Counter-terrorism and De-radicalization are the Basis for Protection of Human Rights of the People of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang

Terrorism is a threat to human rights protection, and a safe and stable social environment is a prerequisite for human rights protection. As the main battleground in China's fight against terrorism and extremism, Xinjiang has unswervingly responded to the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism, persisted in exploring methods based on its own characteristics, maintained social stability, and laid a solid foundation for protecting human rights of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

Terrorism and extremism in China’s Xinjiang are closely related to the “East Turkistan” forces. The so-called “East Turkistan” forces refer to the forces that carry out activities to split China’s Xinjiang under the banner of “East Turkistan”. They were formed in the first half of the 20th century. Under the influence of trends of thought of “Pan-Turkism” and “Pan-Islamism” (referred to as “Double Pans”), they fabricated the separatist theory of “East Turkistan”, absorbed religious extremism and violent terrorism ideology, and advocated the establishment of the “State of East Turkistan” with “unification of the state and church”. In the 1980s and 1990s, the trend of thought of extremism arose internationally, and the extremism and terrorism spread. With China's reform and opening up, Xinjiang had frequent exchanges with other countries, and trends of thought of extremism infiltrated Xinjiang, leading to the resurgence of “East Turkistan” forces in Xinjiang and the formation of the “Three Evil Forces”, i.e., violent terrorist, ethnic separatist and religious extremist forces.

China’s Xinjiang has suffered deeply from terrorism and extremism. In order to seek opportunities to split China’s Xinjiang, the “Eastern Turkic” forces have colluded with international terrorist organizations to spread extremist thoughts in Xinjiang under the banner of religion, permeating the extremism into people's daily lives, ethnic culture, and customs, and had a great impact on Xinjiang, especially the traditional ethnic culture and normal life customs of the Southern Xinjiang region. They carried out brainwashing in radicalization ways, incited ideological violent terrorist activities, instigated “Migration for Holy War”, and launched “lone wolf” terror attacks. They created thousands of terrorist incidents both at home and abroad, resulting in a large number of innocent people to be killed, the deaths of hundreds of public security officers and incalculable property losses. Facts have shown that terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang have become an integral part of international terrorism and extremism, which have seriously jeopardized social stability, economic development, people's livelihood and the cultural traditions of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and even affected peace in neighboring regions, severely violating human rights of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Therefore, counter-terrorism and de-radicalization concern the basic human rights of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, including their rights to subsistence and development.

Over the years, China’s Xinjiang has been making unremitting efforts to explore effective ways to counter terrorism and extremism of the “East Turkistan”. Since the 1990s, Xinjiang has been taking various measures to curb the spread of terrorism and extremism of the “East Turkistan”, including cracking down on terrorist crimes, conducting comprehensive social governance, carrying out international counter-terrorism cooperation and taking modern culture as the guide to eradicate the radicalization. Since 2016, on the basis of reviewing the experience and lessons of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization at home and abroad, China’s Xinjiang has formulated a series of powerful measures to further promote counter-terrorism and de-radicalization in a realistic manner and in light of the actual characteristics of counter-terrorism and de[1]radicalization faced by Xinjiang. Its main measures can be summarized the following aspects: extensively mobilizing the people of all ethnic groups to participate in the people's war against terrorism and extremism; Improving local laws and regulations on counter-terrorism and de[1]radicalization in accordance with national laws; Establishing vocational education and training centers (hereinafter referred to as “education and training centers”) in accordance with the law to teach the trainees laws, the standard spoken and written Chinese language and working skills; Cutting off financial and information channels of extremist forces inside and outside China; Strengthening border management to prevent cross-border activities of the “Three Evil Forces”; and promoting modern social management with big data at its core. These counter-terrorism and de-radicalization measures have taken into account strike and prevention, and temporary and permanent solutions.

These measures are established in accordance with the law on the basis of full consideration of the specific circumstances of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization in Xinjiang. Many measures have innovative significance and Chinese characteristics. The establishment of education and training centers and conducting of the education and training work are typical examples. The establishment of education and training centers in Xinjiang is in line with the spirit of the rule of law. Chinese law distinguishes between unlawful and criminal acts, and prescribes different law enforcement and judicial bodies and different processes for handling the two kinds of acts. Specifically, in handling unlawful and criminal cases of terrorism and extremism, according to law and depending on the circumstances of the offence and the willingness of the parties to acknowledge their guilt, not all offenders or criminals should be prosecuted by procuratorial organs and convicted and sentenced by judicial organs. Some cases are handled by administrative organs such as public security organs in accordance with the law, while others are decided not to prosecute by procuratorial organs in accordance with the law. These different handling approaches and procedures reflect China’s criminal policy of “combing punishment with leniency”, and the policy of reforming offenders through education and rehabilitation. In order to implement the principle of addressing both the symptoms and root causes, Chinese laws and local regulations have also stipulated measures intended to help people involved in terrorist and extremist activities to find employment and reintegrate into society through education. In accordance with the Counter-terrorism Law of the People's Republic of China, the Measures of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Implementing the Counter-terrorism Law of the People's Republic of China, the Regulations of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on De-radicalization, and other laws and regulations, vocational education and training centers have been established in Xinjiang. The trainees at the centers fall into three categories: 1. People who were incited, coerced or induced into participating in terrorist or extremist activities, or people who participated in terrorist or extremist activities in circumstances that were not serious enough to constitute a crime; 2. People who were incited, coerced or induced into participating in terrorist or extremist activities, or people who participated in terrorist or extremist activities that posed a real danger but did not cause actual harm, whose subjective culpability was not deep, who acknowledged their offences and were contrite about their past actions and thus do not need to be sentenced to criminal punishment or can be exempted from criminal punishment, and who have demonstrated the willingness to receive training; 3. People who were convicted and sentenced to prison for terrorist or extremist crimes and after serving their sentences, have been assessed as still posing a potential threat to society, and who have been ordered by people's courts in accordance with the law to receive education at the centers. In accordance with relevant regulation stipulated in Counter-terrorism Law of the People's Republic of China, people in the first and third categories shall be given assistance and education or receive job-related education at the centers. With regard to people in the second category, a small number of them should be punished severely, while the majority should be rehabilitated in accordance with the criminal policy of combing punishment with leniency. Those who are willing to confess their crimes and voluntarily accept training shall receive education to help reform their ways after they have been exempted from prosecution in accordance with the law. Education and training centers are schools in nature. In view of the actual needs of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization in Xinjiang, teaching courses have been set up with the main contents of learning the standard spoken and written Chinese language, legal knowledge, vocational skills, and de-radicalization. In the process of carrying out education and training work, the education and training centers shall strictly implement the Constitution and legal regulations to ensure that the basic rights of trainees participating in the training are not violated.

