BEIJING: The prioritization in China’s legal framework for preventing acts of terrorism has thwarted attacks in recent years and helped to safeguard national security and social stability, according to legal experts.
From the late 1990s to the 2010s, terrorist attacks in China were becoming more frequent, and terrorist cells had become smaller and more localized.
With the violent attacks causing irreversible damage to life and property, China began improving its legal framework to put a stop to terrorism, said Yang Haitao, a professor at the Criminal Investigation Police University of China’s School of Investigation and Counterterrorism.
China’s Counterterrorism Law, which was passed in December 2015, states that the principle of the country’s counterterrorism measures is to prioritize prevention. The crimes of planning terrorist activities, advocating terrorism and extremism and inciting terrorism were added in Amendment IX to the Criminal Law adopted in August 2015, Yang said.
“China has been making consistent law-based efforts in deradicalization. It has succeeded in containing the influence and spread of religious extremism, which is the ideological foundation of terrorism,” he said.
Acts of religious extremism have been clarified in the Counterterrorism Law and the Regulations of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Deradicalization. It has made people aware of those acts, so they won’t be manipulated by religious extremists, he added.
China has established standards for the prevention of terrorism in key sectors, including transport, water, electricity, oil, gas, nuclear facilities, nuclear technology, hazardous chemicals, biosecurity and national strategic reserves, said Li Changlin, a professor at Southwest University of Political Science and Law’s Human Rights Institute.
According to the white paper titled “China’s Legal Framework and Measures for Counterterrorism” released by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Security has released 37 terrorism prevention standards for the public security sector, and local authorities have issued hundreds more. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
