“The fact that these different pieces of legislation are all moving forward in tandem indicates the seriousness of Beijing’s commitment as well as the growing influence of hardliners shaping China’s technology policy agenda”, Samm Sacks, an analyst at U.S.-based consulting firm Eurasia Group, said in an emailed statement.
Other parts of the law cover politics, culture, military, space, technology, the environment, and the Chinese economy.
Foreign business groups and diplomats have argued that the broadness of the national security law, passed by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, constitutes a national security overreach.
A national security review and regulatory system and relevant mechanisms would be set up to censor items that have or may have an impact on national security, including foreign investment, particular materials and key technologies, network and information technology products and services, projects involving national security, it said.
Speaking at a press conference following the end of the legislative session, Ms Zheng Shuna, a member of the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission, said an overarching legislation was needed to deal with “ever-growing security challenges”.
Reports suggest that it will “protect people’s fundamental interests”.
Security has been a hot-topic issue in China since the establishment of a National Security Commission in 2013. Externally speaking, China must defend its sovereignty, security and development interests.
China has adopted a new security law that gives the government control over its Internet infrastructure, along with any critical data.
China’s first National Security Law took effect in 1993.
Campaigners say the draft anti-terror law contains measures for a “non-stop strike hard campaign” in Xinjiang, homeland of the Uighur ethnic minority, signalling a crackdown initially meant to last a year could continue indefinitely.
China has already rolled out tough measures to confront what it labels terrorism in the western region, sentencing to death scores of people while hundreds have been jailed or detained.
But Leung’s words didn’t calm fears that the new national law will have implications for Hongkongers.
The Hong Kong Journalists Assn. said the legislation was a potential threat to the freedom of expression enjoyed by citizens of the semiautonomous ex- British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997, adding that it could step up pressure on the territory to adopt controversial anti-subversion legislation that was shelved several years ago amid public protests. This spring, authorities proposed a law that would have forced tech companies working in the banking sector to provide encryption keys and passcodes to government security forces; the effort was dropped amid opposition from both foreign and domestic businesses.
Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula, with the promise of a high degree of autonomy.
