Abstract
Besides traditional security challenges and conflicts that arise from territorial disputes and strategic competition with other powers, in recent years, nontraditional security challenges have also taken their toll on China. Beijing’s tight clutch over separation forces in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet is beginning to be pried open by terrorist acts that challenge China’s sovereignty and national security. The Kunming Station attack and the Urumqi Station bombing incident in 2014 incurred heavy casualties and placed an immediate demand on China to confront terrorism. This chapter discusses the development of China’s counterterrorist policies in three parts: part one reviews the evolution of counterterrorist thinking in China; part two explores the current sources of terrorist challenge against China; and part three examines policy measures China has adopted in response to the challenges.
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Notes
- 1.
The Three-anti (sanfan) Campaign and the Five-anti (wufan) Campaign were reform movements initiated by Mao Zedong to eliminate Chinese cities of corruption and enemies of the state. The Three-anti campaign in 1951 targeted corruption, waste, and bureaucracy. The subsequent Five-anti campaign in 1952 tackled bribery, theft of state property, tax evasion, cheating on government contracts, and stealing of state economic information.
- 2.
Mao Zedong’s Three Worlds Theory proposes that the world could be divided into three worlds based on political and economic status. The first world consists of superpowers such as the USA and the Soviet Union; the second world consists of lesser developed powers such as the UK, France, Germany, Japan, and Canada; and the third world is made up of developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
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Tai-Ting Liu, T., Chang, Km. (2017). In the Name of Integrity and Security: China’s Counterterrorist Policies. In: Romaniuk, S., Grice, F., Irrera, D., Webb, S. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55769-8_31
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