Xinjiang arrests nearly doubled

Editor's Note: Provincial regions and cities in China are holding their annual conferences of lawmakers and political advisers. To inform our readers of the latest changes in various parts of the country, China Daily is reporting about some of these conferences.

Prosecutors in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region approved the arrests of 27,164 criminal suspects last year, an increase of more than 95 percent year-on-year, as Xinjiang launched a strike-hard campaign to combat violent and terrorist activities, the chief prosecutor of the region said on Thursday.

"We've shortened the time between approving arrests and prosecution in major terrorist-related cases so the suspects can be tried as soon as possible to show the region's determination to fight terrorism in accordance with the law," Nixiang Yibulayin, chief prosecutor of the Xinjiang People's Procuratorate, said in the Work Report he delivered at the annual session of the 12th Xinjiang regional People's Congress, which started on Tuesday in the regional capital of Urumqi.