Terror 恐怖 Kǒngbù
Terrorism 恐怖主义 Kǒngbù zhǔyi
During 23rd APEC meeting in Manila, President Xi Jinping condemned hardly extreme crime activities by terrorist organization as the media amplified Terrorist by slogan : "Prisoner for Sale demanding ransom" This organization is against human civilization. quote in Cri China Radio International
The Chinese People: Distinguishing Between Terrorism and Terror
In recent years China has experienced an upsurge in suicide attacks involving the sometimes indiscriminate killing of bystanders. They are perpetuated far from China’s restive borders in cities along the country’s eastern seaboard by individuals driven to desperation over their dealings with the country’s arbitrary and often corrupt bureaucratic and legal systems.
A July 27
People’s Daily interview with Wu Boxin, a professor at the Chinese People's Public Security University and renowned criminal psychologist, picks up on the theme of “individual terrorism” (
People’s Daily, July 27, 2013). In this interview, Wu distinguished between individual or “lone wolf” terrorism (
geren kongbuzhuyi) and what he refers to as “individual suicidal terror crime” (
geti zisha kongbu fanzui).
Exploring examples of individual suicidal terror crime, Wu cites two well-known 2013 incidents, a small fraction of the growing overall number. The first involved itinerant worker Chen Shuizong, who set himself on fire in a public bus in the coastal city of Xiamen in June, killing a staggering 47 commuters and injuring 34. The second featured frustrated petitioner Ji Zhongxing, who in July, having been left paralyzed as the alleged result of a bashing by over-zealous security guards in his home province, detonated a homemade bomb in Beijing Airport’s Terminal 3, causing injuries only to himself and a police officer. Among China’s netizens, these attacks have elicited both condemnation and, ironically, unprecedented levels of sympathy.
Wu classes these attacks as “individual suicidal terror crime,” as apposed to “lone wolf terrorism.” According to Wu, the former is non-organized and motivated by personal issues, whereas the latter is part of something organized and often motivated by matters of religion or belief. Following this distinction, the Tian’anmen SUV incident might be classed as “individual terrorism,” given its alleged jihadist links. Accordingly, anything to do with Uighurs or Tibetans could be called “terrorism” while anything else is a “terror crime.” This is a subtle, yet important, definitional distinction that appears to be reflected in reportage by China’s state media broadly.
Self-immolation is often described within Chinese social chatter as a form of terrorism. Among Chinese blog sites there are abundant references to self-immolations and explosives and knife attacks carried out by crazed individuals as “one man’s terror” or “one man’s terrorism” (
yigerende kongbu/
kongbuzhuyi). However, apart from reportage on foreign incidents, such as the 2011 Norway attacks, the use of the expression in official media in reference to domestic incidents is rare (obscure mentions in reporting on a 2005 Fuzhou
bus torching and the Beijing International Airport terminal incident being exceptions).
Official media appears to reserve the label of “terrorism” to self-immolations by individuals where they are seen as politically motivated and connected with an identified dissident/splittist organization, such as the “Dalai clique,” Falun Gong, or Uighur independence groups. A February 18
People's Daily editorial slamming Tibetan self-immolations categorizes such incidents as a type of terrorism due to their political purpose, use of violence and the havoc they wreak. According to Chien-peng Chung, the term “terrorist” is usually reserved for separatist and unofficial religious groups in Xinjiang and Tibet (
China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Volume 4, No. 2, 2006). This is the case, writes Chung, because Beijing sees terrorism as a “zealous religiosity on the part of minorities that threaten to displace the state as an object of adulation.”
Terrorism and Terror in China Law
Article 104 of the draft law, “terrorism” means “any thought, speech, or activity that, by means of violence, sabotage, or threat, aims to generate social panic, influence national policy-making, create ethnic hatred, subvert state power, or split the state.”
“terrorist activity” as referred to in the “terrorism” definition. Accordingly, “terrorist activities” include (a) propagating, inciting, or instigating terrorism; or (b) forming, leading or participating in an terrorist organization; or (c) organizing, plotting, or implementing a terrorist action; or (d) supporting, assisting, or facilitating a terrorist organization or individual through the provision of information, funds, material, equipment, technologies or venues; or (e) other terrorist activities.
Article 104 also defines “a terrorist organization” and “a terrorist.” Hence, a terrorist organization refers to a relatively stable criminal group, of at least three members, established for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities; a terrorist is either a member of a terrorist organization or a person who carries out terrorist activities.
Anti-terrorism provisions can be found in the Criminal Law and in a handful of other national laws such as the State Security Law. For example, article 120 of the Criminal Law addresses the crimes of organizing, leading, and participating in terrorist organizations. (Amendment III to the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China (Order of the President No. 64) (Dec. 29, 2001), Congressional-Executive Commission on China website.)
