China's new counterterrorism law could heighten human rights abuses

WASHINGTON, March 6 (UPI) -- A new counterterrorism law that will heighten surveillance in China is raising fresh concerns among human rights activists and in Washington.

The law, currently in draft form, requires technology companies doing business in China to surrender encryption codes, give backdoor security access to the Chinese government and retain data storage systems within China, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

Critics of the law pointed out that China is exploiting the threat of terrorism to increase its grip on all information.

Human Rights Watch has called the law a "license to commit human rights abuses."

The organization also has stated the 106-article draft defines terrorism so broadly it could easily "include peaceful dissent or criticism."

President Barack Obama has expressed disapproval of the law's overreaching powers to affect U.S. technology companies and how they operate in China.

China's official news agency said Obama's objection was "another piece of evidence of the arrogance and hypocrisy of U.S. foreign policy," referring to the lack of due process in Guantanamo and increased U.S. government power under the Patriot Act.

Human Rights Watch said the draft law was created in response to violence that has erupted in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China.

The Uyghurs are an ethnic Muslim minority. Uyghur attackers were blamed for a 2009 attack that killed several hundred people in Xinjiang.

In March 2014, eight knife-wielding assailants attacked a crowd at a train station in Yunnan province, and these incidents have been used by the government to crack down on 10 million ethnic Uyghurs.

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China's new counterterrorism law could heighten human rights abuses