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Friday, November 20, 2015

A new journey to make history

Admiral Zheng He

The sincerity, friendship, mutual benefit and win-win outcome which guided Admiral Zheng He still guide Malaysia and China’s bilateral relations today.

IT is a great pleasure to pay my first visit to Malaysia as Premier of the State Council of the People’s Repub­lic of China and attend the East Asia leaders’ meetings. I am no stranger to this beautiful country, as I visited Malaysia in 1996 when the Petronas Twin Towers were just completed. The past 20 years have indeed witnessed impressive and admirable achievements in Malaysia.

China and Malaysia, two neighbours facing each other across the sea, enjoy a time-honoured friendship. Trade between the two countries started over 2,000 years ago.

During the Ming Dynasty (14th-­17th century), Zheng He, a Chinese navigator, came to Malacca five times on seven sea voyages. A record of friendly China-Malaysia exchanges exists with many stories, such as those of Bukit Cina and the King’s Well, still told today.

People today remember Zheng He for what he did. His aspiration, as the records show, was to seek friendship and develop trade with neighbours.

He and his people helped local military and civilians build city walls, drive away pirates, settle conflicts and keep peace at sea. They also passed on agricultural and manufacturing technologies and medical skills to the local people to help with their lives and daily work.

Today, when we look back at that past episode in China-Malaysia exchanges, we also admire Zheng He for what he did not do. When he arrived in this land of prosperity commanding what was then the most powerful fleet in the world, he engaged in nothing like plundering, expansion or colonisation.

Instead, he became known for his goodwill and moves of peace, of which people still keep fond memories. What he did speaks volumes of the Chinese belief that “one should not do to others what he doesn’t want others to do to him”.

It also bears testimony to the Chinese wisdom that “one needs to help others achieve success if he wants success for himself”. Zheng He’s dedication to peace and readiness to reach out and help others show the essence of the Chinese philosophy, where peace and good neighbourliness always come first. It also constitutes part of the cultural legacy that brings countries in the region together.

Today, China and Malaysia are each other’s trustworthy friend. We have formed a comprehensive strategic partnership and enjoy political mutual trust and mutual respect. The leaders of our two countries visit each other often and maintain close communication.

In May last year, visiting Prime Minister Najib Razak and I attended celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations at the West Hall of the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the place where the senior generation of our leaders signed the Joint Communiqué in 1974 to establish diplomatic ties between China and Malaysia.

Over the years, our two countries have supported each other on major issues we are concerned with and jointly contributed to equity and justice in the world. Not long ago, the first joint military exercise was carried out by our militaries in Malacca, marking a major step forward in our defence cooperation.

Economically, we have had much to offer each other in win-win cooperation. Our bilateral trade has topped US$100bil (RM436.6bil).

China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner for seven years straight, and Malaysia is now China’s biggest trading partner among Asean countries.

China’s trade with Malaysia accounts for one-fifth of its total trade with Asean. The foundation is sound for our cooperation in economy, trade, finance, infrastructure, agriculture, forestry and fishery.

Our high-tech cooperation is even reaching to the sky and seas. As a result, not only have our peoples have benefited from such cooperation; the whole region has also shared in the benefits.

People in our two countries are eager to learn from and help each other. In both China and Malaysia, badminton is a popular sport. The names of world-class players such as Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei are known to almost every household.

As competitors and athletes aspiring for excellence, they battle each other on the badminton course. After the games, they are good friends who exchange text greetings on festivals.

China’s great poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty (7th-10th century) once wrote of friendship that “true friendship is revealed through adversity, and success becomes nothing when it is not shared”.

A Malaysian saying carries something of a similar effect: Bukit sama didaki, lurah sama dituruni (together we will climb the mountains and together we will cross the valleys).”

When a massive earthquake hit China in Wenchuan, Sichuan province in 2008, Malaysia raced against time to extend a helping hand. Its people from all walks of life raised as much as 200 million yuan (RM136.5mil), making Malaysia one of the biggest donors to the disaster-stricken areas.

And shortly after Malaysia Air­lines Flight MH370 lost contact, I spoke with Prime Minister Najib Razak on the phone for thorough discussions on the search and rescue mission. In times of adversity, China and Malaysia have always stood with and supported each other.

