China has been quietly working away in Syria with their elite spec ops teams for the past few years. They've been hunting down the Uyghur mercenaries there in hopes that they can prevent them from returning to China where they can cause mayhem for foreign powers. With any luck the Chinese military will be doing some larger operations in Idlib soon.
Who Are The Uyghurs
The Uyghurs are one of 56 Chinese ethnicities & have Turkic origins. They hail from Xinjiang where there has been some major civil unrest in the past decade. The Chinese government runs an extremely sophisticated surveilance state in that province due to all the unrest.
A prominent leader of the Uyghur separatist movement is Rebiya Kadeer.
The Chinese government accuses Kadeer of fomenting riots in Xinjiang which have led to deaths & used as excuses for terrorist attacks in China. She says the Chinese government wants to eradicate her people. Kadeer is a millionaire and has lived in the US since 2005. She was the 2nd president of the World Uyghur Congress - a group that receives funding from the US State Department. Example of WUC propaganda:
Why they are in Syria, I have no idea. Maybe just for some Saudi shekels.