China
adopted a controversial cybersecurity law on Monday that it said would
tackle growing threats such as hacking and terrorism but has triggered
concern from foreign business and rights groups.
The legislation, passed by China’s largely rubber-stamp parliament
and set to come into effect in June 2017, was an “objective need” of
China as a major internet power, a parliamentary official said.
Overseas critics argue it threatens to shut out foreign technology
companies and includes contentious requirements for security reviews and
for data to be stored on servers in China.
Rights advocates also say the law will tighten restrictions on
China’s internet, already subject to the world’s most sophisticated
online censorship mechanism, known outside the country as the Great
Firewall.
Yang Heqing, an official on the National People’s Congress standing
committee, said the internet was already deeply linked to China’s
national security and development.
“China is an internet power, and as one of the countries that faces
the greatest internet security risks, urgently needs to establish and
perfect network security legal systems,” Yang said at the close of a
bimonthly legislative meeting.
More than 40 global business groups petitioned the Chinese premier,
Li Keqiang, in August, urging Beijing to amend controversial sections of
the law. Chinese officials have said it would not interfere with
foreign business interests.
Contentious provisions remained in the final draft of the law issued
by the parliament, including requirements for “critical information
infrastructure operators” to store personal information and important
business data in China, provide unspecified “technical support” to
security agencies, and pass national security reviews.
Those
demands have raised concern within companies that fear they would have
to hand over intellectual property or open back doors within products in
order to operate in China’s market.
James Zimmerman, the chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in
China, called the provisions “vague, ambiguous, and subject to broad
interpretation by regulatory authorities”.
Human Rights Watch said elements of the law, such as criminalising
the use of the internet to “damage national unity”, would further
restrict online freedom.
“Despite widespread international concern from corporations and
rights advocates for more than a year, Chinese authorities pressed ahead
with this restrictive law without making meaningful changes,” Sophie
Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed
statement.
Zhao Zeliang, a director at the Cyberspace Administration of China,
said every article in the law was in accordance with the rules of
international trade and that China would not close the door on foreign
companies.
“They believe that [phrases such as] secure and independent control,
secure and reliable, that these are signs of trade protectionism. That
they are synonymous. This is a kind of misunderstanding, a kind of
prejudice,” Zhao said.
Many of the provisions had been previously applied in practice, but
their formal codification coincides with China’s adoption of a series of
other regulations on national security and foreign civil society
groups.
The law’s adoption comes amid a broad crackdown by President Xi Jinping on civil society, including rights lawyers and the media, which critics say is meant to quash dissent.
Last year, Beijing adopted a sweeping national security law that
aimed to make all key network infrastructure and information systems
“secure and controllable”.
“China’s government has come to recognise that cyberspace immediately
and profoundly impacts on many if not all aspects of national
security,” said Rogier Creemers, a researcher in the law and governance
of China at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
“It is a national space, it is a space for military action, for
important economic action, for criminal action and for espionage,” he
said
I am a professional ICT personnel, Chief System Analyst, blogger, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer at Gatmond Internationals inc. and Country Director at Wake Up For Your Right Internationals USA (Nigeria Branch).
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