On Christmas Eve, U.S. embassy in China issued security warnings for Westerners in Beijing's Sanlitun area, a popular Beijing diplomatic and entertainment district. Thanks to special forces dispatched by the Chinese government, no incidents or injuries have taken place so far.
To address the increasing terrorist activities inside and outside its border as well as in cyberspace, China has pushed forward its first counter-terrorism law with great urgency to establish a systematic and effective anti-terror platform.
However, Beijing's resolution to support the global anti-terror efforts has been slandered by Washington as a move that "would do more harm than good in addressing the threat of terrorism" and "lead to greater restrictions" on freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly and religion within China.
It is indeed an expected response from Washington, which simply cannot stop from taking China as a bogeyman in super hero movies and fictions that always has an evil motive.
It is regrettable that even at this critical moment when rampant terrorism and extremism across the world have embroiled countries and regions in deadly conflicts, Uncle Sam is unable to view China's anti-terror measures without habitual suspicion, bias and selfishness.
It also shows the United States' insincerity and incapability in consolidating global efforts to fight terrorism.
Practicing partisan politics on the world stage, dividing countries into allies and enemies judging by its self-interest and ideology, guided by a zero-sum game and double-standard mind, the United States bears unshakable responsibilities for instability in the Middle East, the refugee crisis in Europe and other escalating regional tensions.
By elevating freedom of expression to an absolute right without boundaries, Washington in fact connives at influential parties to coerce and harass disadvantaged groups by using speeches as weapons.
U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump's remarks about barring Muslims from entering the country instigate discrimination and hatred, isolate the Muslim population and undermine the freedom of religion.
The West's long holding of global discourse hegemony revealed its hypocrisy when Western media paid surprisingly disproportionate attention to the terrorist attacks in Paris and in Beirut in November.
What is the purpose of press freedom if it is a freedom to choose whose lives are more valuable than others?
Some Western governments and media refused to call China's Kunming rail station attackers "terrorists" even though they brutally stabbed 31 innocent people to death and injured 141, while wasted no time to label a London attacker "terrorist," as he stabbed one British soldier to death and waited with bystanders for police to arrest him.
The coldblooedness over the third world countries' people's lives is shocking and should be a wake-up call to the world that the West does not always stand on the moral high ground, and that press freedom has been often used as a tool to protect discourse hegemony.
It is always the innocent people that fall victim to terrorism and extremism, and that is why the Chinese government is taking concrete actions to protect its people, including ordinary Americans enjoying Christmas in Beijing's Sanlitun.
But when can the United States stop considering China as an imaginary enemy and start aiming at the real enemy -- terrorism?
