Legislation
raises concerns foreign companies may need to hand over intellectual property
and help security agencies in return for market access
By Reuters
 |
|
China passed a
cybersecurity law on Monday to protect the country’s status as an
‘internet power’.
Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters
|
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.
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.
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.
