Chinese lawmakers on Tuesday ratified an international convention to fight financing of terrorism, adding to the legal arsenal China may use to fight the unrest it says threatens its west.
The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism was approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, ahead of China's annual full session of parliament, which opens on Sunday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
China has supported the US-led war on terror, but human rights activists say it is using the campaign to legitimise a crackdown on Muslim Uighur activists in its far north-west.
"The final approval of the convention by the top legislature will demonstrate China's resolution to fight against terrorism and showcase the country as a responsible country in international society," Xinhua cited Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei as saying when parliament started deliberation on Saturday.
Uighur activists have been struggling for self-determination for the Xinjiang, where their mainly Muslim population lives alongside many ethnic Chinese who moved their after China established it as an "autonomous region" in 1955.
China says its 'autonomous regions' for ethnic minorities allow them a degree of self-governance but activists say it is a means for Beijing to maintain repressive control.
Turkic-speaking Uighurs make up the majority of the 19 million people in Xinjiang, which borders former Soviet Central Asian republics, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
China is especially keen to maintain stability in the region as it contains 30 percent of the country's oil reserves.
The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism gives signatory countries the power to charge people suspected of financing terrorism and sets rules for repatriation. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1999. China signed it on November 13, 2001, two months after the September 11 attacks on the United States.
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