There was previously no clear and precise definition of terrorist organizations, or of terrorist activities or terrorists, provided in domestic law, and the lack of clear definitions has hampered international cooperation in anti-terrorism efforts. The Decision has been passed to fill this gap. (Id.) In the Decision, terrorist activities are defined to be:
Activities that severely endanger society that have the goal of creating terror in society, endangering public security, or threatening state organs and international organizations and which, by the use of violence, sabotage, intimidation, and other methods, cause or are intended to cause human casualties, great loss to property, damage to public infrastructure, and chaos in the social order, as well as activities that incite, finance, or assist the implementation of the above activities through any other means. (Decision, art. 2.)
Criminal Law as follows:
1. Article 114 is revised to read: "Whoever commits arson, breaches a dike, causes explosion, spreads poisonous or radioactive substances, infectious-disease pathogens or other substances, or uses other dangerous means, thereby endangering public security but causing no serious consequences, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 3 years but not more than 10 years."
2. The first paragraph of Article 115 is revised to read: "Whoever commits arson, breaches a dike, causes explosion, spreads poisonous or radioactive substances, or infectious-disease pathogens or other substances, or uses other dangerous means, thereby inflicting serious injury or death on people or causing heavy losses of public or private property, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death."
3. The first paragraph of Article 120 is revised to read: "Whoever forms or leads a terrorist organization shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years or life imprisonment; persons who actively participate in a terrorist organization shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 3 years but not more than 10 years; other participants shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 3 years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights."
4. One article is added after Article 120a: "Whoever provides funds to any terrorist organization or individual who engages in terrorism shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention, public surveillance or deprivation of political rights, and shall also be fined; if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years, and he shall also be fined or his property shall be confiscated.
"Where a unit commits the crime mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it shall be fined, and the persons who are directly in charge and the other persons who are directly responsible for the offence shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph."
5. The second paragraph of Article 125 is revised to read: "Whoever illegally manufactures, trades in, transports or stores poisonous or radioactive substances, infectious disease pathogens or other substances, thereby endangering public security, shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph."
6. Article 127 is revised to read: "Whoever steals or forcibly seizes any guns, ammunition or explosives, or steals or forcibly seizes poisonous or radioactive substances, infectious disease pathogens or other substances, thereby endangering public security, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 3 years but not more than 10 years; if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death.
"Whoever robs any guns, ammunition or explosives, or robs poisonous or radioactive substances, infectious disease pathogens or other substances, thereby endangering public security, or steals or forcibly seizes any guns, ammunition or explosives from State organs or members of the armed forces, the police or the people's militia, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 10 years, life imprisonment or death."
7. Article 191 is revised to read: "Whoever, while clearly knowing that the funds are proceeds illegally obtained from drug-related crimes or from crimes committed by organizations in the nature of criminal syndicate, crimes of terrorism or crimes of smuggling and gains derived therefrom, commits any of the following acts in order to cover up or conceal the source or nature of the funds shall, in addition to being confiscated of the said proceeds and gains, be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 5 years or criminal detention and shall also, or shall only, be fined not less than 5 percent but not more than 20 percent of the amount of money laundried; if the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than 5 years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined not less than 5 percent but not more than 20 percent of the amount of money laundried: ( 1 ) providing fund accounts; ( 2 ) helping convert the property into cash or any financial negotiable instruments; ( 3 ) helping transfer the funds through transferring accounts or any other form of settlement; ( 4 ) helping remit the funds to any other country; or ( 5 ) covering up or concealing by any other means the source or nature of the illegally obtained proceeds and the gains derived therefrom.
"Where a unit commits any of the crimes mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it shall be fined, and the persons who are directly in charge and the other persons who are directly responsible for the offence shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention; if the circumstances are serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than 10 years."
8. One article is added after Article 291 to be Article 291 a: "Whoever spreads hoaxes of explosive, poisonous or radioactive substances, of infectious-disease pathogens or of other substances, fabricates terrorist information invoking explosive, biochemical, radioactive or other threats, or intentionally disseminates terrorist information while clearly knowing that it is fabricated, thereby seriously disturbing public order, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or public surveillance; if the consequences are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years."
UN in its Draft Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, by the EU in its Framework Decision of June 2, 2002 on Combating Terrorism, and by the U.S. State Department in its annual country reports on terrorism to the U.S. Congress.
Terrorism is generally defined by four key elements: violence, target, motivation and organization.The UN definition confines the element to intentional violence that causes (a) death or serious bodily injury to any person; (b) serious damage to public or private property; or (c) damage to property resulting or likely to result in major economic loss. The EU definition provides a long list of the most serious offences against persons or property.
