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Oppose double standards in fighting terror: China
May 29, 2014, 7:07 am

In this May 23, 2014 photo, armed paramilitary policemen patrol on a street in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region [AP]

In this May 23, 2014 photo, armed paramilitary policemen patrol on a street in Urumqi, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region [AP]

The United Nations should outline a clear criterion of fighting terrorism, a Chinese envoy to the UN said in Geneva on Wednesday, hinting at Beijing’s dissatisfaction over the international community’s sluggish response in treating Xinjiang violence as “terrorism”.

“On the question of counter-terrorism, the UN should advertise a clear-cut criterion and oppose double standards in promoting the international community to enhance cooperation against terrorism in accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN charter and other international norms,” said Wang Min, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, at a UN Security Council meeting.

“Terrorism is the common enemy of human kind,” he said, stressing that China is against linking terrorism with any specific country, group or religion.

Last week five suicide bombers carried out a deadly attack which killed 31 people in Urumqi, the capital of China’s restive Xinjiang region.

The US had up until the latest incident refrained from branding the Uyghur separatists in Xinjiang as “terrorists”.

However, the US White House spokesman Jay Carney last week said he latest attack was a “despicable and outrageous act of violence”.

“The United States condemns the horrific terrorist attack in Urumqi, China,” Carney said.

Meanwhile, at the UNSC on Wednesday, China noted that terrorist groups are resorting to “internet incitement, recruitment and financing”, which should be a cause of concern for the international community.

UN envoy Wang pointed out that the East Turkistan forces led by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement are “the most serious threat to China’s national security”.

“The Chinese government will continue to take resolute actions against these terrorists and we have the determination, the confidence and the capability to fight them. These terrorists will never succeed, regardless of the purposes of those terrorist attacks,” Wang told the UNSC meet.

More than 180 people have died in China over the past one year in terror attacks.

China will be mounting “a special campaign against terrorism in Xinjiang”, said China’s Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun after last week’s attack.

 

TBP and Agencies