Observers say the legislation is aimed at the further suppression of the Muslim Uyghur minority.<\/p>\n
2016-08-05<\/p>\n
Authorities in China\u2019s northwestern Xinjiang region unveiled a new local counterterrorism law on Friday meant to counter religious extremism, but rights groups and academics say it is aimed exclusively at suppressing the Uyghur ethnic minority in the restive region.<\/p>\n
The law, which was passed late last week, supplements a national counterterrorism law approved in December by setting forth measures to define terrorist activities, implement security precautions, conduct investigations, and punish religious extremists.<\/p>\n
The legislative commission of the regional People’s Congress said the basis for the law is that religious extremism, as the ideological basis of terrorism, must be prevented and punished, China\u2019s official Xinhua news agency reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not know the details of the regulation yet, but with the announcement that they passed the local application of this antiterrorism law means that along with [displays of] dissent and resentment by the Uyghur people against the government, their normal religious activities can be categorized as extremism and terrorism under this law,\u201d said Ilshat Hesen, president of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis local law is aimed at suppressing Uyghurs only,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Detentions and fines<\/strong><\/p>\n A report by The Straits Times<\/em> of Singapore on Friday detailed some of the measures included in the law: leaders of extremist groups are to be confined to solitary prison cells, the recruitment of people who undertake terrorist activities or training abroad is now considered an act of terrorism, and those who use cell phones, the internet, or other media devices to spread \u201cterrorist\u201d ideas will be charged with terrorist-related crimes.<\/p>\n The law also lists acts, such as destroying identification cards and Chinese banknotes, for which offenders can be detained for five to 15 days and fined up to 10,000 yuan (U.S. $1,500), the report said.<\/p>\n Dilxat Raxit, spokesman of the World Uyghur Congress based in Munich, Germany, said the new law, which he calls a form of propaganda, will increase discrimination by Han Chinese against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n \u201cChina has two purposes in conducting propaganda on national and regional antiterrorism,\u201d he said. \u201cFirst, China is also a victim of terrorism, so it must step up its efforts to crack down on terrorism. Second, [it is] expanding its threats against the Uyghur minority. China\u2019s propaganda will also increase discrimination against Uyghurs by Han Chinese people.\u201d<\/p>\n Xinjiang rights activist Hu Jun said the law will expand police powers to deploy against ordinary Uyghurs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe law will be used for expanding police powers with the unlimited use of guns,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a declaration of war against ordinary people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe can see that authorities have tried to label Uyghurs as enemies. \u2026Because social tensions have been continuously increasing, it has been [passed] to crack down on petitioners and rights defendants as well as lawyers and dissidents. Everyone is their enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Uyghur Suppression Law\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Academics based abroad also said the new law is meant as a further crackdown on Uyghurs.<\/p>\n Ming Xia, a political science professor at the College of Staten Island in New York, said the unveiling of the law by the regional government is an indication that China is going to punish any kind of dissent by Uyghurs by charging them with terrorism.<\/p>\n Fuji Genki, a professor at Tokyo\u2019s Takushoku University who follows events in Xinjiang, said the legislation should be called the \u201cUyghur Suppression Law\u201d rather than a counterterrorism law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason is because China is aiming to crush any kinds of incidents that occur in the region [by labeling them] terrorist attacks while linking them to international terrorism,\u201d he said. \u201c[China] can\u2019t create peace through armed conquering.\u201d<\/p>\n Uyghurs in Xinjiang have long been subject to violent police raids on their households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on their culture and language by Chinese authorities who impose heave-handed rule in the region.<\/p>\n China often views Uyghurs as potential terrorists and has vowed to crack down on what it calls the \u201cthree evils\u201d of terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n Some experts outside China say Beijing has exaggerated the threat from Uyghur separatists, and that domestic policies are responsible for an upsurge in violence that has left hundreds dead since 2012.<\/p>\n The new regional law is believed to be a consequence of other terrorist incidents by Islamic radicals in Europe and Southeast Asia, The Straits Times<\/em> report said.<\/p>\n Reported by RFA\u2019s Uyghur and Cantonese services. Translated by Mamatjan Juma and Vivian Kwan. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Observers say the legislation is aimed at the further suppression of the Muslim Uyghur minority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2855"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}