Sino-Islamic connection
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The Sino-Islamic connection or Islamic-Confucian connection refers the idea of an alliance or diplomatic and military cooperation between Islamic states and the government or military-industrial complex of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The idea seems to be somewhat broadly defined to account for either a type of cooperation or a complete actual military alliance of sorts (because predicting accurately which will occur is a difficult task).
Supporters of the theory cite PRC aid to Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and the sale of PRC arms to Iran. Furthermore, the PRC and Pakistan both have geopolitical reasons to regard India as an enemy, or at least a competing state. During the Cold War, the PRC was active in the non-aligned movement, whose members included some Islamic states. Also during the Cold War, both the PRC and many Islamic states made anti-Western statements. Supporters of the theory regard the Sino-Islamic connection as hostile to the West, with the PRC acting as the arms supplier of militant Islam. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, an international organization, brings together the PRC and a number of predominantly Islamic states.
Detractors of the theory do not believe that any such systematic connection exists. They note that the PRC government has historically had trouble with Muslim minorities (some of them separatists) in the western part of China.
The theory is advocated by Samuel P. Huntington in his writings on the clash of civilizations.
This theory was more popular before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Following the attacks, PRC cooperation with the United States in counterterrorism and PRC crackdowns on alleged Uyghur terrorists have made it more difficult to argue for a Sino-Islamic connection.