China lauds bin Laden death

After an initial day of silence, China has applauded the United States’ killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted Jiang Yu, spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as saying the American killing of the international terrorist was good news. Bin Laden was killed in a resort town in Pakistan on the same day China began high-level bilateral talks with that country.

“Terrorism is the common enemy of the international community. China has also been a victim of terrorism,” said Jiang, referring to violence in China’s western Xinjiang Muslim province. “China upholds that the international community should step up cooperation in working together to fight terrorism.”