Border policemen patrol with dogs in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. Trained dogs are being used to combat terrorism in the region. Chen Haining / Xinhua

Countermeasures

Yang Shaowen, deputy director of the International Cooperation Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, said many terrorist suspects and religious extremists from Xinjiang "watched violent and terrorist videos and listened to audio materials on the Internet before conducting brutal terror attacks.

"After receiving special weapons training in Middle Eastern countries, some suspects return to China to plan and organize terrorist activities," he said.

According to a senior official at the ministry's Criminal Investigation Department who declined to be named, China will intensify inspections and patrols in the border regions, and increase visa checks to prevent suspicious individuals from traveling overseas illegally to join Islamist forces.

The security authorities will also make an all-out assault on those who help suspects to cross the border illegally, he said.

Since the beginning of the year, Chinese police have also arrested a number of returnees.

"Crossing the border illegally in Yunnan and Guangxi is now extremely difficult, thanks to improved cooperation with neighboring countries, so organizations such as ETIM are actively searching for new channels to allow Chinese extremists to travel overseas," the counterterrorism official said.

"China will deepen cooperation with ASEAN countries to crack down on the routes used by extremists to cross the border illegally and ultimately head to Syria and other war-torn countries. We hope the ASEAN nations will repatriate any illegal immigrants they arrest and provide the Chinese police with information about potential returnees," he said.

"China will do the same and inform other countries if we find that returnee extremists have crossed the border and entered their territories," he added.

Mei Jianming, director of the Counterterrorism Research Center at People's Public Security University of China, said China must accelerate the introduction of counterterrorism legislation to eliminate the problem at the root.

He urged greater judicial cooperation with Interpol and other law-enforcement authorities in "frontline" countries, including the United States, Pakistan, Turkey and a number of Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern countries, to promote support and assistance, he said.

"China and the US should put aside their political and legal differences and improve pragmatic law-enforcement cooperation, including training programs, intelligence sharing and joint drills aimed at reducing the risk of attacks," he added.

Pan Guanyuan, an official at the Public Security Ministry's Bureau of Network Security, emphasized that China objects to connections being made between terrorist activity and ethnicity. He said the country has an important role to play in the fight against terrorism, no matter where it happens.

"China has been and is still a victim of terrorism. We would like to improve counterterrorism cooperation with a large number of countries so we can cut off connections and sever the sources for funding for terrorist organizations. That's the only way we can win this battle."

Huo Yan in Guangxi contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at hena@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangyan1@chinadaily.com.cn