In a violent attack on June 26 last year, terrorists wielding knives in Lukqun township, Shanshan county of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, killed 22 civilians and two policemen. The US did not condemn the attack. In October a terrorist crashed his jeep into a crowd at Tian'anmen Square, killing five people, including his wife who was with him in the car, and injuring another 40. Police later confirmed the attack was planned by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and arrested five suspects. The US did not condemn that attack, either. There have also been a string of terrorist attacks on local police stations, including one on Dec 30 in Yarkan, a county in Kashgar prefecture, in which nine terrorists attacked a police station by throwing explosives and setting fire to police cars. Again the US did not condemn the attack.

Chinese journalists have repeatedly asked in the past months why the US does not call these people terrorists. The State Department spokespersons reply that the US is still investigating the attacks.

Even when the former State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf called on Uygurs not to resort to violence, she urged the Chinese government to permit its citizens to express their grievances freely, publicly, peacefully and without fear of retribution and she called on Chinese security forces to exercise restraint. Such a comment was not only wrongheaded, it was also badly timed.

Would the US have been happy back in 2001 if China had said the US would first have to change its foreign policy before China could condemn the al-Qaida attacks?

The author, based in Washington, is deputy editor of China Daily USA. chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 03/08/2014 page5)