Jan. 21, 2015 (South China Morning Post): The US-based Human Rights Watch is urging China to revise draft legislation aimed at combating terrorism, saying it was “little more than a licence to commit human rights abuses.”
The draft law was made public for consultation last November and would establish a new counter-terrorism body that would have the power to designate organisations and their members as terrorists without any protection through due legal process.
The draft’s definition of terrorism includes thought, speech or behaviour that attempt to subvert state power, incite ethnic hatred or split the state. Subversion and “splittism” are catch-all charges that have been used against dissidents.
Human Rights Watch: “China’s draft counterterroism law a recipe for disaster,” Jan. 20, 2015.
