China’s chief prosecutor yesterday said that battling “infiltration, subversion and sabotage by hostile forces” is a key priority this year, with terrorists, ethnic separatists and religious extremists all in his crosshairs.
In a speech to the annual session of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Cao Jianming (曹建明) also listed combating cybercrime and ensuring national sovereignty in cyberspace as items topping a list of this year’s priorities.
Prosecutors are also to continue to follow up on cases brought to as part of an almost three-year-old nationwide anti-corruption campaign spearheaded by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s watchdog agency, Cao said.
Although he identified no specific groups or individuals as threats, Beijing has in the past cited a long list of “hostile forces” it accuses of seeking to end communist rule and plunge China into chaos, division and economic ruin.
Those include agents of foreign governments, civil society groups who challenge the party’s absolute authority and religious dissenters, such as the underground church and the banned Falun Gong meditation sect. Those campaigning for ethnic rights are also frequently cited, including exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and advocates for the Turkic Muslim Uighur minority from the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
In an accompanying address, Chinese Supreme People’s Court President Zhou Qiang (周強) said Chinese courts last year convicted 1,419 people of national security and terrorism crimes that carry potential death sentences. That compares with 712 people sentenced for incitement to separatism, terrorism and related charges in 2014, before last year’s passage of a sweeping new national security law.
Fighting corruption also remains a priority, with prosecutors handling 4,490 cases involving more than 1 million yuan (US$154,000) last year, up 22.5 percent from 2014, Cao said in his report. That was out of a total of 54,249 officials investigated, he added.
Those prosecuted for graft last year include 22 former officials at the ministerial level or above, including Zhou Yongkang (周永康), a former member of the CCP’s Politburo Standing Committee, who was sentenced to life in prison for corruption.
Such cases are referred to prosecutors only after suspects have been thoroughly investigated by the CCP’s Central Committee for Discipline Inspection. The body this month said it dished out demotions and other punishments to nearly 300,000 officials last year.
However, Cao said prosecutors have yet to indict 41 officials of ministerial rank or above under investigation for corruption, including former United Front Work Department head Ling Jihua (令計畫), a key aide to former Chinese president Hu Jintao (胡錦濤). Ling has been under investigation for at least 15 months since being removed from his position in December 2014.
Since October 2014, China has brought about the return of 124 corruption suspects who had fled abroad to 34 different nations, including some who had turned themselves in, Cao said.
Details were not given on new measures to prevent Chinese Internet users from accessing overseas Web sites, something China insists is its innate right in order to protect its “national cyberspace sovereignty.”
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION: The UK would continue to reinforce ties with Taiwan ‘in a wide range of areas’ as a part of a ‘strong unofficial relationship,’ a paper said The UK plans to conduct more freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs David Lammy told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. British Member of Parliament Desmond Swayne said that the Royal Navy’s HMS Spey had passed through the Taiwan Strait “in pursuit of vital international freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.” Swayne asked Lammy whether he agreed that it was “proper and lawful” to do so, and if the UK would continue to carry out similar operations. Lammy replied “yes” to both questions. The
‘OF COURSE A COUNTRY’: The president outlined that Taiwan has all the necessary features of a nation, including citizens, land, government and sovereignty President William Lai (賴清德) discussed the meaning of “nation” during a speech in New Taipei City last night, emphasizing that Taiwan is a country as he condemned China’s misinterpretation of UN Resolution 2758. The speech was the first in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. It is the responsibility of Taiwanese citizens to stand united to defend their national sovereignty, democracy, liberty, way of life and the future of the next generation, Lai said. This is the most important legacy the people of this era could pass on to future generations, he said. Lai went on to discuss
SECOND SPEECH: All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist the CCP, despite their differences, the president said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday discussed how pro-Taiwan and pro-Republic of China (ROC) groups can agree to maintain solidarity on the issue of protecting Taiwan and resisting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The talk, delivered last night at Taoyuan’s Hakka Youth Association, was the second in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to give across Taiwan. Citing Taiwanese democracy pioneer Chiang Wei-shui’s (蔣渭水) slogan that solidarity brings strength, Lai said it was a call for political parties to find consensus amid disagreements on behalf of bettering the nation. All political parties should work together to defend democracy, protect Taiwan and resist
By refusing to agree spending increases to appease US President Donald Trump, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threatened to derail a summit that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte needs to run smoothly for the sake of the military alliance’s future survival. Ahead of yesterday’s gathering in The Hague, Netherlands, things were going off the rails. European officials have expressed irritation at the spoiler role that Sanchez is playing when their No. 1 task is to line up behind a pledge to raise defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Rutte needed to keep Spain in line while preventing others such as Slovakia