The Chinese government convicted more than 1,400 people last year for conspiring to harm national security, almost double the number of convictions from the year before, the country’s top judge said on Sunday.
Courts convicted 1,419 people accused of crimes related to “terrorism” or “extremism,” Chief Justice Zhou Qiang said in his annual address to the nation’s parliament, up from 712 in 2014. Those affected, Zhou said, included those who “instigated secessionist activities” or “spread video and audio products about terrorism.”
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The increase accompanied last year’s passage of a sweeping anti-terrorism cracking down on “extreme” religious or political speech. Though the law was condemned by both the United States and international human rights groups, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua hit back at the criticism as “hypocritical” and added that critics were showing “indifference to the need to protect people from terrorist attacks.”
The law has affected entities as wide-ranging as religious groups, like the country’s banned Falun Gong sect, to media outlets and Internet service providers. Under the law, Internet service providers are required to assist the government in its pursuit of those deemed terrorists.
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Zhou pledged on Sunday that officials would get even more aggressive in the year ahead, and said courts would look to “implement well the laws on state security and counter-terrorism and severely punish terrorists and secessionists.”
