Human rights group Amnesty International called on the international community to oppose China's attempts to brand ethnic muslim political activists as terrorists.
China's publication earlier this week of a wanted list of ethnic Uighur "terrorists" abroad and its call for their arrest and extradition appears to be a renewed attempt to curb the political activities of Uighur activists outside China, the rights group said.
China was attempting to garner international support for its ongoing crackdown in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwest China, Amnesty added.
The World Uighur Youth Congress and the East Turkistan Information Center (ETIC), which were branded as "terrorist" organisations by China, are both political groups based in Germany which publicize reports of ongoing abuses against Uighurs in China and advocate self-determination or independence for the region.
The wanted list has been published amid a renewed 100-day security crackdown in Xinjiang in the context of the government's ongoing repression of "ethnic separatist activities" in the region.
"The authorities continue to make little or no distinction between violent opposition and the peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression, association and religion," the statement said.
China considers any advocacy for greater autonomy or independence as "ethnic separatism" which qualifies as a state security crime under Chinese laws.
Several hundred Uighurs accused of involvement in such activities have been executed since the mid-1990s, while thousands of others have been detained, imprisoned after unfair trials and tortured, and growing restrictions have been placed on the Islamic clergy and the practice of Islam in the region.