High time to drop double standards on terrorism

“Don't do unto others what you don't want others do unto you.” Unluckily, the Chinese adage has not become a shared value yet.

After the serous terrorist attack in Urumqi on Thursday morning, some Western media outlets showed their zeal of double standards on terrorism. However, such unwise reporting will eventually lead them to have a taste of their own medicine.

The deadly blast occurred at an open market in the capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. It claimed 31 lives and injured 94 other people.

This serious attack is apparently terrorists’ new open challenge to defy the Chinese government’s resolve to eliminate terrorism. Just on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to fight terrorism with zero tolerance at the 4th CICA Summit in Shanghai. On the same day, 39 criminals were found guilty of spreading online terrorism videos and illegally making guns in a trial in Xinjiang.

No doubt the terrorists purposely chose the “best timing” to profess their devotion to the “holy war”, occupy the news headlines and maximize panic in the public. It’s the same as the explosion at a Urumqi train station on April 30, which happened exactly after President Xi Jinping concluded his inspection tour in Xinjiang, and the Kunming attack in March, in which 29 people were stabbed to death just two days before the annual two sessions.

The latest cold-blooded terrorist attack targeting innocent civilians should be condemned by all conscientious people. Unfortunately many Western media outlets still embark on reporting the attack through rose colored glasses.

Denying the explosion as a serious terrorist attack, as Chinese public security authorities put it, a news report said: “Uygur activists say the violence is being fueled by restrictive and discriminatory policies and practices directed at Uygurs and a sense that the benefits of economic growth have largely accrued to Chinese migrants while excluding Uygurs.” Another said, “the government’s own heavy-handed policies in the region have sowed the seeds of unrest”.

Such reasoning doesn’t hold water at all.

Uygur people hate terrorism, which is an enemy to all ethnic groups in China. The terrorists are hurting the Uygur people no less than other ethnic groups.