President Xi Jinping has denounced the first execution of a Chinese national by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as China vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

“China strongly condemns the brutal murder of a Chinese national by Islamic State,” Mr Xi said yesterday, according to the official China Central Television.

“Terrorism is the common enemy of humanity. China resolutely opposes terrorism in any form,” he added in a statement issued on the sidelines of the Apec Summit in Manila yesterday.

ISIS said on Wednesday that it had killed Mr Fan Jinghui, 50, and a Norwegian, identified as Mr Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad. It ran photos of the two dead men in its English-language magazine under the banner “Executed”. It is unclear why Mr Fan went to the Middle East.

… International terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies said that China is likely to stick to its long-held principle of non-interference in another country’s affairs.

“It is not keen to be dragged into conflicts because its economic interests come first,” he said.