In the world we live in today, ISIS continues to make headlines on a daily basis. Today, China confirmed that militant fighters murdered a Chinese hostage in Syria. Beijing promised to “bring to justice” those terrorists responsible for the heinous act.
The foreign ministry confirmed the man’s identity as Fan Jinghui and further expressed sincere condolences to Fan’s family.
According to a statement released by the ministry, the Chinese government conducted “all-out efforts to rescue” Fan once it learned of the kidnapping.
The statement further read that, “However, with no regard for human conscience and moral baseline, the terrorist organization still carried out this cold-blooded and violent action. The Chinese government strongly condemns this inhuman action and will definitely hold the perpetrators accountable.”
While in the Philippines for a summit, China’s president Xi Jinping emphatically condemned the killing by the extremist group. He told the press that, “Terrorism is the enemy of all human beings. China firmly opposes all kinds of terrorist ideology and will resolutely fight any criminal terrorist activity that challenges the baseline of humanity.”
On Wednesday, ISIS militants said it had executed two hostages, one Norwegian and one Chinese, after demanding ransoms for the release of the two men.
The most recent issue of ISIS’ in-house magazine featured images purporting to show militants shooting the men to death. The terrorist group said its plans were “executed after being abandoned by kafir nations and organizations”.
But despite Beijing’s official announcement of the murder, Chinese censors have ramped up efforts to delete detailed reports about the incident from the Chinese media.
Earlier this morning, “Chinese hostage” was the sixth most searched term on China’s Twitter service, Weibo. Yet evidence from a website that displays deleted social media posts, known as Free Weibo, shows that many posts already were deleted.
Earlier today, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg stated that her government had no reason to doubt that the terrorist organization murdered one of its citizens.
She described the killing of 48-year old Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad as “painful for the whole country.” But she reiterated that Norway does not negotiate with terrorists nor does it pay ransoms.
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