Clearest shot
available of the aftermath of a car crash on Tiananmen
Square. A jeep drove straight
into a crowd, killing five and injuring 38.
The attackers appear to
have been a family of ethnic Uyghurs, a Muslim
people from Xinjiang Province
in conflict with the central government.
'Vile' CNN Shows the World America's 'Dark Psychology' (Huanqiu, China)
Does the West, and in particular the United States, uphold a double standard on terrorism? According to this editorial from China's state-run Huanqiu, a recent CNN article that suggests Beijing's treatment of ethnic Uyghurs may be the root cause of last week's car crash into a Tiananmen Square crowd, reflects a U.S. bias that amounts to favoring terrorism when it harms America's rivals.
Military police in Tiananmen Square: Security has been beefed up considerably since a jeep ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians on October 28. Suggestions that Beijing might have created a terrorist movement with its treatment of the Uyghurs, Tibetans, and others, is being met with charges of Western hypocrisy.
United
States cable television network CNN recently published an op-ed article on its Web
site about the jeep
that ran over a crowd of pedestrians at Tiananmen Square last Monday
[killing five and injuring 38]. The article [Tiananmen
Crash: Terrorism or Cry of Desperation?] reviews the
"repression" suffered by Chinese Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and openly
asks whether Monday's attack was, "a hastily assembled cry of
desperation from a people on the extreme margins of the Chinese state's
monstrous development machine."
This
time, CNN has really gone too far. Western
media usually reflects its sympathy and backing for Xinjiang's
terrorists through interviews with people like RebiyaKadeer, leader of the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement [and World Uyghur Congress]. The author of the brazen CNN article is assistant professor at Georgetown
Sean R. Roberts, and
it is a direct expression of the attitude of CNN.
We
can say that the article reflects the views and attitudes of many Americans,
but to present it as mainstream shows the network's vile nature.
In
fact, after the 9-11 incident, many Chinese were quite pleased. Over many a
dinner table, Chinese folk praised Osama bin Laden's arguments, some even referring
to him as a "modern day Robin Hood." Such attitudes, however, never
made it into China's media, all of which was harshly critical of his evils, and
firmly sympathetic to the U.S. government and standing alongside the American people.
We
believe that despite the diverging interests and competition among great
powers, all forces that love justice and peace should unite to combat
terrorism. Holding double standards on the issue of terrorism is to hold oneself
out as a terror victim, while indulging in the attacker's cry of "desperation"
against one's rivals. If this is allowed to go on, mankind's political civilization
will slide backwards.
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
Does
it make any sense to speak of the "despair" and "hatred" of
those who engage in terrorist attacks? What attackers lack these qualities? Aren't
the al-Qaeda members who attacked the United States and Europe, and the Palestinian
suicide bombers in Israel, animated by their own brands of desperation? Unless
one is brainwashed by extremist religious forces, how can the slaughter of
innocent civilians by fanatical suicide attackers be taken as a "just
cause," or a "jihad"?
Since
ancient times, within civilizations, there has always been a certain degree of
estrangement among peoples and ethnic groups. Up until today, no single form of
social organization has been able to resolve this problem. Western society is
certainly not a role model in this regard.
Sporadic
ethnic and racial conflict has been a constant in Europe and the United States.
However, it is the Western civilization's conflict with the outside world that
is particularly serious.
Some
Western elites uphold a double standard toward China and Russia when it comes
to terrorism. It has nothing to gain by doing so, as this damages the global
anti-terror cause, and it will fail to disturb our two countries. Westerners
should know better: When any state appears to tolerate terrorism, when there is
an attack, the public backlash is bound to be far more powerful.
With
its unscrupulous article, CNN was in fact reflecting its desire to take pleasure
in the misfortune of others. By publishing an ill-intentioned commentary, CNN not
only lost its reputation and audience in China, it compromised the image of the
United States.
After the incident at Tiananmen Square,
France President François Hollande condemned the terrorist attack in a timely
manner, and expressed condolences to the victims. This won France favor among
the Chinese public. In contrast, CNN, which stands for "United
States," fails to live up to the country's superpower status. The network
is showing people that a kind of dark psychology has settled over the United
States.
Not long after a child on U.S. network ABC suggested "killing everyone in
China," [see above], CNN defended the perpetrators of the violent attack in
Tiananmen Square. We have to say to our U.S. counterparts: Have some
self-respect.
