Spreading ethnically sensitive views now a crime in Xinjiang

A new law in Xinjiang makes it a criminal offence to produce or spread information that could jeopardise ethnic solidarity.

The law, which was ratified by the region's top legislative body yesterday and is the first regional-level law of its kind, comes nearly six months after clashes between Uygur and Han Chinese in Urumqi left at least 197 people dead and nearly 2,000 injured.

Highlighting separatism as the major threat to stability in the region, the law says intensifying ethnic unity and safeguarding national solidarity is the 'sacred duty and glorious obligation for each citizen in Xinjiang', the China News Service reported.

The law bans organisations or individuals from disseminating opinion and information that are unfavourable to stability, as well as any other action that might endanger ethnic unity or promote separatism.

Professor Ong Yew-kim, a Hong Kong-based professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said the law was too vague to be enforced.

'The definition of 'unfavourable to' or 'jeopardising' ethnic unity is far from clear for the law to be enforced properly,' he said. 'The regional legislature has to introduce a legal interpretation before its implementation, or it may be interpreted differently from one law enforcer to another.'