Biased judgments sabotage fight against terrorism

With international efforts to combat the Islamic State terrorist group achieving decisive success in Syria and Iraq, the world has a hard-won opportunity to push forward the fight against terrorism and extremism. But that requires countries strive to work together and show zero-tolerance to terrorists and their extremist ideologies.

Which was the call for action that Wu Haitao, China’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, made on Monday. His words should not fall on deaf ears. Instead, they should rally greater international consensus that concerted efforts are needed to eliminate terrorism and make members of the international community fully recognize the threat of all terrorist forces, including the so-called East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

In recent years, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement has plotted and carried out a number of terrorist attacks in China, most frequently in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The terrorist group has also posed a serious threat to countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, and some of its members have illegally crossed the border into Southeast Asian countries en route to join up with other terrorist groups in these regions.

Despite this, some Western countries have deliberately tried to play down the threat posed by East Turkestan terrorist forces. Worse, some Western media have even equated the atrocities committed by East Turkestan terrorist elements in China to separatist violence.

Such a double standard only discourages and hinders international efforts to combat terrorism in all forms.

Drawing on the anti-terrorism experience of the international community and based on its own realities, the Chinese government has been actively working to counter terrorism and extremism and made notable achievements.

But it is fully aware that terrorism is a common enemy of mankind, and no country can cope with it alone. Thus it has actively promoted international cooperation to fight terrorism, not least through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its 2019-21 program of cooperation for combating the three evil forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

The war on terror is at a critical juncture. The world community should embrace the concept of a community of shared future for mankind and forge greater unity of purpose. Those who harbor no prejudice or malicious intentions should be willing to oppose any double standard and genuinely seek greater solidarity.