Washington, June 21 (PTI): China needs to be more involved in the global efforts to combat terrorism as it is being increasingly affected by the menace due to its growing overseas interests, a top US official has said.
Susan Thornton, the US acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said the US will raise the issue as part of the US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue in Washington.
The US official noted that China is increasingly involved in economic and other ventures abroad, including in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East as well as throughout Africa.
“We believe that China is increasingly affected by the growing global challenge of terrorism,” Thornton told reporters during a conference call ahead of the US-China Diplomatic and Security Dialogue.
“The two Chinese citizens being taken hostage and then killed in Pakistan sort of underlines that thesis that China is increasingly going to be not only affected, but running into terrorism in places where it is overseas,” Thornton said in response to a question.
“Its overseas interests are growing, its investing more in other places, its going to have an impact on governments and stability in other countries as it moves into those countries with major investments, and we think that China needs to be more involved in the global efforts to combat terrorism,” she said.
Noting that up to now, Chinese have taken a fairly limited profile in counter-terrorism efforts undertaken by the international community, Thornton said, adding that the US would like to see them step up and take more responsibility.
“They have a lot of interest, for example, in Iraq and we think that they should be doing more to contribute to the efforts of the international coalition to defeat ISIS,” she said.
Of late, the US has seen them become more interested over time.
“Its kind of an early feelers on getting more involved in this, and wed like to have a good discussion with them about what more we think they could do,” she said.
“Certainly, in the way of providing resources to governments that are battling against terrorism and trying to help with capacity building for governments and security forces in various places, theyve been involved in some of this effort, but very, very limited to date, and I think that we are interested in seeing what else they could do,” Thornton said in response to a question.
