By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – According a Chinese official newspaper, the Procuratorial Daily, authorities in Xinjiang province arrested nearly 1,300 people and indicted 1,154 of them in last year.  These people were indicted of “endangering state security”. The indictment applies to alleged subversion or “splittism”, as well as to offences such as espionage, and it can carry the death penalty.  The newspaper said that is an extraordinary increase in the arrests on the particular charge compared with the number in 2007.  The number is drawing scrutiny from human rights groups.

The government statistics show that in 2007, the number of people arrested across China on suspicion of endangering state security was 742, and 619 of them were indicted.  Of those total numbers, about half were from Xinjiang, said Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch, citing statistics from the Xinjiang Yearbook, a government publication of regional statistics.

“If this is confirmed, this is very alarming because it reflects that the threshold of what constitutes a state security crime was considerably lowered last year, in line with the campaign,” Bequelin said.  Last year, the authorities in Xinjiang announced a campaign against political crimes and terrorism before the Beijing Olympics. Bequelin added that the antiseparatist campaign weighed heavy on Uighurs. “It’s not a yellow line that you should not cross … they have to positively demonstrate their opposition to separatism; they have to say so publicly in meetings and study sessions.”

According to Bequelin, the Chinese government maintains strict control over the practice of Islam in Xinjiang. For example, government workers are not allowed to worship at mosques, and the private teaching of the Koran and other religious material is forbidden. According to the law, these practices are not the crime of endangering state security.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – Arrests increased in Muslim region of China – 05 January 2009

Market Watch – Arrests rise in China’s Muslim region – 05 January 2009

New York Times – Arrests Increased in Chinese Region – 05 January 2009