BEIJING - A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday criticized the United States for sending three Chinese terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to Slovakia.
The three detainees are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which is listed as a terrorist group and sanctioned by the United Nations, spokesman Qin Gang said at a routine press briefing.
The terrorists posed a threat to the security of China and the recipient country, Qin said, calling on the relevant country not to give terrorists habitat but to hand them over to China.
Qin urged the U.S.to abandon double standards and avoid sending the wrong signal to violent terrorist forces in response to U.S. State Department Deputy Spokeswoman Marie Harf's call for China to maintain restraint following the latest violence in Xinjiang.
Nine terrorists attacked a police station wielding knives on early Monday morning in Shache County of Kashgar. Xinjiang police shot dead eight terrorists and captured another.
It was a terrorist attack, with solid evidence, Qin said. He added that terrorism is against humanity and society and that the international community has a common understanding on combating terrorism and opposes countries to hold double standards on the issue.
"The U.S. State Department comments ignore the facts, sound feeble and can't be justified. People of the U.S. are also victims of terrorism. Do not do to others what you don't want done to yourself," Qin said.
"If such incidents happened in the U.S., and other countries made similar comments, how will the U.S. people feel about them?" Qin asked.