China steeps up regional security efforts

IN the aftermath of the Kunming rail station attacks, allegedly perpetrated (five Sundays ago) by ethnic Uighur militants, China is asking its Southeast Asian neighbors to round up Uighur immigrants living within their borders.

This highlights a broader foreign policy issue for China. With the Chinese public increasingly more concerned about terrorism, the government has a liability on its hands that it cannot afford to neglect, but that may require a more coercive diplomacy to prevent its neighbors from leveraging this issue against Beijing. China may not be ready to make such a shift, but if it does it will face greater regional resistance.