Islamic State’s claim of hostage killing complicates China’s terror debate.

BEIJING — China on Thursday vowed “justice” for a Chinese national kidnapped and purported slain by the Islamic State.

“The Chinese government will … oppose all forms of terrorism, and resolutely strike at any violent terrorist criminal activities that defy the bottom lines of human culture,” read a statement released by the Foreign Ministry.

The comment came after the militant group claimed it executed Fan Jinghui, a Chinese national, and Norwegian citizen named Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad. Fan, 50, was the first Chinese known to have been kidnapped by the Islamic State.

Fan’s possible death in captivity adds a new dimension to China’s complicated conversation on terror — a conversation that includes questions about what role, if any, China should play in the fight against Islamic State.

Immediately after the attacks in Paris, there was an outpouring of sadness and expressions of solidarity around the world. President Xi Jinping called the assault on Paris a “barbarous action.”

On the sidelines of last weekend’s G-20 meetings, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi reminded that China is “also a victim of terrorism,” and naming the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as the culprit.

China has long maintained that ETIM orchestrates terrorist attacks in China, and says the group has links to overseas groups like al-Qaida.

The repeated calls for international cooperation on terrorism have raised questions about what role China could play and whether it would be drawn into the Middle East conflict.

At this point, that seems unlikely. China’s government has thus far shied away from the type of expensive, overseas military conflagrations that have dogged the U.S., and has stayed on the sidelines as other countries sign up to fight the Islamic State.