Beijing eyes anti-terror force to protect overseas interests

‘Turbulence’ in ties threatens US-China security meeting China alleges threats from home-grown Islamists

BEIJING: China is working to develop a first-class, crack anti-terror force that can operate at home and abroad and protect the country’s overseas interests, a senior Chinese officer said in comments carried by state media yesterday. In late 2015, China passed a new anti-terrorism law that allows the military to venture overseas on counter-terror operations, though experts have said Beijing faces big practical and diplomatic problems to actually execute such an action.

China says it faces a threat not only from home-grown Islamists in its far western region of Xinjiang, but also from militants in the Middle East, some of whom it says are from Xinjiang. In November 2015, Islamic State said it had killed a Chinese citizen it had taken hostage in the Middle East. In an interview with the official Xinhua news agency, Zhang Xiaoqi, intelligence chief at China’s paramilitary People’s Armed Police which is part of the Chinese military, said developing special forces was an important component of the country’s overall military modernization. “The mission scope of the special forces stretches from land to sea, from home to abroad,” Zhang said.

He said that “anti-terror fight preparations” must be ready to safeguard national strategic interests anywhere. “We must work hard to build an internationally first-rate counter-terror crack force,” Zhang added, without giving details. China, which has consistently said that it does not interfere in the affairs of other countries, is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council which has not taken military action in Syria. The government is yet to specify how any overseas military, counter-terror operation would work.

‘Turbulence’ in US ties Meanwhile, a key diplomatic and security meeting between China and the United States next month may not take place due to tensions in relations, sources briefed on the matter said, potentially the latest casualty of worsening ties. Beijing and Washington are locked in a spiraling trade war that has seen them level increasingly severe rounds of tariffs on each other’s imports.

Friction between the world’s top two economies is now moving beyond trade, with US President Donald Trump accusing Beijing this week of seeking to interfere in congressional elections, marking what US officials told Reuters was a new phase in an escalating campaign by Washington to put pressure on China. On the military front, China has been infuriated by the United States putting sanctions on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for buying weapons from Russia, and by what Beijing sees as stepped up US support for self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as its sacred territory.

Two Beijing-based diplomatic sources familiar with the plans said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis were both due in Beijing next month for the US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, which first took place last year in Washington, a reboot of earlier high-level talks under previous administrations. However, both sources said that this meeting was now in doubt. “There is a lot of uncertainty because of the turbulence in the relationship,” said one the sources. The second source said that the People’s Liberation Army was especially unhappy with the United States at the moment because of the US sanctions on the Chinese military and US support for Taiwan, including approving a new round of arms sales this week.

“The PLA is fed up over the Taiwan issue. They’re increasingly hardline on this,” the source said. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity as the trips have not been made public. They also cautioned the meetings may still take place as planned, and that no final decisions have been reached. China’s Defense Ministry said it was talking to the United States about the dialogue. “China and the United States have all along maintained communication about the diplomatic and security dialogue,” it said in a statement to Reuters, without elaborating.