U.S.-China Counter-Terrorism Co-operation and Its Perspective on Human Rights

“The United States and our allies are working together throughout the Middle East to crush the loser terrorists and stop the reemergence of safe havens they use to launch attacks on all of our people … From now on, our security interests will dictate the length and scope of military operation, not arbitrary benchmarks and timetables set up by politicians. I have also totally changed the rules of engagement in our fight against the Taliban and other terrorist groups.” Donald Trump, Speech at the UN General Assembly, September 19, 2017.

Americans have gotten used to security checks in public buildings, sports stadiums, theaters and trains. That is a big change from before September 11th happened in New York and Washington D.C. that changed the economic and political hearts of the United States accordingly. Before then, even searching airplane passengers for possible hijacking was too much of an inconvenience. After September 11th, everybody finally came to understand terrorism as a first-order problem…