ONE foreign-policy issue on which, in theory, China and the West stand shoulder-to-shoulder is the fight against jihadist terrorism. When Chinese and Western leaders meet, their statements usually condemn terrorism “in all its forms” and pledge more co-operation in countering it. But reactions in China to the Charlie Hebdo atrocity in Paris and to recent successful counter-terrorism operations at home reveal a big gap in perceptions.
China criticised the Paris attacks unreservedly. But its press also blamed Charlie Hebdo for offending Muslims. The latest issue of another French magazine, Fluide Glacial, gave China a chance to show that it, too, is a victim of what Global Times, a Communist Party tabloid, calls “free-speech mania”. The magazine features a cartoon of a Frenchman pulling a rickshaw with a Chinese passenger, under the headline “Yellow Peril”. Not everyone, warned Global Times, is as “good-tempered” as China, whose officials loftily ignored the slur.
The West’s reactions to terrorism within China...Continue reading
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