIB, Syria — The United States recently removed the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, also sometimes called the Turkestan Islamic Party, from its terrorist exclusion list. 

The armed group comes from the Uighur minority in China and advocates for the establishment of an independent Islamic state in what it refers to as East Turkestan in northwest China.

The US decision was issued Oct. 20, with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announcing that the group was officially removed from the list. A State Department spokesperson said there was "no credible evidence that ETIM continues to exist.” This angered China.

After the Syrian revolution turned violent in 2011, several jihadi and other Islamic groups began arriving in Syria. These include Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic-speaking minority ethnic group from China, who started flooding into Syria through Turkey in 2012, with former Uighur al-Qaeda fighters from Afghanistan coming first and then encouraging more Uighurs to travel to Syria. Many arrived later from countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia through Turkey. The Uighurs and Turks share a common ethnicity and language, and the Uighurs found popular and official sympathy from the Turks in Turkey.