Hearing that ISIS has executed more hostages is, sadly, so unsurprising these days that it barely cracks the front page of most newspapers. Their most recent atrocity, however, brought some new countries into the community of those who have had their citizens murdered by these animals. The terrorists announced this week that they had slaughtered citizens from Norway and China. Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad and Fan Jinghui were allegedly executed without the usual fanfare and video recording which ISIS used on American and British victims.

China, for their part, is claiming that they plan to “respond” to the killing, but what that entails remains vague. (CNN)

Beijing has vowed to bring ISIS to justice after the group said it had executed two hostages, a Chinese and a Norwegian…

China hasn’t been an active participant in the fight against ISIS, but, in the wake of the killing, pledged to “enhance its counter-terrorism cooperation with the international community.”

But experts say the chances of Chinese aircraft flying alongside Russian and U.S. planes in Syria and Iraq are slim to none.

“It seems most likely that the Chinese government will continue to stay on the sidelines,” said Professor Xie Tao, of Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Despite claims by the Chinese that they had made “all-out” efforts to rescue Fan Jinghui, there doesn’t seem to be any direct evidence of it. He’s described in Chinese media as “a drifter” who worked in advertising. They’re not even sure when and where he was originally abducted by the terrorists.

It really doesn’t sound like China plans to launch any sort of military attack on ISIS, honestly. That would be in keeping with pretty much their entire foreign policy dating back for decades. Since the end of the Korean and Vietnamese wars the Chinese have been more of a stay at home military force, preferring to use their muscle on their own people in upstart territories rather than fighting abroad. They’ve got the power to engage in a major war if they had to and they love reminding the world of that, but they don’t seem to engage in battles far from their own back yard. The last real engagement of theirs which made any news was a solo venture, once again going after Vietnam in 1979, in what was essentially a border skirmish in response to the Vietnamese going into Cambodia. Unfortunately for everyone, that battle led to the dominance of the Chinese backed Khmer Rouge, and we all know how that ended.

China and ISIS are probably unlikely enemies just as much as the Chinese are unlikely allies to anyone in the west against them. It just seems out of character for Beijing to begin dumping hardware and personnel into Syria and Iraq with all that entails over one citizen who they don’t seem to have been particularly worried about in the first place. But then, perhaps I’m wrong. The Chinese announced almost immediately that they were purchasing 24 Sukhoi-35 fighter jets from the Russians for a couple billion dollars. Do they plan on deploying them over Damascus any time soon?

Stay tuned.