Voice of America (VOA) reported on October 29 that the China’s National People’s Congress recently passed a law defining “terrorism” and “terrorist organization.” During its draft stage, legal professionals, as well as the general public, widely questioned this law. They expressed concern that the government would, potentially, use this law to suppress human rights and political opposition. It was believed that this law expanded the scope of [what the government considered as] terrorism and introduced the possibility that the Criminal Law would be abused. Famous Chinese human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, commenting in a VOA interview, suggested that the basic idea behind this new law is to help “maintain stability.” Mr. Jiang believed that the government introduced this law after suffering “extreme anxiety” over the issue of social stability. Singapore anti-terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna told Associated Press that China designed the new law to make it easier to obtain intelligence from the West.
Source: Voice of America, October 29, 2011
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/20111029-New-Definition-of-Terrorism-132848558.html