Archive for ‘counterterrorism’

29/07/2019

Experts accuse U.S. of using Xinjiang to interfere in China’s domestic affairs

URUMQI, July 28 (Xinhua) — A group of Chinese experts have criticized the United States for adopting double standards on counterterrorism and deradicalization and using Xinjiang-related issues as a tool to interfere in China’s domestic affairs.

The experts, who specialize in studies in the fields of human rights, international relations and anti-terrorism, made the remarks at a seminar held recently in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Wang Yu, an associate researcher with the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies, said China’s anti-terror measures implemented in Xinjiang in recent years have provided a new solution to the global fight against terrorism.

For some time China’s Xinjiang has seen frequent incidents of terrorist attacks, but over the past nearly three years, there have been no such incidents in the region, Wang noted.

Gu Liyan, a researcher with the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences, accused the United States of using human rights issues to erode public trust in governments of some other countries and create social conflict and unrest there, so as to attain its global hegemony.

“Whatever measures or policies China implements on counterterrorism and deradicalization will never accord with the so-called human rights standards of the U.S.,” she said.

Li Wei, a researcher with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said education and training centers were established in Xinjiang in order to prevent trainees from falling victim to terrorism and extremism.

China’s measures on deradicalization offer a successful case study to the international community and have won widespread recognition and acclaim, said Li.

Shu Hongshui, an anti-terror expert at Northwest University of Political Science and Law, said the U.S. adoption of double standards on counterterrorism and deradicalization is intended to curb China’s development.

The propaganda warfare waged by the United States and some other Western countries against China on Xinjiang-related issues is unable to conceal their strategic anxiety and predicament, Shu said

Source: Xinhua

09/07/2019

‘We need to talk’: call for Chinese and Indian navies to communicate

  • Ambassador to China Vikram Misri says they will be ‘meeting more and more in common waters’, and more exchanges are needed
  • He also says preparations are under way for President Xi Jinping to visit India
The INS Kolkata arrives in Qingdao for PLA Navy 70th anniversary celebrations in April. The Indian ambassador called for more communication between the two navies. Photo: Reuters
The INS Kolkata arrives in Qingdao for PLA Navy 70th anniversary celebrations in April.
The Indian ambassador called for more communication between the two navies. Photo: Reuters
The Chinese and Indian navies should establish communication because they are increasingly operating within close proximity, according to India’s ambassador to China.

While the two nations’ militaries communicated extensively, it was mainly between their land forces, and that should be extended to the navies and air forces, Vikram Misri said.

“We need to talk about the two air forces and the two navies – especially the two navies – because we are operating in the same waters and increasingly in the coming years, we will be meeting more and more in common waters,” Misri said.

“I think it is important for us to develop those levels of understanding and communication,” he said. “There are some [navy and air force] exchanges now, but not as well developed as in the case of the land force.”
China and India have made efforts to repair their relations since a tense stand-off at the Doklam plateau two years ago, when communications between their forces along the border were seen as inadequate to contain the tension.
China and India have sought to repair relations after a tense stand-off at Doklam. Photo: AFP
China and India have sought to repair relations after a tense stand-off at Doklam. Photo: AFP

Misri said the two nations had made incremental progress, and opened new points where “border personnel can meet and exchange information, or exchange views about any particular situation”.

The ambassador was visiting the Indian consulate in Hong Kong over the weekend, six months after taking up the post and six weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was re-elected.

He said preparations were under way for Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit India, which was expected to happen in the fourth quarter, after they pledged earlier to strengthen cooperation.

Tensions between 

China and India

have periodically flared along their 4,000km (2,485-mile) border, resulting in a brief war in 1962. Relations have also been strained by China’s ties with Pakistan, and India’s concern over China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean.

India has also not signed on to China’s global trade and infrastructure strategy, the

Belt and Road Initiative

, which has projects that run through the disputed Kashmir region.

“Our concerns with regards to this particular initiative are very clear, and we have continued to share them very, very frankly with our Chinese partners,” Misri said. “I think there is understanding on the part of our Chinese partners with regard to this.”
Indian ambassador to China Vikram Misri said New Delhi’s concerns on the Belt and Road Initiative were clear. Photo: Xiaomei Chen
Indian ambassador to China Vikram Misri said New Delhi’s concerns on the Belt and Road Initiative were clear. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

But he said the two nations should not let their differences evolve into disputes, and they should focus on areas where they can cooperate.

One such area was maritime and investment cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, including infrastructure and disaster response. The US in recent years has focused on the Indo-Pacific region, and has asked its allies to send naval vessels to the area as a counterbalance to Beijing.

“We have made the point that our vision of the Indo-Pacific is not a strategy, which sometimes is a concern on the part of some partners, aimed against any particular country,” Misri said. “It is definitely not a military alliance in any format.

“It is on the other hand a vision that aims at economic and development cooperation with our partners in the Indo-Pacific space,” he said, adding that India was discussing such cooperation with China.

He also said trilateral meetings between China, India and Russia would become more regular after their three leaders met on the sidelines of the 

Group of 20

summit in Osaka, Japan last month, when they vowed to uphold multilateralism.

Those meetings would allow the nations to address challenges facing the international trading system and pushback against globalisation, but Misri said they should not be seen as a bid to counter the US, which is also involved in a trade battle with India.

India also had a trilateral meeting with Japan and the United States during the G20 summit.

“The fact that these countries seek us out also shows that they see value in engaging with India, and we have important issues to discuss in each of these settings,” he said. “None of our individual relationships is going to come at the cost of a relationship with any other partner.”

The ambassador said there could be a broader consensus on counterterrorism. Photo: AP
The ambassador said there could be a broader consensus on counterterrorism. Photo: AP

Misri also said there could be a broader consensus between China and India on counterterrorism. The two nations have clashed over Indian efforts to blacklist Masood Azhar, leader of the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), at the United Nations, which China objected to for years – a move seen in India as being done at the behest of Islamabad.

Azhar was finally listed as a global terrorist by the UN in May, after JeM claimed responsibility for a deadly terror attack on Indian security forces in Pulwama in February, although the listing did not directly reference the attack.

“It could have happened earlier … but I’m glad that it did happen, and we hope to build on that – that should be taken as progress, and we hope to build on that in the coming years,” Misri said.

“Everybody is aware of the context in which the listing happened, and therefore, I don’t think it’s hidden from anybody as to what this was aimed at or who this was aimed at, or what the motivation for the action might have been.”

As for the tensions between India and Pakistan following the terror strike in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Misri said progress would be “largely dependent on Pakistan” and the actions it needed to take to address the “ecosystem of terror that prevails in different parts of that country”.

Source: SCMP

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