The government-run China Daily newspaper dismissed America as a “disruptive force” in the Middle East Monday, shortly after President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces had killed the leader of the Islamic State terrorist group.

The China Daily column preceded comments by the Chinese Foreign Ministry that failed to congratulate the United States for the capture or address the incident in any positive way, despite years of China claiming that the Islamic State was a direct threat to the Chinese homeland.

The Communist Party has repeatedly accused the Islamic State of recruiting Uyghur Muslims in western Xinjiang province, using “terrorist” activities there as a pretext for establishing concentration camps believed to be holding millions of people. Both ISIS and its former parent organization, al-Qaeda, have published propaganda directed at Uyghurs, but ISIS has also produced Mandarin-language propaganda aimed at Han Chinese people.

China Daily acknowledged that al-Baghdadi’s death – which President Trump attributed to a suicide bombing this weekend – was a “significant contribution” against terrorism and lamented that it would improve Trump’s approval ratings. It then went on to claim that America’s “double standard in fighting various groups of terrorists with different backgrounds has also hindered international cooperation and coordination against terrorism and done a disservice to the world community.”

The newspaper accused Washington of being “responsible” for the existence of the Islamic State, an oft-repeated myth by China’s allies in Iran.

“Over the years, the Middle East has had to dance to the tunes of both US policy successes and failures in the region. True, the US has both contributed and made sacrifices in the fight against the IS group,” China Daily claimed. “But its policy inconsistency and greed in pursuing its own interests in the region have also made it a disruptive force in the region. It was the destabilizing of the region by the US that was largely responsible for the rise of the IS and the establishing of its caliphate five years ago.”

The editorial concluded with a demand that America “play a more constructive role in the region’s peace and stability.”

China currently has no troops stationed in Iraq or Syria; it recently established a permanent military presence in Djibouti, across the Red Sea from Yemen. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure project based on the creation of state-of-the-art transportation hubs connecting Western Europe to Beijing, would cut directly through the former Islamic State “caliphate.”

China Daily’s criticism following al-Baghdadi’s death echoed the chilly response the Chinese Foreign Ministry gave to the news.

“We are following very closely the latest developments,” foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Monday. “Terrorism is a common scourge for the international community. China is also a victim of it. We consistently oppose all forms of terrorism and take an active part in the global counter-terrorism cause.”

Geng did not say anything positive about al-Baghdadi’s death, despite claiming China has been a victim of Islamic State terrorism. Instead, Geng used the opportunity to demand the world “should strengthen cooperation to jointly fight terrorism. It is our belief that both the symptoms and the root causes should be treated to eliminate the breeding ground for terrorism.”

China has attempted to outsource its “anti-terrorism” concentration camps to the world. In June, the Global Times, another state propaganda outlet, suggested that China could use the United Nations to promote the establishment of concentration camps and torture centers for Muslims worldwide.

The Global Times also weighed in on the al-Baghdadi death on Monday, claiming that “some people are still questioning the veracity” of the report (the Russian government claimed they had no evidence that proved al-Baghdadi was dead). It went on to accuse the United States of keeping the benefits of eradicating jihadis from other countries.

“The war on terror has been going on for years. The US has claimed many of its achievements. Other parties either get nothing or suffer extra losses,” the Global Times claimed. “Since 2001, when the war on terror started, US soil has never been attacked by external terrorist forces. Its national security has been enhanced. But what about other countries and regions?”

The United States has suffered multiple terrorist attacks since September 11, 2001, at the hands of jihadists. Among them are the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing at the hands of Chechen immigrants; the 2017 “car jihad” attack in Manhattan by Uzbek radical Sayfullo Saipov; the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre by Islamic State terrorist Omar Mateen; and the 2015 San Bernardino jihadist massacre orchestrated by American Rizwan Farook and his Pakistani wife Tashfeen Malik.

The Global Times also accused America of creating ISIS: “It’s fair to say the terrorist group is a result of the US war on terror and the Syrian civil war.”

President Trump announced on Sunday that army special forces had cornered al-Baghdadi outside of Idlib, Syria, near the Turkish border. Confronted by potential capture and transfer to U.S. custody, al-Baghdadi ran into a dead-end tunnel with three of his children and, trapped, detonated a suicide bomb vest, killing himself and the three children. Only one U.S. officer, a military dog, was injured in the operation.

“He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast,” Trump said, adding that he died “whimpering and crying and screaming all the way.”

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