Top legislature to target terror financing
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-02-26 14:12

The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, aiming to restrict terrorists' capital sources, was submitted to China's legislature for approval on Saturday.

The approval of the convention accords with China's actual needs in the fight against the financing of terrorism, Wu Dawei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, said at the 20th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), which will last until Tuesday.

"The core of the convention is about undermining the terrorist organization's economic support through stemming its fund sources," said Wu, adding that "the approval of the convention is conducive to stemming funds supplied by overseas anti-Chinese forces to China's domestic terrorists, and helping safeguard national security and social stability."

He said the Chinese government had endorsed all the nine treaties listed in the appendix of the convention and the final approval of the convention by the top legislature will demonstrateChina's resolution to fight against terrorism and showcase the country as a responsible country in the international society.

The content of the convention was within the scope of China's domestic laws and the international conventions the Chinese government had signed, he said.

The third amendment of the Criminal Law, which was promulgated in December 2001, included provisions on suppressing the financingof terrorism and laying foundations for domestic laws to punish perpetrators of these crimes, he said.

"Moreover, China's endeavors in fighting the financing of terrorism will be intensified when the country's anti-laundering law, which is currently under stipulation, is ratified," said Wu.

He also claimed that the approval of the convention would not affect China's financial security, because the application of financial supervision measures is based on the domestic law of every signatory country.

The convention, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on Dec. 9, 1999, came into effect on April 10, 2002 and had been signed by 138 countries up to Aug. 16, 2005. The Chinese government signed the convention on Nov. 13, 2001.

The convention, consisting of 28 provisions and one appendix, spells out the definition of "terrorism financing crimes" and urges all the signatory countries to prevent and fight against thecrimes through legislative, judicial and financial supervision measures.

The convention gives signatory countries the power to charge those who are involved in terrorism financing. It also regulates the international cooperation on launching repatriation and criminal judicial assistance among signatory countries and regulates the methods for dealing with disputes among signatory countries.

Zhao Yongchen, deputy director of the Anti-Terrorism Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, said, "Over the last decade,the terrorist threats that China have been confronted with are mainly terrorist activities of 'East Turkistan' terrorist forces inside and outside Chinese territory, international terrorist groups and terrorists."

Statistics showed that the three forces - terrorists, separatists and extremists - in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region hatched more than 260 terrorist plots over the past 10 years, killing more than 160 innocent people and injuring 440 others.