China steps up political arrests and prosecutions, US-based rights group reports

China arrested or prosecuted more than 2,300 people for political offences in 2013 – the vast majority in secret, an advocacy group reported today as the ruling Communist Party continues a crackdown on dissent.

A total of 2,318 people were arrested or indicted on charges of “endangering state security”, the United States-based Dui Hua Foundation said, citing statistics from China’s central prosecution office.

The offence of “endangering state security” replaced that of “counter-revolution” in the 1990s, and is primarily aimed at suppressing political dissent, but also applies to espionage.

In recent years it has been applied to members of Tibetan and Uygur minority ethnic groups who have demanded greater civil rights or spoken out against alleged government abuses.

Dui Hua added that the names of only 31 of the suspects were made public, adding: “A lack of transparency in endangering state security cases continues to be a serious hurdle.”

Most of those whose cases were known to Dui Hua in 2013 appeared from their names to be Tibetan or Uygur, despite such groups making up a small minority of China’s population.