BEIJINGChina on Tuesday stood by its ally Pakistan amid growing questions in the U.S. about whether the country was complicit in harboring Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader killed in a sprawling mansion in a garrison city close to Islamabad.
Meanwhile, an outpouring of discussion on the Chinese Internet revealed mixed views of bin Laden. Many users said the world was safer following his killing while othersincluding some prominent social and political commentatorsexpressed sympathy, and even respect, for the mastermind of the World Trade Center attacks.
After hailing bin Laden's death as a "positive development in the international struggle against terrorism," the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday swung to the defense of Pakistan.
A ministry spokeswoman praised Pakistan's "vigorous" efforts to fight terrorism. "China will continuously and firmly support Pakistan to lay out and implement antiterror strategies based on its own domestic situation," Jiang Yu told a regular news conference.
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces at a three-story mansion in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 40 miles north of Islamabad. President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said at a news conference that bin Laden must have had a significant "support system" within Pakistan.
Ties between China and Pakistan run deep. China provides significant military support to Pakistan in what many experts describe as an effort to balance India's political and economic rise.
U.S. administration officials have said they will probe whether Pakistan's spy service and other government agencies were involved in harboring bin Laden.
On China's Twitter-like micro-blogging services, bin Laden's death was the hottest topic for much of Monday and Tuesday. On Sina Weibo, the most active microblogging site, there was celebration, partly because bin Laden's political agenda posed a direct threat to security in China's northwestern territory of Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities have been battling a bloody insurgency by Muslim separatists.
"Thank you America for helping us," wrote user Zhaoling Tongzi, noting Beijing's assertion that the al Qaeda leader had supported a Muslim separatist movement in Xinjiang. "He wasn't a friend. He was an enemy."
One well-known television commentator and personality, Hou Ning, posted what amounted to a eulogy. Bin Laden "defied the most unconquerable country and military with his thin and weak body, continuously embarrassed and defeated them, played a drama that was the most magnificent and respectable in human history," he wrote. Mr. Hou didn't respond to a request to comment Tuesday evening.
Yan Feng, a professor of literature at Shanghai's elite Fudan University, who previously served as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, appeared conflicted by bin Laden's death in a post on his Sina Weibo account, which he later deleted. "I will not join the troop of crying on the death of bin Laden. I will not hail it either," he wrote. "But purely from an individual's point of view, he's one rare idealist and spiritual soldier in the current world."
"Both the United States and bin Laden fought for their own faith respectively. Both were perseverant and both had things for others to respect. The funeral in the end also demonstrated America's respect for its opponent," Mr. Yan wrote after bin Laden's burial at sea in line with Muslim rites.
Later, Mr. Yan said in an interview that his statements weren't an expression of support for terrorism. Rather, they addressed some of bin Laden's personal traits, like self-sacrifice and idealism. "I am totally against terrorism and I think bin Laden is a demon that should be wiped out without hesitation," he said.
"Deeply mourning bin Laden," wrote Weibo user Jiajia Nuwu in comments echoed fairly widely across the site. "Yet another anti-American hero is lost."
"Is this real? Excellent!" wrote another. "Now the only terrorist left is the United States!"
It is hard to assess how widespread sentiment in favor of bin Laden is in Chinese society. Many Chinese people harbor deep reservations about the way America wields its power in the world, but there is still plenty of affection for Americans and their culture.
The Chinese blogosphere provides an outlet for so-called angry youth, whose online ranting against the U.S., Japan and other foreign countries is sometimes assumed to be a proxy for a rebellion against domestic authority. It's far less risky to lash out against foreigners than Chinese officials.
An extreme form of anti-Americanism that spouts from the lips of ultranationalists has been fanned in recent years by hawkish elements in the media and security forces.
China often describes itself as susceptible to terrorism, specifically in the far northwestern province of Xinjiang. Separatists there have waged a long, and at times bloody, insurgency against Chinese rule. "Terrorism is the common enemy of the international community," Ms. Jiang said in an earlier statement regarding bin Laden's death. "China has also been a victim of terrorism."
On Twitter, which is blocked in China and thus tends to be used mostly by tech-savvy Chinese activists and intellectuals willing to circumvent China's Internet censors, many users parsed news of bin Laden's death through the lens of Chinese politics.
"Some countries use 10 years in pursuit of justice while others need 100 years just to discover the definition of justice," Internet entrepreneur Isaac Mao, often described as China's first blogger, wrote on his Twitter account in veiled reference to Beijing's unwillingness to admit its past political mistakes.
In another oblique reference to Chinese politics, a number of Chinese Twitter users passed around a message reading: "Of the ten most evil people in the world, the U.S. has killed one. Now there are nine left."
