Commentary: A world in union needs unified standard to defeat terrorism

With 40 world leaders holding hands in a massive anti-terrorism rally in Paris over the weekend, the international community has shown its determination to stand as one in the fight against terrorism and extremism.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also sent his special envoy, Staffan de Mistura, to represent the United Nations at the march to mourn victims of last week's terrorist attacks in France, which he called "an assault on our common humanity."

Since the world as a whole decided to combat terrorism in the name of common humanity, it is quite essential to adopt a unified standard in order to effectively deter terrorist activities.

Just over the past few days, aside from the Charlie Hebdo attack, there were terrorist attacks happening at different corners of the world -- a deadly car bomb attack on a Yemeni police academy, a suicide bomb attack in north Lebanon, and the massive killing of civilians by Boko Haram in Nigeria.

China, like others, is also a victim of terrorism. Last March, a terrorist attack killed 31 people and injured 141 others at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming.

Over the past year, terrorist activities have been on the rise in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, with dozens of innocent civilians killed and injured.

It is obvious that these attacks bear common characteristics: they used violence against civilians, causing causalities and panic, which should be unconditionally recognized as terrorism and must be cracked down without selectivity.

As a matter of fact, the wide coverage area of terrorist attacks, brutality of terrorists, and the incitement and recruitment of terrorist organizations on the Internet and social media, as well as their convergence with cross-border crimes, are posing a severe and real threat to world peace and security.

In face of such threats, no country can manage alone or stand aloof. And it will become much harder to eradicate the breeding ground of terrorism once double standard is used in fighting against it.

To be more specific, what needs to be done for the international community is to reach a broader consensus on terrorism, strengthen information and intelligence exchanges, and share successful experiences -- everything that can make a counter-terrorism union.

Nations have shown great courage at this critical moment to join hands and reach out for each other in front of the war against terrorism, and a truly united union with unified target will make them undefeatable.

It is high time for countries to not only stand as one, but act as one in countering terrorism. Endi