The attack on the World Trade Center was a turning point in U.S. relations with China, which had long been fraught by strategic mistrust and disputes over human rights.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Bush administration set aside ideological differences and sought to achieve common purpose with China in pursuit of its overriding priority – the war on terror.
So the Chinese foreign ministry’s initial response to the death of bin Laden came as no surprise.
China hailed the killing as “a milestone and a positive development for the international anti-terrorism efforts.”
“Terrorism is the common enemy of the international community. China has also been a victim of terrorism,” foreign ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu was quoted by the official Xinhua news agency as saying.
Ms. Jiang was referring to China’s restless far western region of Xinjiang, where separatists have been waging a bloody insurgency against Chinese rule.
“China upholds that the international community should step up cooperation in working together to fight terrorism,” Ms. Jiang was quoted as saying.
Still, cooperation between the U.S. and China in the war on terror has been uneven, particularly in their approach to dealing with state sponsors of terrorism. The two sides are still far apart on how to rein in threats from North Korea and Iran.
For U.S. policymakers on China, there was always tension between the need to enlist China’s help in countering terrorism and upholding core U.S. values around human rights and the rule of law.
Lately, Washington’s priorities have started to shift. As China wages its harshest crackdown in a decade on dissent, the Obama administration has begun to lose its reticence about speaking out on human rights.
