The terrorist attack in Paris last Friday that killed 129 people and the bombing of Russian jet on Oct 31 in which 224 lives were lost are just the latest atrocities that should be condemned by the whole world.
After the Paris attacks, cities around the world lit their landmarks in the colors of the French flag to show their support for the French people. That also included the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in my home city of Shanghai.
But while expressing sympathy for the victims of the terrorist attacks, many Chinese are asking what has caused the growing number of extremists like those of the Islamic State group.
The answer given by most U.S. politicians seems quite simple: They hate our values, they hate our democracy, they hate our freedom and they hate ourway of life. But such a reply hardly seems to address the question.
Of course, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has blamed the prolonged war following the U.S. invasion of Iraq as a cause. While such an answer does speak some truth, it is so politically incorrect that most U.S. news media would not allow a live discussion.
U.S. leaders, so eager to pursue regime change in Syria, have also blamed President Bashar al-Assad for the rise of IS. This is hardly convincing given many of the IS extremists are from other countries in the Middle East and Europe.
The debate over whether Assad must go has been hampering possible and better cooperation between Russia and the U.S. in fighting the IS group. In fact, the U.S. insistence on regime change has also prevented itself from fighting IS effectively.
Yet, who has given Obama the right to say that Assad must go?
While accusing Russia of also targeting some Syrian rebels, U.S. leaders never told its people and the world that the so-called moderate Syrian rebels that it backed and armed have defected in droves to IS or al-Qaida-affiliated groups.
No American politicians have talked about how many civilians have died as collateral damage since the George W. Bush administration started its war on terror, a war that was escalated during at least the first few years of the Obama administration with drastically increased drone strikes. Such so-called collateral damage has certainly sowed hatred among local populations.
The chaos in the Middle East has proven the failure of U.S. intervention policy.
What's worse is the double-standard adopted by the U.S. and some Western nations. The U.S. government has been reluctant to condemn terrorist actions on Chinese soil. White House and State Department officials have either used the excuse that they need more information or expressed concerns at Chinese government policies, as if there could be a justification for terrorists to kill innocent Chinese civilians.
That is exactly the question some Chinese raised after the Shanghai Oriental Pearl TV Tower lit up for Paris, why did the U.S. and other Western governments not expressed the same condemnation about those who carried out the attacks in China as they have of IS.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced that he is planning to close down any mosques that allow extremist clerics to preach following the deadly attacks. U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump also claimed that the U.S. will have "absolutely no choice" but to close down some mosques where "some bad things are happening."
If such words came from Chinese officials, U.S. officials would have quickly denounced it as religious persecution.
The author, Chen Weihua, is deputy editor of China Daily USA
