by Lorien Holland

BEIJING, March 6 (AFP) - China unveiled legal ammendments Thursday which updated its Stalinesque counter-revolution offences and introduced harsh new laws targetted at terrorist control in Tibet and Xinjiang.

In its first major modernisation of the 1979 Criminal Law, Beijing also announced plans to add money laundering, stock market manipulation and criminal syndicates to the statute books.

While diplomats welcomed the draft legislation put before parliament as a necessary part of China's trek to modernity, they criticized changes to the counter-revolutionary offence as being no more than cosmetic changes.

"Counter-revolution is now called endangering state security, but the new articles are even wider than the original and will not stop convictions for peaceful expression of opinion," a western diplomat said.

"There is no effective change, despite the new wording," he added.

Instead of 15 charges of counter-revolution, some 11 charges of endangering state security will be used, with additional clauses of "undermining national unification" and of accepting funds from foreign organisations.

"New situations and problems have arisen with regard to conviction under the crimes of counter-revolution," Wang Hanbin, vice chairman of the National People's Congress, told parliament delegates.

"For this reason, the chapter of crimes of counter-revolution has been revised as crimes of endangering state security," he said.

China has made liberal use of its counter-revolution clauses, especially propaganda aimed at inciting the overthrow of the socialist system, to convict dissidents who have dared to express their own opinions about the future of China.

The anti-terrorism provisions came in the wake of pro-independence bombings in Xinjiang and Tibet.

"In some places offences in the nature of terrorist activities have been committed and caused enourmous harm making it necessary to include provision to deal telling blows at such offences," Wang said.

He announced draft provisions that would add up to 10 years in prison to any sentence for homicide, explosion or kidnapping carried out as a terrorist act.

In addition, offenders "taking advantage of national or religious problems to instigate the splitting of the State or undermine the unity of the State" will be charged under fierce State Security provisions.

A third charge carrying a three-year term for "enciting ethnic hate" will also be added to the ammendment, Wang added.

The changes, due to be passed next week at the closing session of the NPC, come after a spate of serious ethnic unrest in northwestern Xinjiang which led to the deaths of at least 10 in anti-Chinese rioting and another nine fatalities from bomb attacks on public buses.

According to exiled separatist groups two further bomb attacks have been carried out in the past week one on Saturday in Urumqi at a meeting place for police, and another on Monday on a bus travelling from Yining to the capital.

In neighbouring Tibet, simmering anti-Chinese sentiment led to the bombing of central Lhasa on December 25 and a series of other, uncomfirmed, explosive attacks.

China's legislature meets for two weeks a year and is scheduled to pass the Criminal Law ammendments in mid-March.