The establishment of education and training centers in Xinjiang also reflects the principle and philosophy of the international community in combating terrorism and extremism. As proposed in the report of the National and Regional Plans of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism (70/674), to counter violent extremism, we must scale up our response, engage earlier, address the factors that contribute to violent extremism, and complement our efforts to counter violent extremism with preventive measures. As put forward in the Plan of Action, educational and economic opportunities shall be provided for people in the violent extremist groups to encourage them to break away from the violent extremist groups; and young people should be provided with opportunities for further learning, vocational training resources, and entrepreneurial skills cultivation. Xinjiang education and training centers and their education and training work are concrete manifestations of China's implementation of the counter terrorism and de-radicalization initiative and philosophy of the international community.

Education and training centers are innovative measures of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization with Xinjiang characteristics, as well as preventive measures of counter-terrorism and de-radicalization. Many trainees have acquired cultural and legal knowledge related to modern life, mastered livelihood skills and found suitable jobs after graduation.

Thanks to the implementation of multiple innovative measures above, important progress has been made in combating terrorism and extremism in Xinjiang. There have been no violent terrorist incidents in Xinjiang for more than six years. Xinjiang enjoys unprecedented social stability and public security, which can be depicted with the sayings that “If aught was dropped upon the road, none picked it up, nor were the doors of houses locked at night”. With the removal of the haze of terrorism and extremism, the spiritual outlook of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang has undergone tremendous positive changes, and it has become a fashion to learn cultural knowledge, master employment skills, and pursue a well-off life. Xinjiang has witnessed significant improvement in economic environment, and its tourism industry has developed by leaps and bounds in the past 6 years. According to statistics from relevant departments, the number of tourists to Xinjiang reached 107 million in 2017, 150 million in 2018, and more than 200 million by the end of August in 2020. In the first four months of 2023, the number reached 51,193,900, a year-on-year increase of 29.56%. Meanwhile, the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are sparing no efforts to plan for deep opening-up and all-round development. It can be seen that Xinjiang enjoys social stability, economic development and the people of all ethnic groups live and work in peace and contentment, and that the human rights of the people of all ethnic groups are protected in the broadest and most fundamental way. Full enjoyment of human rights is a lofty ideal pursued by all mankind. However, various countries have different paths on the road to the realization of human rights. Due to differences in historical background and current development, various countries have different interpretations of human rights, and also face different situations in combating terrorism and extremism. Therefore, it is sensible and reasonable to make explorations and innovations for the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization policies based on national conditions of various countries and take measures tailored to local conditions. The most fundamental and important issue is to effectively curb the spread of terrorism and extremism, and to protect the safety, life and social stability of the vast majority of the people to the greatest extent. It is obviously unreasonable to talk about human rights in disregard of the reality of various countries in the world; and it is even more hypocritical to politicize human rights as an excuse for ideological confrontation and even interference in other countries' internal affairs.

Terrorism is the public enemy of the mankind and is firmly opposed by people of various countries. In particular, broad consensus has been reached globally to oppose and combat terrorism, and a unified front against terrorism has been formed to jointly combat terrorism since the beginning of the 21st century. In this fight, China has not only made significant progress in its own counter-terrorism and de-radicalization work, but also made important contributions to the cause of international counter-terrorism. Over the past more than one year, more than 1,000 officials, scholars and journalists from more than 40 countries and regions visited Xinjiang. They believe that China has explored effective counter-terrorism approaches adapted to its own national conditions and gained experience that other countries can learn from. As the saying goes, “I would go up and down to seek my heart's desire.” The Chinese government has been fully aware that there is still a long way to go to counter terrorism and extremism. Therefore, China will continue to sum up experience, strengthen international exchanges, and improve the measures. Moreover, China will further improve the counter-terrorism and de-radicalization work in Xinjiang, maintain social stability, harmony and development, and better protect the human rights of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

(The author is researcher at the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies, CASS)