The Chinese community in Malaysia has contributed their share to local economic development, social harmony and amity among ethnic groups. They have served as a special bond contributing to China-Malaysia friendship.

Over the past 40 years, cooperation between China and Malaysia has set a good example of friendly exchanges between countries in the region. Standing at a new starting point for development in our relations for the next four decades, our two countries will continue to view and grow our relations from a strategic perspective, deepen strategic mutual trust, advance mutually beneficial cooperation, expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and carry forward our traditional friendship.

China has set the goal to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020. It has much in common with Malaysia’s Vision 2020.

As China is advancing the initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, encouraging mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and transforming and upgrading its economic structure, Malaysia is gearing toward all-round economic transformation with the New Economic Model aimed at more robust growth.

I see this as offering each other a perfect chance to boost development. We may draw on our respective strengths and conduct more cooperation on production capacity. We may encourage more enterprises to take part in the development of the industrial parks in Qinzhou and Kuantan, enhance infrastructure building and increase connectivity.

Such cooperation will produce huge development dividends to ensure steady growth and make life better for our people. China and Malaysia both play a major role in turning East Asia into a major pole and sustaining steady global growth. I have great confidence that our mutually beneficial cooperation will hold out even brighter prospects.

China-Asean relations are a major cornerstone for peace, stability, development and prosperity in the region. The upcoming East Asia leaders’ meetings will be held at a time when the Asean Community is to be formally established.

This carries a special and landmark significance. Given the lingering impact of the international financial crisis and the generally downward economic trend, it is all the more important for countries in the region to stand in solidarity and work with each other for common development and prosperity.

Ours is a time with interwoven traditional and non-traditional security challenges, on top of which external interference has led to incessant turbulences in some parts of the world and caused serious spillover effects. It falls upon countries in the region to cherish the harmonious coexistence of different cultures and development paths in the region, and work together to uphold regional peace and stability for the long run.

Sincerity, friendship, mutual benefit and win-win outcomes were what Zheng He stood for when his ships took him to Malacca. They are still the principles guiding the growth of China-Malaysia relations today.

They represent the trend of the times and aspiration of the people, not only in China and Malaysia but region-wide. It is our common goal that deserves our common effort.

I am confident that with joint efforts, China-Malaysia relations and cooperation in the region, will grow steadily and become more mature, and will head toward greater mutual benefit, mutual trust, prosperity and common development.

BY LI KEQIANG

Li Keqiang is Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.



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Thursday, November 19, 2015

US should not politicize Internet

People pose in front of a display showing the word 'cyber' in binary code, in this picture illustration taken in Zenica December 27, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

Security and other issues related to cyberspace have increasingly affected international relations, leading to a war of words among some major world powers. Openness and freedom are the two basic features of the Internet, through which information freely flows from one person to another and from one country to another, and that is why "freedom" is said to be the founding stone of cyberspace.

But this freedom cannot be limitless and should not challenge the normal order of cyberspace. As Lu Wei, minister of the Cyberspace Administration of China, once said, freedom is the purpose while order serves to protect it. Freedom and regulation are not mutually contradictory. Instead, they are two sides of the same coin.

Besides, since cyberspace, despite being called the virtual world, is intimately connected with the real world, chaos in the former can lead to disastrous consequences in the latter. The riots that rocked London, Birmingham and several other cities in the United Kingdom in 2011 after the death of a black UK citizen and flared up thanks to social networks are a good example of how lack of order in the virtual world can cause mayhem in the real world.

To prevent such tragedies from happening and since all freedoms come with responsibilities and limits, most countries have enacted laws to regulate cyberspace. But some countries, to fulfill their narrow interests, try to politicize the laws that other countries have implemented as a safeguard against the bedlam the misuse of cyberspace could unleash on society.

Take the US for instance. For the past several years, based on its claim that freedom of the Internet is a universal right, it has been trying to promote cyberspace as a public domain together with the Antarctica, the oceans and space, and has thus been avoiding the issue of national sovereignty.

The US' efforts reek of hegemonic philosophy. In fact, the US has been spreading its ideology in other countries through many websites and social networks, so as to trigger political disputes in societies that adhere to political philosophies other than that propounded by Washington. We should not forget that countries like Libya have become victims of the US' promotion of Western-style democracy.

Another reason for the US to talk about freedom of the Internet is to serve its trade and protectionist policies and cause trade frictions with other countries. With its modern technologies and global influence, Washington has been trying to help US-based enterprises enter other countries' markets on the pretext of defending free trade. When Google was pulled up by the Chinese government for violating the country's laws, the US government ironically accused China of not being a "free" country.

As a result, politicization of Internet freedom has become an obstacle to international cooperation. With the dispute over Internet freedom already a major international issue, countries with different understandings of cyberspace accuse each other of violating rules. Some of these differences have even led to trade frictions and protectionist measures.

Worse, other political issues are involved in the disputes over Internet freedom, which can easily turn into wider conflicts and make it more difficult for the related countries to resolve the existing issues.

Therefore, to boost global cooperation countries across the world should avoid pointing the finger against each other to prove whose Internet rules are better.

The author is a senior researcher in cybersecurity at China Center for Information Industry Development, affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

By Liu Quan (China Daily)

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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

US is bringing storms to Apec and ploy in South China Sea

Stirring up a storm

US is bringing storms to South China Sea

The 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting starts in Manila, the Philippines on Wednesday. The suspense is to what extent the US will foist the South China Sea disputes into this economic and trade meeting. Manila has made clear that territorial disputes will not be included on the agenda, but Washington is not resigned to letting it go, but apparently will bring forth the issue on the sidelines of the meeting.

Compared with the horrible terror clouding Europe, the bone of contention in the APEC meeting - the South China Sea disputes - is unworthy of equal attention. France has shut its borders, and several European countries and half of US states are considering whether to shun Syrian refugees. Chaos and turbulence caused by relentless wars continue in the Middle East, and with the path of fleeing blocked, hatred and resentment among the refugees will thrive.

Many believe the US should assume the primary responsibility for the turmoil in Europe. The US has managed to keep terrorism away from of its own turf after rounds of strong interventions in the Middle East with the aid of its European allies after the 9/11 attacks. However, unable to extend their reach to American soil, terrorists have sabotaged Europe time and again, from Madrid to London and recently, Paris.

Now, Washington sets its sights on the South China Sea. It is trying to provoke regional tensions like it did in the Middle East by waving a larger banner reading "pivot to Asia."

The West has been eager to fan the flames everywhere, but excused themselves by claiming they are not cause of the tension.

The question is whether the South China Sea is heading toward turmoil. If it is, the region will probably be doomed. The raging waves in the South China Sea, argued some analysts, are also likely to jeopardize Washington's interests, but compared with the much greater threat and dangers a turbulent South China Sea poses to China, Washington might be willing to take the risk.

The South China Sea is not a powder keg, because countries around the sea have established a community of shared destiny in terms of development. This could be a cushion against aggression in territorial rows. No claimant is willing to head for a showdown in the South China Sea. Tension surrounding China's reclamation of islands in the sea is abating, stretching the elasticity of the other claimants in dealing with the territorial disputes.

Washington is in the middle of instigating more tensions and accepting China's expanding leverage in rule-making, albeit it has launched vocal protests and flexed its muscles by sending warships in the sea.

China is gaining the upper hand in directing the South China Sea issues, which is a guarantee that the region won't be out of control due to Washington's instigation.

For the public good of the entire region, China should exert restraint over Washington's mischief. - Global Times

US ploy in South China Sea bound to fail



President Xi Jinping’s visit to the Philippines for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting from Nov 17 to 19 has quelled speculations that the maritime disputes with the host nation could make him decide otherwise.

Last week Philippines President Benigno Aquino III assured visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the APEC meeting would focus on Asia-Pacific regional economic cooperation without raising the disputes in the South China Sea, as most members including China had agreed. But the US State Department has hinted that the South China Sea issue could be raised during the meeting despite Manila’s efforts to prevent the agenda from deviating from free trade and sustainable growth in and common prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region.

As the world’s second-largest sea-lane that connects the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea is of great strategic importance to all countries in the region, as well as the US and European countries.

Nearly 80 percent of global trade depends upon maritime transportation, and about one-third of it is carried out through the South China Sea, which sees the passage of at least 40,000 ships a year. The number of oil tankers that sail through the Strait of Malacca, a critical passage through regional waters, is almost three times that of the Suez Canal and five times of the Panama Canal. Two-thirds of the global trade in liquefied natural gas is also conducted through the waterway.

China has more stakes that any other country in safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea, because it is a major channel of its global economic network. So ensuring smooth transportation (of energy sources) and navigation through the South China Sea is not only conducive to the shared interests of all Asia-Pacific economies - such as China, the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations - but also economies elsewhere.

China passed the Law on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone in 1992, and the Law on the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf seven years later. It ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1996 and publicized the territorial baseline of its mainland and Xisha Islands.

True, it is yet to disclose the territorial baseline of its Nansha Islands, but that does not nullify its legal rights in the surrounding waters, including territorial sea, exclusive economic zones and continental shelf. This makes the entry of US guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen into the waters near China’s islands in the South China Sea last month a violation of international law.

The US’ attempt to justify its action on the pretext of “freedom of navigation” is a rather clumsy argument that ignores some specific clauses in international law, for instance, innocent passage in territorial seas, transit passage in straits used for international navigation, and sea-lane passage through archipelagoes.

Also, the freedom of navigation clause in international law is neither unconditional nor beyond international regulations. Freedom of navigation can neither be above an affected coastal state’s laws and rights in the exclusive economic zones nor can it override other countries’ interests in the high seas.

Washington’s recent provocative moves have infringed upon Beijing’s maritime sovereignty and security in the South China Sea, the United Nations Charter as well as international law. They were also intended to show the US’ military muscles on the pretext of practicing freedom of navigation.

But China is not one to give in when it comes to its territorial, maritime and security interests, and the US is unlikely to succeed in its designs by instigating ASEAN countries to challenge China’s maritime rights in the South China Sea.

The author is deputy director of the China Institute for Marine Affairs attached to the State Oceanic Administration.

By Jia Yu (China Daily)

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Islamic State new killing fields, nothing less than total domination

http://bcove.me/pqcpn5yj





THE news on Saturday felt like double hammer blows. The Islamic State’s slaughter of 129 people in Paris and the Malaysian IS militants in southern Philippines’ plan to form an “official” IS faction in South-East Asia were just plain shocking and sickening.

Back in March I wrote about my fear of the IS and decried how people who profess to want to protect Islam in Malaysia were targeting the wrong people, namely non-Muslims, and particularly the Christians.

It is with deep distress I return to this growing horror which cannot be ignored.

While I do believe our Govern­ment is completely committed to fighting IS’ influence and I am deeply relieved that our police has top-notch intelligence that – as Special Branch Counter Terrorism Division head Senior Asst Comm Datuk Ayob Khan said – ensures “that we are on top of any development concerning militant groups”, this extreme form of militant Islam continues to take root in our midst.

It was reported in October that more than 100 suspected terrorists and militants have been detained under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma) 2012. Among them were Malaysian combatants who had returned from Syria and Iraq, as well as army commandos and civil servants. Over the last few days, more have been detained.

The Star’s report on Saturday that a former Universiti Malaya lecturer, Dr Mahmud Ahmad, who trains suicide bombers, is behind the formation of an IS group that will plan attacks in Malaysia and the region is even more chilling.

More scary was Defence Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s revelation on Monday that the IS is targeting Malaysian leaders who are regarded as tagut. Tagut the article explains are “those who have crossed religious boundaries” which is extremely vague.

But it would appear to mean, going by online definitions, people who worship other gods as well as Muslims who “exceed their limits” like legislators who make laws in Parliament. They are deemed to be equating themselves with Allah and challenging Allah’s divine laws.

If these are all possible meanings of tagut, then all our elected representatives and government leaders, Muslim and non-Muslim, are fair game to IS.

In Graeme Wood’s article entitled “What Isis really wants” in the March issue of The Atlantic, he states that IS’ aim is to restore the Caliphate after it ended in Turkey almost a century ago. (Isis or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is the earlier manifestation of IS).

After some 14 months of fighting, the proponents achieved their goal on June 30, 2014, when their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, proclaimed himself as the new caliph and successor to Prophet Muhammad in a mosque in Mosul, Iraq.

his 21st-century construct, however, is global and borderless and as such, al-Baghdadi says he is the leader of Muslims everywhere who must pledge allegiance to him. Failure to do so means being branded as an apostate, which is punishable by death.

Wood quotes Bernard Haykel, described as the leading secular expert on IS ideology, as saying these jihadists are “authentic throwbacks to early Islam and faithfully reproducing its norms of war.”

Haykel further states, “Slavery, crucifixion, and beheadings are not something that freakish (jihadists) are cherry-picking from the medieval tradition” and that IS fighters “are smack in the middle of the medieval tradition and are bringing it wholesale into the present day.”

The Islamic State, according to Wood, also claims that common Syiah practices, such as worship at the graves of imams and public self-flagellation, have no basis in the Quran or the Prophet’s examples.

“That means roughly 200 million Syiah (Muslims) are marked for death. So too are the heads of state of every Muslim country, who have ele­­­­­vated man-made laws above Syariah by running for office or enforcing laws not made by God,” he writes.

He adds this is because the Islamic State is committed to purifying the world of apostates, and presumably tagut, even if it means mass killings. So back to Hishammuddin’s statement that our leaders are IS’ targets. He also declared that the threat will not stop them from fighting the terrorists. Fighting the IS should be every citizen’s responsibility, at least it should be for every citizen who still believes in a multiracial, democratic Malaysia.

At such a dangerous time, I reiterate my appeal to Muslims and non-Muslims to stand together. I cannot believe peace-loving Malaysian Sunnis would agree to IS’ desire to wipe out millions of Syiah Muslims and non-Muslims.

Unfortunately, we still have leaders wanting to play the religious card which sows confusion and suspicion between Muslims and non-Muslims. We have seen the antics of some this year and the latest one is from the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister who is thinking of having mandatory halal and non-halal trolleys in supermarkets.

Thankfully, ever since the proposal came to light, many groups, including Malaysian Muslim Solidarity (Isma), have criticised it.

As Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman opined: It is not practical and “Islam is not about making things difficult”.

Many have also asked: With such thinking, what will follow next? Food courts to have halal and non-halal cutlery? Separate banknotes and coins?

And what about enforcement? Who gets fined if a shopper uses a halal trolley for non-halal items? Said shopper or supermarket owner?

If the minister really wants to help all shoppers, he should insist supermarkets maintain their trolleys well and give them a wash regularly. I have struggled with trolleys with bad wheels, sticky handles and grubby baskets.

Seriously, our leaders have a lot more important things to worry about, like ferreting out more IS recruiters in our schools, armed forces and government, than segregating shopping carts. This is a fight against a deadly, implacable and seductive enemy and we don’t need any distractions like these in the name of religious correctness.

It certainly won’t make us any safer or more Muslim in the eyes of the IS which is intent on annihilating the present world order to replace it with their own.

BY JUNE H.L. WONG

Aunty recalls this memorable line from Aamir Khan’s movie, PK. It is spoken by the central character, an alien stranded on Earth as he clutches the shoe of his friend who was killed in a train bomb blast: ‘Stop protecting your own god, otherwise only shoes will be left on this planet and not people.’ Feedback to aunty@thestar.com.my

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France vs ISIS 2015 By Li Min After the brutal terror attacks in Paris, France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called for

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Can France's daring move eliminate Islamic State? Terrorism is modern society's cancer !

France vs ISIS 2015 By Li Min



After the brutal terror attacks in Paris, France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve called for the "dissolution of mosques where hate is preached." Earlier this year, French authorities said "Foreign preachers of hate will be deported [and their mosques] will be shut down." The reiteration is taken by many as a renewed demonstration of France's tough response to the attacks.

The tougher the stance France shows, the more embrace it will get from the public. Likewise, after the September 11 attacks, the US Congress rapidly passed a bill to launch war in Afghanistan and later, the ousting of Saddam Hussein won bipartisan advocacy. But reality shows that after attacks, the agitated Western society tends to overestimate the effects of fierce retaliation and underrate the complexity of the origins of terrorism.

