While confirming that a Chinese national held hostage by the Islamic State has been killed, Beijing has vowed to bring his killers to justice.
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Forty-eight-year-old Norwegian national Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad (R) and 50-year-old Beijing native Fan Jinghui (L) were executed by the Islamic State terrorist organization, Dabiq magazine claimed in November 2015.
In a statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China has noted the report and is “deeply shocked”. “China firmly opposes terrorists of all forms and resolutely cracks down on any crimes that challenge the foundation of human civilization”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, visiting Manila for a regional summit, said he strongly condemned the killing.
Terrorism is the common enemy faced by all humanity, the Chinese envoy said, adding that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.
Worldwide terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna of the S. Rajaratnam School of global Studies said that China is likely to stick to its long-held principle of non-interference in another country’s affairs.
“We even knew that the hostage was located approximately in the Anbar province of Iraq, and the rescue effort had made certain progress”, Qiu was quoted by Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post as saying.
“The Chinese side will continue to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation with the worldwide community and safeguard world peace and tranquility”, the ministry said. In the previous issue of the Dabiq magazine, Islamic State showed pictures of two men who it said were Norwegian and Chinese, wearing yellow suits and with shaved heads.
Nevertheless, China’s leaders may face pressure from public opinion to be seen to be backing up their words with actions: Among tens of thousands of comments on local news portal Sina.com on Thursday, one of the most praised said simply: “Destroy ISIS”.
Chinese government sources say they do not pay ransoms because it encourages more kidnapping. It said in September one of its citizens appeared to be in Daesh captivity.
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Raffaello Pantucci, director of worldwide Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said the Chinese government, much like others do in response to such incidents, is trying to show that it will do everything in its power to get these people and that they won’t be able to hide forever.
