Mandela analogy goes against his spirit

Some entrenched critics of China's policy in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have put forward a far-fetched analogy between Ilham Tohti, a Uygur teacher who was sentenced to life imprisonment for separatism on Tuesday, and Nelson Mandela. This displays not only a dangerous ignorance of history, but also a challenge to Mandela's spirit and China's determination to keep its 56 ethnic groups united.

By calling a separatist who incited ethnic hatred "the Chinese counterpart" of the South African anti-colonial hero, these critics demonstrated their deep-rooted belief that China has colonized Xinjiang, which has been an integral part of the country since ancient times.

Although no Western countries publicly claim that the northwestern Chinese autonomous region should be independent, some have been encouraging separatist activities in and out of the region, which accounts for one-sixth of the nation's total landmass.

Questioning China's trial of Tohti and idolizing the scholar-turned-convict are just the latest examples.

In fact, calling Tohti the "Chinese Mandela" is against the spirit of Mandela. What made Mandela so admired was his iron will against South Africa's outdated apartheid. Tohti, on the contrary, has been convicted of behavior that created distrust and estrangement between Uygurs and other ethnic groups.

A police investigation found that the economics professor used his website to encourage his fellow Uygurs to use violence.

While Mandela preached reconciliation, Tohti preached hatred and killing.

Tohti's deeds contradict his words. He was fond of calling himself "a pure scholar" who wanted to serve as a bridge between ethnic groups and said he did not want to be politicized. But the evidence showed that Tohti colluded with foreign groups and individuals in hyping Xinjiang-related incidents with the aim of making domestic issues international.

Western countries, which have frowned upon the Chinese court's latest sentence, are using Tohti as their pawn to pile political pressure on China, a country that has suffered from a spate of terrorist attacks in its train terminals and residential communities over the past years.

It is not the first time that biased critics have honored China's criminals as human rights fighters.

For them, anyone, even those like Tohti who turn to extremism, can be named a freedom fighter as long as he is against the Chinese government.

Their accusations against the court's ruling came as the warplanes of the United States and its allies bomb the Islamic State militants in the anti-terrorism war.

China's painstaking efforts to eradicate the three evil forces of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism in Xinjiang should be viewed as part of the world's anti-terrorism endeavors. Tohti should have been denounced as a criminal threatening the peace and stability of a country.

It is only because of Western countries' double standards on terrorism that a criminal was hailed as a hero.

Xinhua News Agency