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BEIJING. — It has a tragic Sisyphean tinge to it. As the United States was withdrawing from a two-decade “war on terror” in Afghanistan, a deadly terror attack rocked Kabul airport, killing over 100 people.
ISIS-K, an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility.
While Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra, is condemned to ever-lasting labour of pushing a huge boulder uphill only to have it roll back down, America’s “war on terror,” despite costing a colossal amount of money and lives, only resulted in a loss of US credibility and likely a larger breeding ground for terrorism.
Yet, as intractable as terrorism is, China has made remarkable achievements in reining in the scourge. Within its borders, the country has recorded no terror attack since 2017. In the global arena, the country participates actively in both bilateral and multilateral counter-terrorism efforts.
Recognising terrorism as a transnational threat and “a common enemy of mankind,” China, with President Xi Jinping at the helm, highlights the need to address both its symptoms and root causes, and calls for building “a global united front” with a new vision for security.
“We should have zero tolerance for terrorism, separatism and extremism,” the Chinese president pledged at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit held in May 2014.
By then, the world was experiencing a surge in terrorism. Between 2012 and 2013, according to the Global Terrorism Index produced by the Australia-based Institute for Economics and Peace, the number of deaths from terrorism increased by as much as 61 percent.
“Not only is the intensity of terrorism increasing, its breadth is increasing as well,” the report said.
China was also a victim of this “globalisation of terrorism” trend. Around 2014, the country saw a spate of deadly terror attacks, including one in the south-western city of Kunming two months before President Xi’s CICA speech, where 29 people were killed and over 130 injured by knife-wielding separatists from Xinjiang.
The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, a UN Security Council-listed terrorist group, claimed responsibility for a series of attacks in several Chinese cities. It has maintained close ties with other international terrorist organisations and received significant support from al-Qaeda.
Violent terrorists ignore basic human rights, trample on justice and challenge the bottom-line of human civilisation, President Xi said at a group study session of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on national security and social stability in April 2014.
It is neither an issue of nationality nor one of religion, but the common enemy of people of all nationalities, he said. “(We must) make terrorists become like rats scurrying across a street with everybody shouting “beat them!”
In his debut at the UN General Assembly in 2015, President Xi said the security of all countries is interlinked.
“No country can maintain absolute security with its own effort, and no country can achieve stability out of other countries’ instability,” said President Xi. China continues to participate in international counter-terrorism efforts with the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Global Counter terrorism Forum, among others.
Calling terrorism the “common enemy of mankind” and fighting terrorism “a shared responsibility of all countries,” President Xi has never hesitated to condemn a terror attack whenever and wherever it occurred.
In November 2015, less than a day after a string of terror attacks took place across the French capital of Paris, killing at least 129, President Xi sent a message of condolence to then French President Francois Hollande, expressing the “strongest” condemnation over such “barbaric acts.”
“China always opposes all forms of terrorism,” President Xi said.
However, Western politicians have appeared reluctant to recognise and condemn terror attacks on Chinese soil.
On November 5, 2020, two days after the U.S. presidential election, the outgoing Donald Trump administration announced the delisting of the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement as a terrorist group.
“The timing could not be more cynical — what better way to get back at China, which Trump had repeatedly blamed for his political misfortunes?” said Shan Weijian, an author and the CEO of PAG, one of Asia’s leading investment firms.
Some countries apply double standards in the fight against terrorism, thus straining collaborative efforts to end terror across the world, President Xi once pointed out in an interview with Russian media.
In a speech at the UN Office at Geneva in 2017, President Xi called for building a “global united front against terrorism” and “an umbrella of security” for humanity.
In a survey conducted by the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate (CTED) in June, 69 percent of respondents stated that countering terrorism has become more challenging as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Growing frustration, mistrust and anger among the population, as well as economic hardships are all potential drivers for an increase in terrorist threats, the CTED said in an analytical report.
The pandemic, it added, has also restricted access to education worldwide, reducing the educational and employment prospects for youth and potentially weakening their resilience against violent extremist discourse. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter