China Vows to ‘Combat Terrorism’ After ISIS-Claimed Attack Kills Citizen
China has asserted its international right to take on insurgents threatening the lives of its citizens after an attack claimed by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) killed a Chinese citizen in northeastern Afghanistan.
“Regarding terrorism, our position is that terrorism is the common enemy of all mankind,” Chinese Embassy to the United States spokesperson Liu Pengyu told Newsweek.
“It is the common responsibility of the international community to combat terrorism and prevent tragedies from happening again,” Liu said. “China opposes all forms of terrorism and resolutely safeguards the safety of Chinese citizens, projects and institutions overseas.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said her country was “deeply shocked at the attack,” which reportedly took place in Takhar province, “and strongly condemns it.”
“We express our condolences over the lives lost,” she told reporters on Thursday. “China has lodged serious protests to Afghanistan right after the attack, and asked the country to conduct thorough investigations into the attack, and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Why It Matters
The security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, both of which neighbor China, has deteriorated significantly in recent years, particularly in the wake of the Afghan Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. As U.S. troops withdrew from the country, the new leadership vowed to prevent Afghanistan from once again becoming a safe haven for militant groups but have faced internal challenges, even if the deaths of foreigners were rare.
Groups such as ISIS’ regional Khorasan province (ISIS-K) have accelerated operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Baloch separatists and the Pakistani Taliban have also stepped up attacks, including those targeting Chinese citizens.
The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have been tied to a spate of attacks against Chinese nationals in Pakistan. ISIS-K previously claimed an attack against Chinese citizens in Afghanistan in December 2022.
China considers Pakistan to be one of its closest strategic partners, having invested billions of dollars in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a crucial node of the broader intercontinental Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing has also bolstered diplomacy with Taliban-led Afghanistan in the interest of enhancing trade and security.
Throughout its sophisticated online network, ISIS-K has channeled the grievances of Uyghur separatists seeking to establish an Islamist state in China’s northwestern Xinjiang province. Chinese forces largely defeated the Uyghur separatist group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) a decade ago in Xinjiang but its offshoot, the Turkestan Islamic Party, continues to operate in Afghanistan and Syria.
China’s ongoing crackdown in Xinjiang has elicited condemnation from the U.S. and a number of its allies, which accuse the People’s Republic of indiscriminately detaining Uyghurs in mass internment camps. Beijing has defended its hard-line approach as necessary for keeping the separatist threat at bay as it now threatens to further spread throughout the region.
“China firmly opposes all forms of terrorism and calls for resolute and strong efforts in cracking down on ISIS, the ETIM and other terrorist organizations designated by the UN Security Council with zero tolerance,” Mao told reporters on Thursday.
U.N. reports have alleged collaboration between ISIS and ETIM.
After the Turkestan Islamic Party emerged as one of the components of the victorious Islamist-led rebel offensive that toppled longtime President Bashar al-Assad in Syria last month, Liu told Newsweek that “China stands ready to step up counterterrorism cooperation with members of the international community to firmly strike down on ETIM and keep the region and the world safe and stable.”
What to Know
Takhar province police spokesperson Mohammed Akbar was cited by the Associated Press and Reuters as saying that a foreigner with the surname Li was killed Tuesday during an ambush while traveling toward the Dasht-e-Qala district. An interpreter accompanying him was unharmed, according to Akbar.
The attack took place just one day after Chinese Ambassador to Afghanistan Zhao Xing met with Taliban officials to commemorate 70 years of diplomatic relations between Beijing and Kabul. China was the first country to formally appoint an ambassador to Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, though no nation has yet extended formal diplomatic recognition to the new government.
While ISIS-K’s claim of responsibility for the attack drew headlines on Wednesday, another group calling itself the Afghanistan National Mobilization Front also took credit for the ambush.
The group, apparently one of several underground factions that have risen to challenge Taliban rule, alleged that the slain Chinese citizen was supporting the Taliban in espionage activity and hinted that Beijing had attempted to infiltrate Afghanistan through the deployment of Uyghurs.
“The Afghan National Mobilization Front proposes to China, considering the friendship between the people of China and Afghanistan and the neighborly relations between the two countries, to prevent the entry of its Uyghur spies into Afghanistan,” the group’s statement said.
What People Are Saying
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning at a press conference Thursday: “China will closely follow the security situation in Afghanistan and continue supporting Afghanistan in combating all forms of terrorism and violence, and upholding national security and stability. We urge the Afghan interim government to take resolute and effective measures to ensure the safety and security of Chinese citizens, institutions and projects in Afghanistan.”
ISIS-K in a statement published Wednesday: “By the grace of God Almighty, the soldiers of the caliphate targeted a vehicle carrying a Chinese communist in the village of Katkajer in the Takhar region yesterday with machine guns, which led to his death and damage to his vehicle, praise be to God.”
The Afghanistan National Mobilization Front in a statement published Wednesday: “As a result of the operation of the National Mobilization Front fighters against the Taliban terrorists and their overseas supporters, on Tuesday evening, [21st] of January 2025, a vehicle of a [Chinese] trainer who was training the Taliban terrorist group in the intelligence department was attacked in Takhar Province.”
“The [Chinese] trainer was training the Taliban in the control and monitoring of social networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp, how to reach people.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Afghanistan National Directorate of Security and the Afghanistan National Mobilization Front for comment.
What Happens Next
China has repeatedly sought to ramp up regional security efforts to fight the rise of non-state actors. These include bilateral efforts such as the joint counterterrorism drills conducted alongside Pakistan last month and multilateral initiatives such as various steps taken through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that also counts Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as members.
But the unrest has also ramped up regional tensions, leading to clashes between Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan as the three nations accuse one another of harboring militant groups. ISIS-K has also exploited disaffected Islamists in Central Asian nations to double down on recruitment there.
And with President Donald Trump having just begun his first term a day before the latest ISIS-K-claimed attack in Afghanistan, experts and former officials have told Newsweek that the group will constitute one of the most serious risks posed to U.S. and global security throughout his second term.
Source » newsweek.com