Closing mosques where hatred is preached may be interpreted by Muslims in a way France doesn't mean. Frankly speaking, the French government is daring enough to take such a measure and it faces a smaller risk of public opposition than if China and Russia did the same. Countries with which the West has biased opinions have to consider the response from Muslims and primarily criticism from Western opinion.

France's air strikes against the Islamic State (IS) with its Western allies can have some effects, but the IS cannot be uprooted unless the West sends large-scale ground forces or fully supports the Assad regime to fight them.

Even if the IS could be largely crushed, it doesn't make much difference. In the Middle East, there are no political strongmen any more, and its political and social structures have been shattered. Built up by extreme forces taking advantage of the rift, the example of the IS can be repeated easily.

More importantly, the West's bombs can destroy the encampments and ammunition depots, but cannot deal with attire like veils. Nor can the West prevent children from being sent to extreme religious schools or grapple with conservative Islam.

Until now, Osama bin Laden is still deemed by many in the Arabic world as a positive figure fighting the West, which reflects the limitation of the war on terrorism.

Terrorism that originates in the Middle East has been embedded with unbelievable hatred. The West has no measures to counter it, nor can it form a consistent organization to take action. The West has been depressed by the consequences of the Arab Spring.

In the Islamic world, there is no figure or power of authority to advance the regional reforms, and apparently the vacancy cannot be filled from the outside. The Islamic world may be in pressing need of examples where some of its countries completely modernize so as to bring some inspiration.

But such a plan is not realistic in the current situation. In this sense, much of the West's drastic rhetoric only works to show their emotions with problems remaining unsolved. It is merely a response to public opinion.

Terrorism is modern society’s cancer



A series of terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night have left the world in shock, and all people with a sense of justice will strongly condemn the atrocities. With the Bataclan concert hall, soccer stadium and restaurants as targets, it's obvious that the terrorist attacks were elaborately planned. These are the most severe terrorist attacks the West has suffered in recent years. They are also the most coordinated and lethal terrorist attacks worldwide in recent years.

Since the 9/11 attacks, the cost of anti-terrorism efforts has been increasingly soaring in both developed and developing countries. However, terrorism continues spreading like cancer. Al-Qaeda has been greatly devastated, but Islamic State, a more brutal extremist group, has emerged. The West is suffering from intermittent terrorist attacks, while in some turbulent underdeveloped countries, terrorist attacks have become commonplace in the fight against their governments. In China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a small number of young people has also embraced terrorism, instigated by extremist ideas, turning Xinjiang into a global anti-terrorist front.

Middle East countries suffering from turbulence and abject poverty are the hotbed of terrorism. Like an airborne virus, it spreads to other regions. Refugees and immigrants from the Middle East have brought some deep-rooted problems to Europe and the US. Europe and the US need new immigrants, but their societies have been resisting the trend, including anti-immigration protests.

People with radical ideas from Europe and the US continue to travel to the Middle East to join jihad. Some of them have returned, carrying the terrorist virus. In many cases, terrorist attacks in Europe and the US are no longer directly launched by terrorist groups from the Middle East. The identity of terrorists and the nature of some terrorist groups have become complicated. It is more difficult to take precautions.

Since it's virtually impossible to reverse globalization, openness and freedom, the system on which societies operate runs counter to the anti-terrorism system. A dangerous element identified by security authorities could be totally free, which means a much higher cost for preventing terrorist acts.

Every government is trying every means to defend themselves from terrorist attacks, but the general understanding of terrorism remains ambiguous and elusive. Geopolitics and ideologies are driving a wedge between different countries. Some countries have double standards over terrorism, imposing a harsh attitude to terrorists on their own turf, but striking a noncommittal and even sympathetic stand on terrorists in other countries.

The rapid rise of IS, to some extent, is believed to being used by the US and Europe to topple Syria's Bashar al-Assad's regime. The US is of two minds in cracking down on IS. Terrorism, by taking advantage of the divergence among major powers, survives and free societies invite intermittent terrorist attacks. Furthermore, terrorism can gain support from some radical forces, and lone wolf attacks could also cause heavy losses as terrorist attacks do.

Terrorism is like a cancer of the world, which requires a long-term fight. As the chance of wars among countries gets slim, terrorist attacks will probably become the most challenging global form of violence.

Source:  Global Times

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US ploy in South China Sea bound to fail: Opinion
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