China’s Foreign Office has praised Pakistan for being its firm ally against terrorism, playing down the reports of bilateral ties being strained over a recent Kashgar attack that Chinese officials had blamed on terrorists trained in Pakistan. China’s statement was its first response to the Kashgar attack in China’s Xinjiang region, where a group of Uighur men killed six people including a restaurant owner and waiter. China’s Foreign Office spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said his government stood by Pakistan, intending to quash any notion of a rift in Pak-China ties.