Fighting terrorism a long-term challenge for China

The East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) claimed responsibility for last month's Tian'anmen attack in which five people were killed and 40 others injured, according to an eight-minute audio clip obtained by a US-based Internet monitoring organization at the weekend.

The radical Islamist group, identified by the United Nations as a terrorist group, also warned of future attacks, including one at the Great Hall of the People, where the Communist Party of China (CPC) holds many of its high-level meetings, according to the Search for International Terrorist Entities Institute, a website which monitors jihadist forums.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Monday at a regular press briefing that "this fully exposes the terrorist essence of this organization and it also allows those people who recently doubted the nature of the incident to clearly see the truth."

Qin said the Chinese government would "continue the assault" on the group.

"The ETIM has incited, organized and committed terrorist attacks of various forms in China over the years and spread the ideas of violence and terrorism. It has been the most direct and real threat to our security, and has damaged the security of other countries and regions," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a press briefing earlier this month.

The attack in Tian'anmen, an iconic place in Beijing with high-level security, shows that terrorism can happen anywhere in the country.

"The Tian'anmen attack shows that the violence and terrorist activities have crossed the border of Xinjiang and the terrorists are aiming to cause bigger fear among people," said Yang Shu, head of the Central Asian Studies Institute of Lanzhou University.

The establishment of a national security commission, which was agreed at the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee two weeks ago, shows the Chinese government's resolve to deal with the challenges concerning its national security and stability.

APPROACHING TERROR RISKS

In most Chinese people's mind, especially for those living in inland provinces, terrorism is something that happens overseas and is far away from them. The Tian'anmen attack has given them a sober warning.

"An obvious feature of modern terrorism is civilian participation," said Mei Jianmin, a counter-terrorism expert with the People's Public Security University of China.

"They become terrorists with weapons in hand. They appear to be common people when they put down their weapons and it's hard to identify them," said Mei.

"It is easy for them to flee hither and thither as transportation is convenient nowadays," he added.

Chinese police have identified the suspects in the Tian'anmen attack as Usmen Hasan, his mother Kuwanhan Reyim and his wife Gulkiz Gini, all from the far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, more than 3,000 kilometers from Beijing.

They drove a jeep with a Xinjiang license plate into a crowd of people at noon on October 28, killing two people and injuring another 40. The jeep crashed into a guardrail of Jinshui Bridge across the moat of the Forbidden City. The three people in the jeep died after they set gasoline inside the vehicle on fire, according to police.

Terrorists are constantly changing their ways of carrying out attacks as China has strict controls over guns and other hazardous articles, said Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

"The terrorists mainly used hacking knives in the attacks in Shanshan County and Hotan City earlier this year while they used an SUV and gasoline in the Beijing attack," said Li. "The change of tactics has led to anti-terrorism difficulties."