China sets rules to freeze funds to terrorist groups
Print Edition
China yesterday announced a regulation for freezing terrorist assets to cut off funds for terrorist activities as part of the country’s efforts to fight terrorism.
The regulation, jointly issued by the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of State Security, comes into force with immediate effect, according to a statement posted on the central bank website.
The central bank told financial institutions yesterday that they had an obligation to report transactions and accounts suspected of links to terror activities.
China faces a threat from extremist Islamist groups in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region who have links with terrorist groups abroad.
At least 91 people, several police officers among them, have been killed in violence in Xinjiang since last April.
China has stepped up security in Xinjiang after a car ploughed into tourists on the edge of Beijing’s Tian’anmen Square in October, killing the three assailants from Xinjiang and two tourists. Police blamed the attack on Islamist militants.
China in 2006 ratified an international convention to fight financing of terrorism, and the latest move adds to the legal arsenal China may use to fight the terror threat it faces.
Rules unveiled on the People’s Bank of China website say all financial institutions must report to the central bank if they have “reasonable suspicion” that customers or transactions have anything to do with terror activities.
The assets of people named on government lists as belonging to terror groups, or being involved in terror activities must also be frozen, and a close watch be kept on all transactions, the central bank added.
It said the rules had been released to “standardize the process and action of freezing assets related to suspected terror activities and protect state security and the interests of society.”
Financial institutions are also forbidden to tip off any customers that their accounts or assets are about to be frozen and must maintain strict secrecy, the central bank said.
Officials who fail to cooperate or leak information leading to the illicit transfer or concealment of frozen assets will also be punished, the central bank added.
Chinese financial institutions cannot hand over account details or freeze accounts requested by foreign governments without proper diplomatic or legal formalities being followed, and if a Chinese bank’s overseas branches are asked to freeze assets they have to report to headquarters back home.
91
Number of people that have been killed in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region since last April. Police have blamed the attack on Islamists that have links to terrorists.
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