Zhang Ping: The Zhuhai car ramming attack was not a terrorist attack

Terrorist attacks, as we define them, have a relatively clear definition, and one of the elements is to achieve political goals through attacks. Therefore, Hamas and Hezbollah attacking Israel are terrorist attacks, and 9/11 was a terrorist attack. However, the vast majority of mass shootings in the United States or car attacks in Zhuhai are not terrorist attacks because they lack political objectives. The knife attack that occurred in Yixing today, if the public letter of the killer is true, then it does have some characteristics of a terrorist attack.

However, regardless of whether there are political objectives, mass attacks in China share a common underlying logic with Palestinian terrorism represented by Hamas. This logic is: if I believe I have suffered injustice, I have the right to harm and slaughter ordinary people who are weaker than me and not directly related to my situation, and the more I kill, the better, and the greater the impact, the better; no matter how inhumane my methods are, I am righteous.

Therefore, if you condone ordinary people widely defending terrorist organizations like Hamas, and guide the lower classes to believe that Hamas's atrocities are justified, or even heroic acts, then you cannot expect radicals among the populace not to imitate Hamas's actions. In fact, very few legitimate governments support actions that defend Hamas, because everyone understands the boomerang effect. In European and American countries, those who support Hamas are basically Islamic extremist groups, marginalized communities, or rebellious teenagers; in countries like Saudi Arabia, criticizing Israel is a must, but supporting Hamas is absolutely forbidden.

Mass attacks in China have become frequent one year after public support for Hamas, and I believe this is by no means a coincidence. Of course, even if Hamas had no influence in these incidents, in the long run, the role of the "Hamas boomerang" in intensifying the ideology of the lower classes and triggering mass harm and even terrorist attacks is unavoidable. Once this boomerang is thrown, Israel is thousands of miles away, and Jews are few in China, and it is self-evident whose head will be cut off. A key principle of the "Hamas logic" is to "harm the easiest people to harm."

To equate "anti-social" or "revenge against society" as criteria for identifying terrorism, alongside "political (including religious, ideological) demands, is completely wrong. The reasons are as follows: 1. The political demands of terrorism are confirmed based on the terrorists' own statements, and the criteria for identification are relatively stable and clear, with sufficient operability. "Anti-social" is an extremely vague and difficult standard to identify and operate. 2. In essence, all violent criminal activities are anti-social. If anti-social behavior is used as a standard, terrorism loses its specific meaning and becomes a hollow term. 3. Because of political demands, terrorism can easily form group crimes, which are clearly different from the basically lone-wolf "anti-social" crimes, and the paths to combat these two types of criminal behavior are also completely different. This is not just a theoretical issue; this distinction is also very important in practice. To combat terrorism, you need far more resources and manpower than for other crimes. If "anti-social" behavior is also managed by counter-terrorism departments, it will severely affect their work.

Taking Israel's practical operations as an example: Israel has the mafia, and the mafia often bomb each other. These attacks look similar from the outside. So every time such an incident occurs, the first thing the police do is to determine whether it is "crime (no political demands)" or "nationalistic (terrorism with political demands)." This is not just a word game. If it is determined to be ordinary crime, the police can investigate; if it is determined to be terrorism, security agencies, the military, and even the Mossad will be involved, and far more resources will be mobilized. If "anti-social" behavior is also recognized as terrorism, Israel's counter-terrorism departments would be overwhelmed.