China is recruiting foreign experts in counterterrorism to assist the training of anti-terror personnel, state-run media reported yesterday, following a spate of deadly attacks that authorities blame on Islamist-inspired separatists.
The People’s Public Security University of China will offer visiting professorships to top specialists in the field from countries including the US, Israel, Pakistan and Australia, the government-run China Daily said.
“The US and Israel have accumulated rich practical experience in fighting terrorism,” Mei Jianming (梅建明), director of the university’s Research Center for Counterterrorism, told the paper. “The US is advanced in overall strategic research, and Israel is very proficient at tactical action in fighting terrorism.”
China has vowed a year-long crackdown on terrorism — and last month executed 13 people — following several high-profile attacks blamed on militants from Xinjiang.
Since late last year, the attacks have spread outside the region and targeted ordinary citizens, rather than government or security personnel. They have included a fiery vehicle crash at Tiananmen Square in October last year and a knife assault at a railway station in Yunnan Province in March that killed 29 people.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of cultural and religious repression that fuels unrest in Xinjiang.
However, the Chinese government says that it has boosted economic development in the area and that it upholds minority rights in a country with 56 recognized ethnic groups.
The People’s Public Security University of China plans to put 80 counterterrorism specialists, who will be taught to use submachine guns, sniper rifles and other weapons, through a rigorous four-year program to combat the rising threat, Mei said, according to the report.
“The lessons and training will focus on intelligence gathering, investigating special cases, network information technology, technical and tactical anti-terror action and related international judicial cooperation,” Mei said.
The university’s president Cheng Lin (程琳) said: “We urgently need to cultivate counterterrorism specialists to improve our preventive and terror-fighting capabilities,” adding that ounterterrorism in China has been “riddled with problems.”
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