China may face greater terror threat than US 

By Zheng Yongnian  (Global Times)

09:07, September 16, 2011

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

The world has undergone two most striking changes over the past 10 years after the 9/11 attacks. On one hand, the Global War on Terror has exhausted the United States. On the other hand, BRICS countries and developing countries including China have enjoyed rapid development. 

Due to the clear contrast, some people have associated the 9/11 attacks with the rapid development of certain developing countries, claiming that the United States has been busy combating terrorism, so China and other developing countries have grasped the strategic opportunity to develop rapidly. Their opinion is wrong because they simply linked the two phenomena and failed to recognize the nature of world development trend. 

Globalization has boosted the flow of various resources across national borders, as well as the flow of capital to low-cost countries. Along with the transfer of industries, the international status of different countries has changed. All in all, the wave of globalization would still bring strategic development opportunities to developing countries, even if the 9/11 attacks had not happened. 

The 9/11 attacks created a new channel for China-U.S. cooperation, but counter-terrorism has never become the theme of China-U.S. relations. Their bilateral relations have been mainly influenced by domestic and international political considerations, as well as the ever increasing common interests brought about by globalization. 

Globalization has provided most of countries with opportunities and development and brought about issues such as wealth disparity and social injustice that have bred terrorism. It could be said that terrorism and modernization are twin brothers. Globalization has led to the confrontations between different interests or mindsets and eventually caused the confrontation between terrorism and the United States. 

The terrorists reached their goals and the brutal massacre caused the United States to unswervingly face up to them. The actual significance of the “9/11” event lies in that although terrorism had long existed, it formally came to the global stage through the “9/11” event, no matter people liked or not. 

The United States has paid enormous costs on a decade of fight against terrorism and its imbalanced domestic economic structure has made it no longer strong enough to fulfill its ambitions regarding the fight. Despite the situation, the United States is still the world’s only super power and has its presence across the world, which has naturally made it most exposed to terrorist threats. 

The international order is entering into a disordered period. The unrest in the Middle West shows that the existing pattern is collapsing and a new pattern has yet to come into being. Disorder will undoubtedly promote the expansion of terrorist forces. For instance, continued disorder in some countries will likely enable some Al-Qaeda members to gain power in new regimes. The global situation is changing, and so is the situation of the fight against terrorism. 

China is rising rapidly in the current international system, but as it gains more benefits, it will face with higher risks. The face-to-face conflict between the way of thinking and interests brought about by the globalization process is worsening. If the overall international situation remains unchanged, China, as the main player in the globalization process, may face with increasingly more threats including terrorism. In the coming ten to twenty years, China may face greater terror threat than the United States if the international space for the United States continues to narrow and that for China continues to expand. 

In terms of current counter-terrorism capacity, China is only able to defend itself, which falls very short of the American “Pre-emptive Strike” strategy. It is an urgent task for China to strengthen counterterrorism efforts, achieve balanced development and reduce soils breeding terrorism. The Chinese public should neither focus solely on China-U.S. carrier competition and other such kind of game-playing, nor put faith in China’s naturally growing deterrence after its rising. Maybe China should begin to think about what it should do after its rising.

Increases the bookmark

• twitter
• facebook
• Sina Microblog
• digg
• Google
• Delicious
• buzz
• friendfeed
• Linkedin
• diigo
• reddit
• stumbleupon
• Qzone
• QQ Microblog

Related Reading

1. Four given death sentences for terrorist attacks
2. China, Kyrgyzstan pledge stronger collaboration against terrorism
3. Algeria announces birth of world forum to fight terrorism
4. Caution, not paranoia, key to fighting terrorism
5. Police foil Urumqi terror attacks
6. Anti-terror situation in South Asia still grim
7. Why does anti-terrorism give rise to more terrorism?

Leave your comment0 comments

Weekly review

1. China issues white paper on peaceful development
2. New western colonialism emerges in Libya
3. Opinion: China's economy has landed, safely
4. 9/11 marked turning point in world landscape
5. Beijing orders thorough probe into oil spills
6. Why were we too slow responding to Bohai oil spill?
7. No date for fully convertible yuan
8. The week in pictures