State Security Cases From Xinjiang Appear to Surge in 2008

April 16, 2009

Courts in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) completed trials in 2008 for a total of 268 cases involving crimes of endangering state security (ESS), a number that appears to represent a surge over previous years, based on available data. (See analysis below for more details.) The XUAR High People's Court announced the number of cases during a report made at a January 9, 2009, meeting of the XUAR People's Congress, according to a January 10 report on the Xinhua Xinjiang Web site.

Courts in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) completed trials in 2008 for a total of 268 cases involving crimes of endangering state security (ESS), a number that appears to represent a surge over previous years, based on available data. (See analysis below for more details.) The XUAR High People's Court announced the number of cases during a report made at a January 9, 2009, meeting of the XUAR People's Congress, according to a January 10 report on the Xinhua Xinjiang Web site. Crimes of ESS (also translated as "endangering national security") are defined in articles 102-113 of the Chinese Criminal Law to include acts such as separatism, espionage, and armed rebellion. Many of the ESS crimes carry the possibility of life imprisonment and capital punishment. The apparent rise in ESS cases came during a year in which authorities implemented harsh security measures throughout the XUAR amid preparations for the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games and protests in Uyghur and Tibetan areas of China. The figure's release also comes after limited official reports in 2008 of terrorist activity in the region, although the figure may not reflect all cases of alleged terrorism pursued by authorities. In December, a XUAR court found that two men had engaged in terrorist activity earlier in the year and sentenced them to death for "intentional homicide" and "illegally producing guns, ammunition and explosives," crimes outside the ESS category. See December 17 Xinhua reports in English and Chinese (via Xinjiang Peace Net) for more information. In 2008, procuratorate offices in the XUAR capital of Urumqi approved arrests of 133 people in 51 cases involving crimes carried out by the "three forces," including ESS crimes along with other "crimes of serious violence" such as carrying out explosions, murder, plunder, and kidnapping, according to a January 23 report from Urumqi Online. The government uses the term "three forces" to designate what it deems as terrorist, separatist, and "extremist" threats to the region's stability. The Urumqi Online article reported that the number of cases and people involved represented increases of 64.5 percent and 75 percent, respectively.

Official information on the number of completed ESS trials in the XUAR follows data released in December 2008 showing that, as of November 2008, XUAR procuratorate offices had issued indictments in 204 such cases that year, involving 1,154 people, according to a Procuratorial Daily report posted January 4 on the Xinjiang Peace Net. In total, the procuratorates approved the arrests of 1,295 people suspected of ESS crimes as of November, according to the report. The information on the total number of ESS trials concluded in 2008 did not include the number of people involved.

Number of People Indicted in the XUAR Eclipses Nationwide Totals for Previous Years, Trial Figures Appear to Surge

The XUAR ESS indictment figures for January through November, 2008, are almost as high as nationwide ESS indictment totals in 2007 in terms of number of cases involved and are approximately double in terms of individuals involved. The number of people indicted in the XUAR is also double or more the number of people indicted nationwide in 2006 and 2005. In 2007, procuratorates nationwide issued indictments in 231 cases involving 619 people, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) figures for that year. The previous year, there were indictments nationwide in 258 cases involving 561 people, according to NBS figures for 2006. The figure in 2005 was 185 cases and 349 individuals, according to a compilation of national data on arrests, indictments, and trials in The Dui Hua Foundation's Winter 2009 Dialogue Newsletter. Available data, including a comparison with total numbers of ESS cases tried nationwide in the past five years through 2007 (see The Dui Hua Foundation's compilation of figures) and information from the XUAR on ESS cases accepted by XUAR courts since 2003, also suggests that ESS trial figures in the XUAR in 2008 may have increased significantly from previous years. The head of the XUAR High People's Court reported in 2007 that since 2003, the XUAR court system has accepted an average of roughly 150 ESS cases per year, according to an August 14, 2007, article from the Xinhua Xinjiang Web site.

XUAR Justice System Places Stability "Above All Else"

The apparent surge in ESS cases from the XUAR comes amid information from XUAR procuratorate and court officials emphasizing their offices' roles in upholding stability. The January 4 Procuratorial Daily article reported, "Since 2008, all levels of the XUAR procuratorate have from start to finish taken safeguarding social stability as the utmost political task for strengthening legal supervision." The January 23 Urumqi Online article used similar language to describe procuratorial work in that city. At a meeting on "struggle against separatism" reeducation held by the XUAR procuratorate on December 1, a procuratorial official called on officials to recognize that stability "is above all else," according to a December 3 article from the Xinjiang Legal Daily. In August 2008, the head of the XUAR High People's Court "said [that XUAR courts] at all levels will always maintain high vigilance against ethnic separatism and illegal religious activities to safeguard the motherland's unity and national security and will give top priority to the trial of crimes endangering national security," according to a description of his remarks reported in an August 15, 2008, China News Service article (via Open Source Center, subscription required).

For more information on conditions in the XUAR, see section IV--Xinjiang in the CECC 2008 Annual Report.