US lawmakers sought a review of the US listing of a Uighur Muslim group in northwestern China as "terrorist," accusing US authorities of relying on intelligence from Beijing.
The call came after the United States, defying China, freed four Uighurs held for years at the controversial "war on terror" camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the Atlantic island of Bermuda took them in.
Thirteen more Uighurs -- all cleared of wrongdoing by US authorities -- are awaiting release from Guantanamo. China demands them, saying they belong to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement ETIM, charges they and US officials deny.
Congressman Bill Delahunt called a hearing to examine why the United States classified ETIM as a terrorist group. He said the US official blacklisting blamed ETIM for 162 deaths in 200 incidents -- the same figures given by China for an array of attacks pinned on Uighur militants.
"It appears to me that we took substantial intelligence information from the communist Chinese regime and then used that questionable evidence as our own," said Delahunt, a member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party.
He called for a review of how the United States blacklists groups, saying: "We should never forget that flawed intelligence played a key role in the decision to invade Iraq."
Uighurs are a largely Muslim ethnic group in China's vast northwestern region of Xinjiang. The US State Department said in its latest rights report that China has intensified religious and political repression of the minority.
China said ETIM was behind an attack days before last year's Beijing Olympics in which two men in the city of Kashgar plowed a truck into a group of jogging police officers, killing 16.
Washington announced it was listing ETIM as a terrorist group during a high-profile 2002 visit to China by Richard Armitage, then the deputy secretary of state.
"They did this in a pathetic attempt to appease the Chinese government," said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, an outspoken critic of China's human rights record.
Rohrabacher accused the administration of fellow Republican George W. Bush of attempting to win China's favor ahead of the Iraq invasion and to ensure Beijing keeps buying bonds to finance the giant US debt.
Randy Schriver, a top State Department official on China under Bush and a close associate of Armitage, strongly rejected the accusations.
Schriver testified that China had pressed the United States unsuccessfully to blacklist other groups and that Bush rebuffed a personal request by President Hu Jintao to give him the men in Guantanamo.
"It doesn't look like a policy to me to ingratiate ourselves with China. If anything, they were upset with our policy toward Xinjiang," he said.
While voicing sympathy for Uighurs complaining of human rights abuses, Schriver said the United States had to keep an objective definition of terrorism, noting that 2.5 million Americans visit China each year.
"The United States would be negligent and irresponsible if we did not take a candid and sober-minded view of groups and individuals who intend to commit acts of violence against innocent civilians in China to further their political agenda," Schriver said.
But experts testifying before the committee questioned the nature of ETIM, accusing China of lumping together all critics under the name.
"It is difficult to justify the allegations that ETIM is a sophisticated and dangerous terrorist organization with links to Al-Qaeda and it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the organization no longer exists at all," Roberts said.
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