Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The terrorist attack in Kunming on Saturday underlined the necessity and urgency to strengthen China's cooperation with Russia and Central Asian countries on anti-terrorism.

Terrorist activities by Xinjiang separatists have close links with terrorist cells in Central Asia. It has already been unveiled that the terrorist organization led by Osama bin Laden has trained members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. Central Asia is also one of the main sources breeding varied extreme religious ideas.

Xinjiang terrorists would find it hard to survive if there was no support and shielding from overseas terrorist organizations and without the spiritual penetration of some religious extremists.  

After the Kunming deadly attack, a few Western scholars and media immediately pointed their fingers at the Chinese central government's Xinjiang policy, which was echoed by some Chinese scholars. Those people either deliberately interpret the terrorist assault with a jaundiced eye or are too narrow-minded in viewing the world.

Islamic terrorism is not exclusive to China, but has become a global concern in recent years. Many other countries have been stricken by terrorist attacks similar to the Kunming assault and are still being haunted by the threats.

In many Asian countries, especially those in Central Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists are not even front-page news.

It's necessary for the governments of countries hit by terrorism to improve or adjust their ethnic policies, which is likely to reduce the occurrence of extremist violence.

However, in front of an expanding spectrum of Islamic terrorist activities and continuously penetrating globalization and regionalization, solely depending on one country to launch an all-out attack on terrorism has become impossible.

Smashing terrorist activities needs more intense regional and global cooperation. China particularly needs to enhance concerted efforts with Russia and Central Asian countries. 

Central Asia has been mired in upheavals since the end of the Cold War. It has been fraught with complicated national conundrums owing to inadequate governance and backward economies, giving rise to the birth and spread of Islamic extremism and violent terrorism.

Strengthening cooperation against terrorism is in the interests of all the countries in the region. Only by making concerted efforts to forge the staunchest anti-terror network can there be long-term stability.

Uprooting terrorism is a prolonged and arduous process and thus needs to be promoted in various arenas of politics, economy, culture and security.

However, against the current backdrop, we should first of all spare no effort to cut off all the connections between outbound and domestic terrorist groups and to prevent the former from disseminating ideas to the latter.

After the 9/11 attacks, the US began to launch preemptive clean-up operations directed against terrorist groups, yielding certain results.

Nonetheless, what is more important is that Washington stepped up collaboration with many countries and in particular big powers in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia after the catastrophic 9/11 attacks via a variety of means.

The US has effectively guaranteed national security by turning its targeted terrorist groups into the common enemy of the international community at large.

In recent years, China and Central Asian nations have scored fruitful achievements in the anti-terror endeavor under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, safeguarding regional stability to a certain degree.

China needs to invest more in anti-terror cooperation to make it increasingly specific and pragmatic, in accordance with our political, economic and diplomatic power.

We will likely deal a heavy blow to terrorist groups only when we seek a permanent cure while clearing the breeding ground for terrorism.

The author is a senior editor with People's Daily. He is now stationed in Brazil. dinggang@globaltimes.com.cn. Follow him on Twitter at @dinggangchina


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