Battling “infiltration, subversion and sabotage by hostile forces” is a key priority this year, China’s chief prosecutor has said, with terrorists, ethnic separatists and religious extremists in his sights.<\/p>\n
Magnus Llewellin
\u200bSunday 13 March 2016 \/ News<\/p>\n
BATTLING “infiltration, subversion and sabotage by hostile forces” is a key priority this year, China’s chief prosecutor has said, with terrorists, ethnic separatists and religious extremists in his sights.<\/p>\n
In a speech to the annual session of China’s national legislature, Cao Jianmin said combating cyber-crime and ensuring national sovereignty in cyberspace topped the list of 2016 priorities.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors will also continue to follow up on cases brought to as part of an almost three-year-old nationwide anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by the ruling Communist Party’s watchdog agency, Mr Cao said.<\/p>\n
Those include agents of foreign governments, civil groups which challenge the party’s absolute authority, religious dissenters such as the underground church and the banned Falun Gong meditation sect.<\/p>\n
Those campaigning for ethnic rights are also frequently cited, including exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and advocates for the Turkic Muslim Uighur minority from the northwestern region of Xinjiang.<\/p>\n
In an accompanying address to the legislature, top judge Zhou Qiang said Chinese courts convicted 1,419 people last year of national security and terrorism crimes that carry potential death sentences.<\/p>\n
That compares with 712 people sentenced for incitement to separatism, terrorism and related charges in 2014, before last year’s passage of a sweeping new national security law.<\/p>\n
Fighting corruption also remains a priority, with prosecutors handling 4,490 cases involving more than one million yuan (\u00a3107,700) last year, up 22.5% from 2014, Mr Cao said in his report. That was out of a total of 54,249 officials investigated.<\/p>\n
Those prosecuted for corruption last year include 22 former officials at the ministerial level or above, including Zhou Yongkang, a past member of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, who was sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n
China already blocks a wide range of foreign websites featuring news, research tools such as Google, social media including Facebook and Twitter, and file-sharing sites such as YouTube.<\/p>\n
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