China will Punish IS after Chinese Hostage Death

Xi was attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, along with other Asian leaders and President Obama.

President Xi Jinping said Thursday that he had sent condolences to Fan’s family, and said China would “fight against any violent terrorist attacks that challenge human civilization”.

The announcements came in the latest issue of the group’s English-language magazine Dabiq on Wednesday, which contained a page that appeared to show the bodies of the two captives.

“The Chinese government and people have been very concerned about Fan Jinghui’s safety since he was kidnapped”, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei said in a statement Thursday, adding that the government had made “all-out” efforts to rescue him.

“Terrorism is the enemy of all human beings”, he said.

“China will continue to strengthen anti-terrorism cooperation with the global community to maintain peace and tranquility in the world”.

The Chinese man had been identified as Fan Jinghui, 50, a self-described wanderer from Beijing who once taught grade school and sometimes worked in TV production.

News of their capture first emerged in September when the extremist group posted the two men’s images on Dabiq and demanded an unspecified ransom with the tagline “Prisoner For Sale”.

Lanzhou University counter-terrorism expert Yang Shu also pointed out that, unlike countries like the United States that have military bases in the Middle East, China has limited capabilities in the region.

There was no immediate reaction in Beijing to the announcement, nor from the state-run Xinhua news agency.In 2014, IS declared a self-styled “caliphate” across territory in Iraq and Syria where it imposes its extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

Xinjiang is home to China’s largely Muslim Uighur ethnic minority group. In the past three years, hundreds have died in violence that Beijing blames on Islamist militants and separatists, prompting a major crackdown by authorities. But Li said he doesn’t see any possibility for China to join the worldwide coalition on anti-IS airstrikes. “The terrorists have no extra resources to target Beijing”, it said.