There are nine members on the Chinese Communist Party's ruling Politburo Standing Committee.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704740604576301112983040114.html
Meanwhile, an outpouring of discussion on the Chinese Internet revealed mixed views of bin Laden. Many users said the world was safer following his killing while othersincluding some prominent social and political commentatorsexpressed sympathy, and even respect, for the mastermind of the World Trade Center attacks.
After hailing bin Laden's death as a "positive development in the international struggle against terrorism," the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday swung to the defense of Pakistan.
A ministry spokeswoman praised Pakistan's "vigorous" efforts to fight terrorism. "China will continuously and firmly support Pakistan to lay out and implement antiterror strategies based on its own domestic situation," Jiang Yu told a regular news conference.
Bin Laden was killed by U.S. special forces at a three-story mansion in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, about 40 miles north of Islamabad. President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, said at a news conference that bin Laden must have had a significant "support system" within Pakistan.
Ties between China and Pakistan run deep. China provides significant military support to Pakistan in what many experts describe as an effort to balance India's political and economic rise.
U.S. administration officials have said they will probe whether Pakistan's spy service and other government agencies were involved in harboring bin Laden.
On China's Twitter-like micro-blogging services, bin Laden's death was the hottest topic for much of Monday and Tuesday. On Sina Weibo, the most active microblogging site, there was celebration, partly because bin Laden's political agenda posed a direct threat to security in China's northwestern territory of Xinjiang, where Chinese authorities have been battling a bloody insurgency by Muslim separatists.
"Thank you America for helping us," wrote user Zhaoling Tongzi, noting Beijing's assertion that the al Qaeda leader had supported a Muslim separatist movement in Xinjiang. "He wasn't a friend. He was an enemy."
One well-known television commentator and personality, Hou Ning, posted what amounted to a eulogy. Bin Laden "defied the most unconquerable country and military with his thin and weak body, continuously embarrassed and defeated them, played a drama that was the most magnificent and respectable in human history," he wrote. Mr. Hou didn't respond to a request to comment Tuesday evening.
Yan Feng, a professor of literature at Shanghai's elite Fudan University, who previously served as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, appeared conflicted by bin Laden's death in a post on his Sina Weibo account, which he later deleted. "I will not join the troop of crying on the death of bin Laden. I will not hail it either," he wrote. "But purely from an individual's point of view, he's one rare idealist and spiritual soldier in the current world."
"Both the United States and bin Laden fought for their own faith respectively. Both were perseverant and both had things for others to respect. The funeral in the end also demonstrated America's respect for its opponent," Mr. Yan wrote after bin Laden's burial at sea in line with Muslim rites.
Later, Mr. Yan said in an interview that his statements weren't an expression of support for terrorism. Rather, they addressed some of bin Laden's personal traits, like self-sacrifice and idealism. "I am totally against terrorism and I think bin Laden is a demon that should be wiped out without hesitation," he said.
"Deeply mourning bin Laden," wrote Weibo user Jiajia Nuwu in comments echoed fairly widely across the site. "Yet another anti-American hero is lost."
"Is this real? Excellent!" wrote another. "Now the only terrorist left is the United States!"
It is hard to assess how widespread sentiment in favor of bin Laden is in Chinese society. Many Chinese people harbor deep reservations about the way America wields its power in the world, but there is still plenty of affection for Americans and their culture.
The Chinese blogosphere provides an outlet for so-called angry youth, whose online ranting against the U.S., Japan and other foreign countries is sometimes assumed to be a proxy for a rebellion against domestic authority. It's far less risky to lash out against foreigners than Chinese officials.
An extreme form of anti-Americanism that spouts from the lips of ultranationalists has been fanned in recent years by hawkish elements in the media and security forces.
China often describes itself as susceptible to terrorism, specifically in the far northwestern province of Xinjiang. Separatists there have waged a long, and at times bloody, insurgency against Chinese rule. "Terrorism is the common enemy of the international community," Ms. Jiang said in an earlier statement regarding bin Laden's death. "China has also been a victim of terrorism."
On Twitter, which is blocked in China and thus tends to be used mostly by tech-savvy Chinese activists and intellectuals willing to circumvent China's Internet censors, many users parsed news of bin Laden's death through the lens of Chinese politics.
"Some countries use 10 years in pursuit of justice while others need 100 years just to discover the definition of justice," Internet entrepreneur Isaac Mao, often described as China's first blogger, wrote on his Twitter account in veiled reference to Beijing's unwillingness to admit its past political mistakes.
In another oblique reference to Chinese politics, a number of Chinese Twitter users passed around a message reading: "Of the ten most evil people in the world, the U.S. has killed one. Now there are nine left."
There are nine members on the Chinese Communist Party's ruling Politburo Standing Committee.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704740604576301112983040114.html
