Story highlights China's lawmaking body approves first-ever counter-terrorism bill

Officials say it provides measures to prevent terror groups from carrying out attacks

Opponents say bill goes too far in giving government wide-ranging surveillance powers

Hong Kong (CNN) China's governing body has passed its first-ever counter-terrorism bill, which it says will help address rising terror threats at home and boost international security.

An Weixing, an official with the public security ministry, told journalists Sunday that terror attacks were a rising issue in China.

"Terrorist attacks have caused heavy losses of people's lives and properties, posing a serious threat to our security, stability, economic development and ethnic unity," the state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the official as saying.

However, some analysts feel that the purpose of the bill is aimed at control of the Chinese population, rather than curbing domestic and international terrorism.

"In my opinion they're using the pretext of what is occurring globally as efforts to increase their control over the domestic population," James Leibold, senior lecturer in Chinese politics at Australia's La Trobe University, told CNN.