China blasts West's 'double standards'

China's state media yesterday accused Western countries of "double standards" in their fight against terrorism, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The comment piece by the official Xinhua news agency blamed Washington in particular for turning a "blind eye" to the damage caused by extremists in Russia's Chechnya and in China's own far-western region of Xinjiang.
Nearly 10 years after 9/11, Xinhua said the fight against terror was "far from over", with terrorists changing tactics and increasing "collaboration with separatists and religious extremists".
Xinhua pointed to the United States' refusal in 2009 to extradite back to China members of its mainly Muslim Uighur minority held at US military prison camp Guantanamo Bay -- who were cleared of wrongdoing -- as an example of double standards.
The United States refused to repatriate the Uighurs on the basis they would face almost certain persecution.
Xinhua also accused Western countries of using counter-terrorism as a "cheap excuse" to intervene in other nations' internal affairs.
Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin, meanwhile, told reporters yesterday that terrorism "has not been eliminated and severe challenges still exist".