Anti-terrorism laws protect human rights

February 26, 2024

BEIJING – The just-concluded Munich Security Conference once again raised accusations about so-called human rights problems in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

However, China’s moves to protect Xinjiang’s security and stability, which lay the foundation for the region’s development and improvement of people’s livelihood, are strong steps to protect human rights.

To begin with, China has improved its legal system so it can better deal with terrorism cases in order to safeguard its national security, protect human rights and maintain social stability through legal, just and fair means. It has also introduced substantive laws and improved procedural laws.

Counter-terrorism laws and regulations, encompassing administrative regulations, judicial interpretations and local regulations, have been incorporated in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, with the Anti-Terrorism Law being the core and the Criminal Law the pillar, supplemented by the national security law and other laws and regulations.

The counter-terrorism laws and regulations contain not only substantive law provisions, such as the definition of terrorist acts and counter-terrorism measures, but also procedural law regulations to ensure the legality and procedural nature of counter-terrorism measures.

China’s counter-terrorism laws have been revised many times to adapt to the changing national security situation, giving rise to measures such as the Provisions on Ecological Governance of Network Information Content and the Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services.

China attaches great importance to human rights protection. As a result, the Anti-Terrorism Law includes clauses that