On The "Extremism" In China's Criminal Law

Member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization signed the Shanghai Convention on Combating Terrorism,Separatism and Extremism on June 15 th 2001.This is the first time that our government declares,in a legal document,the fight against the "Three Forces”.For the first time,the term "extremism" appears in the international law signed by our country.According to the Convention,"extremism" means "aiming to violently seize power,take power or change the constitutional system of the country and violate public security through violence,including organizing or participating in illegal armed groups for the above-mentioned purposes,and under the domestic law of each party,any act of criminal responsibility should be pursued."Against the background of international cooperation against the" Three Forces,"the definition of" extremism "at that time was mainly based on the point of endangering national security and was linked with terrorist attacks and ethnic groups secession activities are closely linked.This definition of declaration is difficult to adopt directly by criminal law.And after the adoption of the "Convention",our country has not promulgated the corresponding extremist crimes in the Criminal Law for a very long period of time,which results in no follow-up of extremist crimes in accordance with the domestic criminal law.The introduction of the term "extremism" in the criminal code for the first time in the introduction of the 2015 Amendment to the Criminal Law(IX)is very timely and necessary to punish extremist crimes.However,the criminal law does not have a clear definition of "extremism",and so far no relevant judicial interpretation has the power to explain the meaning of "extremism." The "anti-terrorism law" promulgated in the same year and the original definition of “extremism” contained in the “Bill” has also been deleted.This shows that the legislature is still hesitant about how to define "extremism" in domestic law.Under this background,it is necessary to explain the "extremism" in our criminal law theoretically to solve the problem of application in judicial practice.This article explains the "extremism" in the criminal law from two aspects: firstly,the semantic interpretation of the law,that is to make a literal and grammatical explanation of the law itself.From a literal interpretation,we can conclude that "extremism" refers to an overly absolute,extreme and narrow conception of thought,theory or assertion of beliefs.From the perspective of grammatical interpretation,it can be seen that "extremism" is prohibited by the criminal law and constitutes Some kind of thought,purpose,doctrinal system,or theoretical proposition of a particular crime.However,it is still difficult to fully explain the "extremism" in the criminal law only from the explanation of the culture and law.In particular,it is impossible to precisely limit the scope of the extremist crime.This must be explained further by reasoning interpretation.Reasoning interpretation of the "extremism" is divided into two paths: First one,the system interpretation.The system interpretation can guarantee that the conclusion of interpretation accords with the unity and coordination of legal order.This article will refer to the interpretation of the cohesiveness of other legal systems outside the criminal law as a system of interpretation,and the interpretation of cohesion within the criminal law as a small system of interpretation.From the perspective of system explanation,we can see that "extremism" in international law is one of the legal sources of "extremism" in our criminal law but its definition should not be directly invoked;however,the definition of "terrorism" in the "Anti-Terrorism Law" To understand "extremism" in criminal law is of important reference meaning.From the perspective of interpretation of the small system,it can be concluded that "terrorism" and "extremism" stipulated in the Criminal Law are closely linked,but there are two things those are different: the former can be both thinking and acting,and the latter can only be some kind of thinking.Accordingly,from the perspective of system interpretation,"extremism" can be defined as a higher-level idea of terrorism reaching,a level of complete political theory or ideological theory in depth and breadth.It mainly focuses on the distortion of religious doctrine.It uses the methods,which are incitement to hatred,discrimination and advocacy of violence.It is the hotbed of thought for terrorist activities.Second way is using the objective interpretation.In a sense,the objective interpretation is relatively decisive.Starting from the legislative purpose of criminal law to make extremist crimes,it can be known that lawmakers regard it as the crime of endangering public security,which does not necessarily infringe the legal interests of national security,political system,national unity or freedom of religious belief,and so on.As a result,the extremism threatening public safety is the "extremism" in our criminal law.